KENNER, La. — New cameras in Kenner are credited with helping police find the suspects accused of killing a maintenance worker. Lawrence Herr was shot and killed Monday morning while installing a mailbox in Kenner.
Kenner Police Dept. Detective Nick Engler was out in the streets Monday searching for a silver Mercedes linked to Herr's murder. While Engler searched, another detective was at the police department behind a computer tracking the vehicle through new vehicle recognition cameras.
"We came back to the office, put in the silver car, searched for it, and immediately we were able to get several hits and then it was just scrolling through the hits and looking for the car that matched the description," Engler explained.
The detective was in constant communication with Engler.
"Updating us with the location of the vehicle," he said. "Every time it passed a camera, they were able to alert us by radio where the vehicle was."
Within two hours, Engler found Tahj Matthews, 23, and Maurice Holmes, 25. Police said one of them admitted to the crime, telling police they were on a 'shooting binge and wanted to commit a murder.' They were arrested on charges of first degree murder. Engler credits the quick arrests to new solar powered cameras through a system called Flock Safety.
"It made solving this particular homicide possible so quickly. Without this we wouldn’t have been able to do it this quickly," Engler said.
Flock safety was created in 2017. It goes beyond a license plate reader by tracking cars with limited information like color, make, or damage.
"We were very conscious of the ethical implications of our technology so we delete the data after a certain amount of days, we have strong data security," said Flock Safety Spokesperson, Holly Beilin.
Kenner police Chief Keith Conley said they upgraded to 55 of the Flock Safety cameras in February and they've led to 15 arrests so far, including stolen vehicle investigations.
"It gives us a lot more information, real time. It can also, if a vehicle passes it and the license plate doesn’t match the make and model of a vehicle, it alerts us it’s a switched plate which is a common trend," Conley said. "This has been a game changer for law enforcement especially as law enforcement is struggling with personnel and now we have these cameras and it’s another eye in the sky."
Police are alerted when a suspect vehicle passes a camera, which Chief Conley said has proven to leading to quicker arrests.
In Louisiana, 30 law enforcement agencies use Flock Safety. More than 2,000 agencies us it nationwide. They can share data to assist each other in searches for suspect vehicles.