MOREHEAD, KY (LEX News) — The city has leased Flock cameras for the past four years. City officials say the cameras have helped law enforcement investigations during that time.
"They have helped solve crimes and find some missing persons and vehicles," City Council Member Lincoln Caudill said.
Mayor Laura White-Brown said the city learned Wednesday morning that all but one of its leased cameras had been destroyed.
"We had eight that the city leases, and all but one of those have been destroyed," White-Brown said.
The mayor said officials are now weighing whether to replace the cameras and what that process could look like.
"We have to discuss internally if we want to restore them. We don't know the timeline that Flock even has right now to get new ones up if that's the route that we wanted to go," White-Brown said. "Our lease for these is up in June of next year, and so it's an ongoing conversation anyways, but right now we just have to wait and see."
Morehead has funded the program through its budget for the past four years. Despite that investment, White-Brown said no one has ever asked for the cameras to be removed during a city council meeting.
"We have not had a single person come to a city council meeting and ask that they be removed," she said.
Caudill said public feedback helps elected officials make decisions about local policies.
"When we hear feedback whether that be negative or positive from our people, it gives us a much better idea on how to move forward on policies in our local government," Caudill said.
White-Brown said that was not the case with the Flock cameras.
"Instead of people asking to take them down they were destroyed, vandalized, shattered, and so someone incurs that expense as well," White-Brown said.
The mayor said taxpayers could ultimately absorb the cost of the damage.
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