Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Springfield Police say they’ll figure it out.

That’s referring to a directive the city council made when they approved a contract extension with Flock for their license plate reader cameras, to produce reports on the camera’s use along with other crime statistics annually.

As aldermen were concerned about privacy and just who could access the Flock cameras, Deputy Police Chief Andrew Dodd says that’s not much of a concern.

“In other parts of the country, you can do a search, and it will hit any agency that has opened up their Flock camera system and their information to nationwide sharing.  Ours is not.  It’s hidden from that,” said Dodd.  “If someone from Texas want to hit Springfield’s (Automated License Plate Readers), they can’t reach it.  It’s hidden from that.”

Dodd says nationwide sharing was turned off after Texas made a change to a state law he didn’t elaborate on.

He says law enforcement agencies within a 50 mile radius of Springfield, however, may be able to get the data anyway.

“If an agency gets Flock, they can get access to ours, because of how close we are,” said Dodd.  “Outside of that 50 mile radius within the State of Illinois, even Illinois agencies have to send a request to SPD to get access to our data.”

And, most of the time, those requests are ignored, Dodd said.  He says there are over 100 agencies that often try, and fail, to get SPD camera information.

Aldermen wanted a number of requirements and reports about Flock use, that Dodd says will take some getting used to, but can be done.