The Durango Police Department spent an average of about $1,619 per arrest made using the city’s Flock Safety automated license plate reader system since 2025, according to the department’s latest figures.
The cost was calculated by dividing $153,000, the amount the city has invested in the ALPR program since it was launched in April 2024 – by 95, the total number of arrests since 2025.
The figures were presented to City Council by Police Chief Brice Current on Tuesday, which marked DPD’s second monthly Flock report. The council requested monthly reports following widespread concern and community pushback from the public regarding the introduction of a “mass surveillance” network, as described by residents and members of DeFlock Durango.
Current qualified the rough cost-per-arrest estimation as using the lowest number of arrests Flock cameras were involved with.
He also cited research from the RAND Corporation estimating that the average societal cost of a motor vehicle theft is about $9,500 and the average cost of a traffic crash is about $8,200 to demonstrate the cost-value of the investment.
The majority of arrest types were warrants, 33% of the total. The next most frequent arrest type was for stolen vehicles, 15% of total arrests, and the third was hit and runs, which composed 9% of all arrests.
The next five types of arrests made, in order of decreasing frequency, were: traffic offenses, shoplifting, theft, accidents, and reckless driving.
The rest of Current’s presentation focused on data collected during the month of May.
Six hundred ninety-six automated license plate reader searches were made through the Flock system in May and were associated with 85 unique law enforcement cases.
Every ALPR search conducted by an officer is expected to include a case number, per DPD’s policy. Those without are subject to an audit, Current said. The department does not automatically track how many searches are later flagged for missing case numbers.
One council member asked why a single vehicle generated 66 ALPR searches. Current said it was because officers have been intentionally conducting repeated searches for certain vehicles, particularly Kia models targeted in a nationwide theft trend, to increase recoveries and deter future thefts.
“We want to create a deterrent here in town. If you’re going to steal those vehicles, don’t do it with our public, don’t do it here,” he said.
The police department reduced the amount of law enforcement agencies it shares information with from 648 to 148, a 77% reduction. Durango continues to share ALPR data with agencies in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, while still prohibiting sharing with Federal 287(g) immigration enforcement programs.
The system generated 2,323 hot list alerts, according to the report. That included 817 alerts tied to Durango’s custom hot lists and 289 alerts created by other agencies.
Hot lists alert law enforcement when a specific license plate is detected during active investigations, such as missing person, domestic violence cases, stolen vehicles, and others.
2.8 million total vehicles were read by Flock cameras from May 23 to June 2, or 368,800 if each vehicle is only counted once over the 30-day time period.
Vehicle data captured by Flock cameras are deleted every. Moving forward, Current said his department will take a snapshot at the first of the month since deletions happen every 30 days and the data rolls over.
Police reported seven vehicles stolen in the month of May, six of which were recovered, resulting in two arrests.
At the request of council members, DPD will work to include historical data comparing stolen vehicle recovery rates prior to ALPR instillation in the monthly report.
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