Surveillance Watch Benicia

← All documents

RE:ALPR FLOCK Search field update EVERYONE read

File: RE_ALPR FLOCK Search field update EVERYONE read and reply to me that you read this.pdf Request: PR-2025-199 Sent: 2025-08-29 00:00:00 +0000 UTC Type: document Size: 208 KB

View the original PDF →

                  8/29/2025 2:47:01 PM
      Sent:
      From:       Edward Criado <Criado
      To:         GRP-PDSWORN, GRP-DISPATCHERS, GRP-
                  PDCOMMAND
      Cc:
      Bcc:
      Importance: Normal
      Subject:    RE:ALPR FLOCK Search field update EVERYONE read
                  and reply to me that you read this.
      Attachments image001.png ,image002.png ,image003.png
      :           ,image004.png ,image005.png ,image006.png
                  ,image007.png

ALL,

We continue to have individuals entering the wrong information under REASON for their FLOCK inquiry or search. Below are examples of unacceptable reasons I have found used in the last 28 days.

stolen plate flock hit stolen plate search 10851 vehicle stolen plate flock hit 374.3 illegal dumping veh Looking for suspect vehicle 488 PC

All of these are connected to a case number or Cad number. These are legitimate searches; however, we must enter a case number or cad number as the reason. I have removed the case number field because it seems too confusing for some people. There now will only be the Reason field. You must only enter a Case number or Cad number as a reason. You should not enter any words or explanation, only a case or cad number. If you don’t have that, you don’t search. Supervisors, review this with your teams and ensure they understand the appropriate way to use FLOCK. Please review my email below for a reminder into why we need to follow these procedures. FLOCK technology has been a tremendous resource for our investigations, and I want us to use it. If we can’t follow policy and we continue to make these mistakes, this technology can be taken from us. It is in the news and there are groups looking at our public search logs daily for opportunities to claim we are not following policy and cannot be trusted with this system. I don’t want to see that happen.

Reply to me that you have received this email.

Thank you,

Ted From: Edward Criado <ECriado@ci.benicia.ca.us> Sent: Wednesday, July 2, 2025 4:10 PM To: GRP-PDSWORN <GRP-PDSWORN@ci.benicia.ca.us>; GRP-DISPATCHERS <GRP- DISPATCHERS@ci.benicia.ca.us>; GRP-PDCOMMAND <GRP- PDCOMMAND@ci.benicia.ca.us> Subject: RE: Flock Audit - Supervisors review and discuss with teams and trainees

All,

I conducted the quarterly FLOCK audit for the second quarter of 2025 today. We are still making mistakes under the reason for the inquiry or search. I want to remind everyone of the requirement and responsibility to enter the inquiry data correctly and to remind supervisors of their responsibility to check the hotlist for their team weekly. Supervisors and FTO’s, please remember to include the appropriate process for using FLOCK in your training of new employees. The mistakes made are likely due to training of new employees and reinforcing the policy.

When conducting a license plate search or any inquiry search, we are required to list a cad or case number. Listing the reason as “the Plate number”, “Flock”, “Investigation”, “Invest”, “BOL”, “Warrant”, “Agency Assist”, “10851” or the name of an officer who requested the inquiry are all not acceptable reasons. It must be tied to something we can show was for a specific police investigation. These reasons are posted publicly on the PD Flock transparency portal, and they are scrutinized by the public and we receive complaints and notices each time you don’t document it correctly. We conduct quarterly audits of these inquiries, and these are a public record. Please make sure you have a cad or case number to enter as the reason for your search, this is very important. This means you will enter it in both the reason and case number boxes. If needed, for example with an outside agency assist or maybe a bolo from another agency or trak flier, create an incident number if one hasn’t been created and put the details for the reason in the call so it can be read and understood. It is very important that we make sure we are using this technology correctly and within policy.

Sergeants are responsible for supervising and managing their team’s respective hotlist. They should be conducting weekly reviews of the agency hotlist folders as an additional oversight to ensure vehicles listed by our agency are removed from the system appropriately.

Thank you everyone

           Deputy Chief Edward Criado
           Benicia Police Department
           200 East L Street, Benicia
           707-746-4259
           www.ci.benicia.ca.us/police

Edward Criad o Deputy Police Chie f Police Department O: 707-746- 4259 ECriado@ci.benicia.ca.us www.ci.benicia.ca.us/police