Resident and commissioners raise privacy concerns after Public Safety posts about ankle-tracker vendor

A Bay City resident and several commissioners raised privacy and process concerns on Sept. 8 after the Bay City Department of Public Safety posted marketing material about an ankle-tracker product from Flock Safety and encouraged public comment.

Paul Colino, a resident, told the commission he was concerned the department had shared material that mirrored marketing language from the company and that the posts implied a call to action. “I was not happy about those posts,” Colino said during public input, describing the posts as “largely just an explanation” and noting social-media comments on the posts were overwhelmingly critical.

Colino criticized the technology’s potential for abuse and urged commissioners to reassign the budget that might pay for the devices: “Any potential of raised clearance rates of crime are massively outweighed by the system for abuse it creates,” he told the commission. He asked commissioners to “take that money” and spend it on other needs such as homelessness services or fire-station maintenance.

Commissioner Runberg told the commission he shared the concern that publicly funded infrastructure should not be used to advocate for a particular contract. “My concern is that we shouldn't be using public resources to vote one way or another on any issue,” Runberg said, adding he was surprised by the implied call to action in the department post and questioning whether it was appropriate for staff to use departmental channels in that manner.

Runberg also addressed comments he said he had heard from city employees who felt discouraged from contacting commissioners out of concern about charter restrictions; he said city employees should still be able to communicate with their elected representatives.

The resident’s remarks and the commissioners’ responses were part of the meeting’s public-input and commissioner-remarks segments; no formal procurement or contract vote occurred that night. The commission did not take action on the posts during the meeting. City staff and the Department of Public Safety did not provide additional detail on procurement status at the commission meeting.

Ending: Commissioners said they would note the concerns raised and reminded staff and departments about appropriate use of publicly funded communication channels.