HORRY COUNTY, S.C. — The Horry County Police Department on Monday put a new public website online that lays out how the agency runs its network of Flock Safety license plate cameras and the rules that govern them.
The portal shows the department has 31 of the plate readers in service. Over the most recent 30-day window they captured 621,711 unique plate reads, and agency policy calls for deleting that data after 30 days.
The same page reports 615 search sessions by users in that period and 8,337 hits against law enforcement hotlists, drawing on watch lists from the State Law Enforcement Division, the National Crime Information Center and a national clearinghouse for missing and exploited children.
The department says officers use the cameras two ways: to look up vehicle information after a crime and to get live alerts when a stolen car or a vehicle tied to a wanted person passes by. Police Chief Kris Leonhardt said public trust depends on transparency and accountability, and the department said the cameras add to, rather than replace, interviews, physical evidence and search warrants.
Horry County formed the department as its primary county law enforcement agency in 1959, and voters backed it again in a 1998 referendum. It works out of five precincts and is the only county police department left in South Carolina.
Filed under: Hilton Head Island SC Public Safety News
