Codington County Sheriff Suspends Flock License Plate Reader Cameras After Vandalism in Watertown

Steve Jurrens
1 hour ago
3 min read

Northeast Radio SD News – Watertown, SD - The Codington County Sheriff’s Office is officially hitting the brakes on its stationary Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) program. During the latest Codington County Commissioners meeting, Sheriff Brad Howell announced that the county’s Flock cameras have been taken down and placed in storage following an ongoing string of vandalism.

Vandalism and Supply Chain Issues Halt Operations

Sheriff Howell explained that maintaining the cameras has become an unsustainable drain on departmental resources and taxpayer time.

“We recently just pulled down the last camera that we’ve had standing up,” Howell reported to the commission. “We’ve had an issue with cameras getting vandalized, and I can’t keep them up, and I can’t keep them working.”

Compounding the localized damage is a nationwide supply chain backlog that makes quick repairs nearly impossible.

· Deputies had been spending excessive time “babysitting” the ALPR sites, even deploying secondary cameras to monitor the primary Flock units.

· Waiting for the vendor to service the machines has been heavily delayed due to a widespread shortage of replacement parts.

· The department will pause the stationary camera program indefinitely, though deputies will continue to utilize mobile ALPR technology inside their patrol vehicles.

Waiting on Pierre for Legislative Guardrails

Sheriff Howell indicated the department will take a step back and see what the state legislature in Pierre decides during the upcoming session. Howell noted he has been in direct contact with state lawmakers regarding potential regulations and policy shifts.

“If there’s any guardrails that they put in place, we’re all in favor of them,” Howell noted, adding that the county already enforces strict internal audits and limits system access strictly to deputies. “Let’s see what happens in the legislature... we can reevaluate at that time.”

Despite the temporary suspension of the stationary units, Sheriff Howell defended the utility of ALPR systems in modern law enforcement. He argued that as criminals increasingly leverage technology, law enforcement must keep pace to effectively protect the public.

Howell highlighted several regional and local successes directly attributed to ALPR technology:

· A kidnapped child in neighboring Clark County (near Bradley, SD) was successfully located using ALPR data.

· A recent high-profile homicide in Sioux Falls was solved utilizing license plate reader tracking.

· Locally in Codington County, the cameras recently helped identify and capture suspects involved in the theft of multiple vehicles.

“When ALPR is working, it works great,” Howell emphasized. “If we didn’t advance in our technology over the years, we would still be stuck in the ’80s with a nightstick and a Maglite flashlight.”

Commission Chairman Condemns Property Damage

Following the Sheriff’s report, Commission Chairman Troy VanDusen (District 4) commented. Acknowledging the intense public debate and social media discourse surrounding data privacy and the Flock systems, VanDusen drew a hard line against criminal mischief.

“Destruction of that property is still a crime,” Chairman VanDusen stated. “Regardless if you support it or not, that’s not the way to get things changed... We’re hearing people come up and talk to us, and that’s the type of action that we want to see, not the damage.”

Sheriff Howell confirmed that the department is actively investigating the vandalism incidents, noting the difficulty of combating misinformation on social media during the process.