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Billings County commission pauses surveillance after unauthorized cameras found
Summary
County commissioners agreed to stop active surveillance on county properties after discovering cameras installed without commission approval and asked the county attorney to draft a formal policy for department review.
The Billings County Commission paused active surveillance activity after commissioners said they discovered cameras placed on county property without formal commission approval. Chair (Speaker 3) opened the special meeting by saying the single agenda item was “cameras, surveillance, in Billings County,” and later urged a temporary halt: “we're gonna have to make a motion that all surveillance stops until we have some sort of plan.”
The commission directed Jared, the county attorney (Speaker 2), to draft a surveillance policy for review by department heads and the commission. Commissioners agreed to wait for the draft rather than take further operational steps at the meeting; Jared said he would pull language used by other public entities and circulate a digital copy to department heads ahead of the next departments meeting, which participants noted was roughly two weeks away.
