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Kirksville council approves license-plate reader system after privacy concerns
Summary
After public concerns about security and outside audits, the Kirksville City Council approved purchase and deployment of a Flock Safety license-plate-reader system funded by a $50,000 state grant; police and vendor officials emphasized audit trails and that the system does not perform facial recognition.
The Kirksville City Council voted Jan. 12 to approve purchase and deployment of a license-plate-reader (LPR) system from Flock Safety, after hours of staff explanation and public comment about privacy and security.
Police Chief Scott Williamson said the department was awarded a $50,000 Blue Shield grant to buy the system and that the total initial cost is about $49,200, which the city will pay up front and then be reimbursed for. He told the council the system is planned for about 12 major ingress and egress locations and that Flock installs and maintains components under its licensing agreement.
"We were actually awarded that grant of $50,000," Williamson said. "The system is going to be implemented in about 12 locations in the city, all major ingress, egress, public roadways." He described built-in audit features, logging of user activity and a draft policy that requires a secondary approver for actions taken in the system.
Representatives from Flock Safety told the council the product does not include facial recognition and does not allow searching for people; the system focuses on vehicle details. "There is no facial recognition within the Flock system or any of our systems," Kristen McLeod, public affairs manager for Flock Safety, said. "It is solely focused on vehicle details, not people."
Council members pressed staff on how audits and data access will work. Chief Williamson said his draft policy calls for quarterly audits by an administrative lieutenant to check who used the system, why, and whether use was linked to actual cases. "The audit trail does show every action that's done when someone logs in to the system," he said.
A member of the public, Dan Aronson, told the council he had studied third-party security reports and said a group he cited (GAINSEC) listed 51 open issues in a public white paper. "There's no way for us to tell which ones are resolved because we can't tell," Aronson said, and he alleged other security researchers had shown ways to access camera administration interfaces.
Flock representatives responded that customers "own their data 100%" and that no default sharing is enabled; sharing with other agencies must be configured by the city's administrators. They also confirmed that private customers may share camera network data with the police if they choose, but that such sharing is one-way and configurable by the city.
The council approved the resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Block Group Inc. to purchase cameras, equipment and professional services to implement and operate the LPR program. The motion passed by voice vote. Staff said the city will provide quarterly reports in the system's first year and evaluate continuing risks and protections.
Next steps: the city will proceed with procurement and begin implementation under the grant terms. Council members asked for regular audit reports and ongoing evaluation of privacy risks.
