Pearland police use Flock cameras to catch suspect within hours, officers say

PEARLAND, Texas (KTRK) -- A repeat criminal suspect is back in custody after Pearland police said Flock cameras helped them catch the suspect in just two hours.

On Aug. 25, Pearland police said Helvin Pagan was released from the Pearland jail, then went to a nearby gas station and stole a vehicle around 10 a.m.

Crime analyst for the police department, Lyndall Baker, said once they had the suspect description, they searched security footage from both locations and got a match.

"We got the license plate for the vehicle- for the victim's vehicle, we turned to Flock and searched it and found the four locations where it had traveled after it was stolen by the suspect," Baker said.

Officers said one of the locations included Howard Drive in Houston, and that's how they were able to close in.

"Some of our unmarked detectives were able to go into the area and were able to drive the vehicle driving in the area. It was driving in a reckless manner, so it was able to get away, but officers were able to stay in that area, and within a short period of time Mr. Pagan appeared, and they were able to take him into custody," Pearland PD officer Chad Rodgers said.

Baker said the cameras are not using AI to track people from one point to the other; he said there are only two main ways they use the advanced license plate readers.

He said they'll get an alert when a vehicle on the Flock hot list enters the city, or by searching the plate, as they did in this case.

"Every search has to have a purpose, a reason, offense type, a case number, and then the reason is always a criminal justice purpose," said Baker.

But in other departments, not every search has had a legitimate purpose. Recently in Katy, a former officer was fired for misusing the cameras to track his ex-wife. HPD also announced they are investigating a number of their officers for potential misuse, and a Pasadena police officer resigned after an internal investigation for his misuse of Flock.

RELATED: Concerns grow over Flock cameras across Houston area amid investigations for possible misuse

However, Pearland is preaching responsible use.

"We have our transparency page which anybody can access and see all the positive stories; this is one of many positive stories where Flock has helped get people in custody for murder, find missing people," said Officer Rodgers.

Baker said in his decades of working for local law enforcement, Flock cameras have made a difference.

"It has been a game changer; it's made our job a lot easier to solve cases and created the ability to solve the cases more quickly," Baker said.