A series of road-side cameras were recently installed in counties across the north-central area of Nebraska. Designed to alert law enforcement when they record a vehicle associated with criminal activity, the cameras are another tool in the belt of sheriff’s and police departments in a region that stretches from Keith and Cherry counties in the west, to Holt and Greeley Counties in the east.
According to Sherman County Sheriff Joel Bergman, two cameras from Flock Safety were installed in his jurisdiction in December 2025. Already the cameras are helping his department law enforcement activities.
“We’ve actually been able to identify a couple of local warrants that we were able to track down utilizing the system,” said Bergman.
Eleven cameras altogether were purchased by the Region 26 Emergency Management Program through a $49,000 Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) grant, for use across the North Central Planning, Exercise and Training region. Region 26 occupies a smaller part of the North Central region, encompassing Thomas, Blaine, Loup, Garfield, Wheeler, Valley, Greeley, and Sherman Counties.
“The images that we receive are license plates based off of vehicles that proceed past the cameras at the time,” said Bergman, explaining how the camera system works. “That data is then produced for identifying vehicles that might have a warrant or might be attached to a sex offender in the area, stolen vehicles and things like that. So it notifies us automatically that, hey, you’ve got this vehicle in your area, you might want to be looking for it.”
The system is not without controversy however. Some are raising questions about the privacy of motorists, and the security of the data that is collected by Flock Safety, the company that produces the cameras and processes the recorded data.
According to a recent social media post by Bergman, there are a number of safeguards in place with the system. The automatic camera systems are set up in a manner to not capture details of drivers or passengers in a car – there is no facial recognition technology involved in the Flock cameras. Vehicles are not actively tracked using the camera system – the cameras only capture information about passing vehicles at the site they are installed. Likewise data is stored for a limited period of time unless a part of an active investigation, and is securely managed in the meantime. Additional information about the Flock Safety camera systems can be found on their website: www.flocksafety.com/products/license-plate-readers.
According to Region 26 Deputy Emergency Manager Catie Larsen, the Program is continuing to work to get more cameras in place, helping area law enforcement personnel more efficiently do their work.
