LEESBURG, Ga. (WALB) — A Leesburg Police Department (LPD) major said Flock cameras helped officers find a missing elderly man with dementia within minutes after he was reported traveling toward Leesburg from Henry County.

Leesburg dispatch received the call around 6 p.m. about the man, who was headed toward Leesburg. Dispatch obtained the man’s tag number and entered it into Flock. Officers then got a hit showing the vehicle was approaching Leesburg.

Leesburg Police Major Gregory Barrett said the system allows officers to know a vehicle’s location without guessing.

“Instead of having to guess where somebody’s at or be in the right place at the right time, we can pretty much now tell when a car passes a Flock camera. We know exactly where that car is at that time he’s passing. So it takes all the guesswork out or having to be in the right place at the right time,” Barrett said.

Timing proves critical

Barrett was walking out of the Leesburg Police Department to get into his patrol car when the man drove past him on U.S. 19, heading south.

“If we wouldn’t have gotten him on Flock, I’d have still been in this office. He’d have passed right on by... he’d have kept on going. He would have continued south. No tellin’ where he would have wound up,” Barrett said.

Barrett said he got behind the vehicle and pulled the man over about six minutes after receiving the alert.

Barrett addresses scrutiny of Flock system

Barrett said Flock’s misuse has recently come under scrutiny, but said the system helps him do his job faster. He said that after 30 years in law enforcement, the efficiency is unprecedented.

“I think it brings closure real quick. It helps us solve crimes. And they’re solved a lot quicker than what they normally would be,” Barrett said.

Barrett said he hopes those who misuse Flock are held responsible, but that the benefits of the system are not overshadowed in the process.

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