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Resident urges North Bend to review license-plate camera use after media reports
Summary
A North Bend resident read media reports alleging high false-alert rates and civil-rights concerns with Flock Safety license-plate cameras; councilors said they will schedule a follow-up with the police department to review how camera reads and photos are vetted.
Greg Chisholm used the public-comment period at the July 14 North Bend City Council meeting to raise privacy and civil-rights concerns about automatic license-plate reader (ALPR) systems that some communities use.
Chisholm read excerpts from recent reporting about the Los Angeles Police Department ending a contract with a surveillance vendor and cited figures from a cited audit alleging a high false-alert rate among the department’s ALPRs. He said those kinds of errors had led to officers stopping innocent drivers and framed the matter as a civil-rights issue.
Mayor/Presiding officer thanked Chisholm for his comment and reminded him of the three-minute time limit for public comment. Councilor Jones responded in council comments, noting that North Bend’s police policy on such technology is posted online and that staff will arrange a follow-up meeting with police professionals to review how reads and images are vetted in practice.
Why it matters: Automated license-plate readers have been at the center of privacy debates in multiple jurisdictions; residents raised concerns that in some places misreads have led to forceful law-enforcement encounters. The council’s stated next step is a staff-led debrief with police to examine local policy and practices.
The transcript records Chisholm reading media passages and posing general concerns; it does not record a detailed police presentation or data about North Bend’s own deployment at this meeting. Council members said they would review the issue at a future meeting with police staff.
