(Seguin) — The Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office is crediting technology for helping them find a missing man earlier this week.
Lt. Zach McBride, the public information officer for the sheriff’s office, says at approximately 5 p.m. Monday, deputies were dispatched to the 100 block of Arthur Lane in McQueeney for reports of a missing 79-year-old man. The man, identified as Steven Newell, had been reported missing by his daughter. According to the sheriff’s office, Newell suffers from dementia, had recently undergone surgery, and was not supposed to be driving due to medical and health conditions.
McBride says investigators were able to obtain Newell’s vehicle information and entered his license plate into the Flock camera system, which eventually helped track his movements.
“We were also able to get his license plate and when we entered that into the Flock system to search for it, at about 7 o’clock, the flock system located his vehicle in New Braunfels. They coupled that with the fact that he used, or somebody used his debit card at the Buc-ee’s gas station in New Braunfels. So, then they got the New Braunfels PD involved and they went up there and searched the area and sure enough they found him off at Ferryboat Lane in McQueeney later on that evening,” said McBride.
McBride says Flock cameras are mounted along public roadways and capture license plate data to assist with investigations involving missing or endangered individuals, stolen vehicles, and other cases.
“It’s just a camera on a pole that basically captures license plate information on vehicles that are traveling on public thoroughfares and what it does is it will take that information and document it and then, we can go back and see when a particular license plate went by that camera and it just compares it to a list and the list that we put in would be for stolen vehicles, people who have warrants, maybe people who are missing or endangered like this gentleman was due to his medical issue and it’s really protected information. It’s not something that is hooked up to a system that says go arrest this person,” McBride.
While license plate reader technology has been a source of debate in some communities across the country, McBride says the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office believes it has proven to be a valuable resource locally.
“We recently also had another success story with a shooting investigation down at the Elm Grove subdivision because they had a flock camera in that area and it assisted in that investigation as well. There’s been several instances just here in Guadalupe County where flock cameras have been really a valuable tool for the sheriff’s office,” said McBride.
Meanwhile, sheriff’s officials say the department will continue using the technology as part of its efforts to enhance public safety and assist in time-sensitive investigations.