Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Safety Ai topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Laurel council approves three-year contract with Peregrine AI after public privacy briefing
Summary
The City of Laurel approved a three-year, $79,500-per-year contract with Peregrine AI for data integration and analysis, following a council presentation and questions about data safeguards, Palantir ties and cloud security; the motion passed 4–1.
Laurel — The City of Laurel’s council voted to approve a three-year contract with Peregrine AI to integrate and analyze police data, voting 4–1 after a presentation and line-by-line questions about privacy and security.
Councilwoman Clark moved to approve the contract at $79,500 annually; the motion was seconded and carried with Councilman Mills casting the lone no vote. Chief Russ Hamill and Peregrine representative Dinesh Patel answered council questions during a full presentation of the product’s features and security posture.
Peregrine’s presentation described a platform that links existing agency systems — computer-aided-dispatch, the records management system, body-worn-camera footage and license-plate readers — to allow faster search, mapping and dashboarding. “We’re only looking at your data,” Dinesh Patel said, explaining that the platform does not crawl social media and that deeper AI features were optional and outside the scope of the procurement.
Chief Hamill told the council the department would retain ownership and control of its data and that any external sharing would require an interagency memorandum of understanding. He described the platform as CJIS-compliant and said Peregrine maintains an audit trail showing who accessed what data.
Council members pressed on potential ties to other companies and federal agencies. “I asked whether any relationship exists between Peregrine and Palantir,” Councilwoman Clark said earlier in the meeting, citing concerns raised in other jurisdictions. In response, Patel said Peregrine reported no contracts with ICE and that, to his knowledge, there was no relationship with Palantir.
Clark framed her motion as enabling transparency while the council and administration finalize local governance policies. “This contract has nothing to do with the data centers,” she said during debate, noting she had met with vendor representatives and reviewed comparable council records from other cities.
The council’s approval directs the administration to finalize the procurement consistent with the described limitations; Peregrine representatives said the advanced AI assistant was not part of the current purchase and would require separate approval.
The council did not adopt a new governance ordinance at the meeting; Councilwoman Clark said she had submitted memoranda requesting an AI use and data governance policy to set department-wide standards including human review of AI-influenced decisions. The department said any policy would be posted on its website for public review.
Next step: the city will execute the contract and publish the department policy language once finalized.
