The Denton County town of Trophy Club is the safest Texas community for the third year in a row. Trophy Club Police Chief Patrick Arata credits his officers and license plate reading technology for the repeat distinction.
“We’ve revamped the police department. I went out and hired professional policemen to manage the team. I have great supervisors,” Arata said. "I have great men and women working for us that really care about this community and want to be a part of it. And so, they’re out there every day making sure it stays safe."
The chief said the addition of license plate reading cameras from a company called Flock also boosted public safety.
The cameras are mounted on poles at the edge of town. They can see the license plates of incoming vehicles but not those leaving. The cameras are not marked so drivers may never notice them, but they are on guard around the clock.
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“When we first put the system in, we had people coming in in stolen cars. We were able to make arrests, felony warrants, sex offenders, people with protective orders. All those things we didn’t know, people who were transient in our town. But now we know,” Arata said.
Crime rate figures from the website SafeWise.com for 2023 show Trophy Club has only 0.1 violent incidents and 4.6 property crime incidents per 1,000 people. The state average is 4.6 violent crimes and 21.9 property crimes per 1,000 people, far more than Trophy Club.
The Town of Trophy Club is small. The population is around 14,000 with about 4,000 homes and just four square miles. Arata said Trophy Club has 23 officers and four civilian police employees. He said the officers stay visible around four schools and on streets in the town.
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“People don’t want to commit crimes where there are police. And then this technology has really helped give the officers one more little eye that they didn’t have before,” Arata said.
Dallas, Fort Worth and other North Texas cities also use Flock cameras.
Arata said other Denton County cities are adding Flock cameras.
