CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – “That’s how this works, when I know I don’t have the votes, can’t do it anymore. That’s it”.

Charlottesville Police Chief Mike Kochis to WINA’s Morning News about his decision not to use the Peregrine system that City Council earlier this year approved $150,000 for earlier this year by a razor-thin 3-to-2-vote. Kochis announced at the June 16 meeting in a summation of public safety matter during the City Manager’s report portion of the meeting they were pausing Peregrine, and he has locked down Flock camera data to contain it only to CPD. While City Councilor Lloyd Snook expressed out loud he had voted for the Peregrine system, and has since come to regret it, Kochis said other conversations had similar sentiment.

“What I got from the conversation is there’s a fear this Administration could get access somehow to the system,” Kochis said.

“Look, this our system of government. Our elected body is elected by our community by our citizens. If it’s the will of Council, that’s the way we’re going to go,” as Kochis noted the grant was for a pilot program.

He said there are some things they cannot do without having the data integration software, and he wants to make that known. However, Council makes the decisions and “we’re not going to pout about it, we’re going to keep doing our work,” Kochis said.

Also based upon concerns expressed about the Flock camera system, CPD has disconnected from all other Flock systems. Kochis said there have been concerns expressed the are other agencies, specifically 13 in Virginia, who had 287-G immigration enforcement agreements with the feds. So, now other localities do not have access to Charlottesville’s system, and Charlottesville conversely does not have access to other Flock camera systems. Kochis says the Flock program has helped immensely in solving multiple violent crimes in the city, but the department will still have the system locally. However, Kochis said the drawback is if there’s a missing child, for instance, with whom a vehicle tag is associated with, they are not able to see any data other than what’s in Charlottesville.

He called the Peregrine action a pause. He told Council, “Maybe down the road we can do it and have other ways to have doing those things, then we’ll continue looking for those solutions.”

Kochis told Morning News, “If there’s technology, if there are solutions to help in the area of public safety, it’s my responsibility to bring it forward about what we can do if we had it, and what we can’t do if we don’t have it. And we’ve had that conversation and there are things we aren’t going to be able to do without that solution, and that’s okay as long as that’s known. We’ll move forward and keep doing our job.”