North and South Peach Parks will get Flock cameras in effort to improve safety

The Peach County Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 in support of a Flock camera system at North Peach and South Peach Parks on Tuesday.

BYRON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Peach County Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 in support of a Flock camera system at North Peach and South Peach Parks on Tuesday.

Until now, the Peach County Sheriff’s Office has teamed up with the Byron and Fort Valley Police Departments to monitor the parks since the county does not have park security. However, law enforcement officials say recent crime and complaints from park goers have led to calls for change.

“We’ve had cases from time to time where there’s been some vandalism,” Sheriff Terry Deese said. “People will come in on the weekends and tear stuff up, and we’ll get calls from women when they see strange cars sitting around, people that don’t look right. And then by the time we get here, that vehicle is gone.”

“It monitors the parks for us,” Deese said. “It downloads the information on the vehicle and stores it for 30 days. A lot of people think this is a way for Big Brother to track what they’re doing, and that is the least on our minds. We just want to know that if something happens here we can respond.”

Sheriff Deese says the cameras, which will be installed later this year, are designed to get important vehicle information from people coming in and out of both parks if needed. He believes  the cameras will help protect park goers as well as the facilities.

“If we get a call that there’s a white van with a strange looking man looking at my children on the playground, then we go back and pull the Flock cameras up,” Deese said. “We find that white van, we find the tag, and it tells us who it is and where they live, and all the information on that vehicle.”