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Resident urges Horace to cancel ALPR contract, calls for surveillance limits
Summary
At public comment, resident Phil Bridal urged the city to cancel a contract with a private automated-license-plate-reader vendor and enact local limits, saying searchable plate databases risk privacy and false positives that can ruïn lives.
A Horace resident urged the city to cancel its contract with a private license-plate reader vendor and pass rules limiting centralized surveillance.
"I recently noticed that several flock automated license plate readers have been installed along Cheyenne Street through town," said Phil Bridal, who identified himself during public comment and said he has been a Horace resident for 16 years. He told the council the cameras create searchable movement records and warned that false positives and widespread data-sharing can devastate innocent people.
Bridal framed the issue as a civil-liberties concern rather than a critique of local police, saying online reports show misuse of ALPR systems elsewhere. He asked the council to "cancel the contract with flock safety and enact laws preventing centralized mass surveillance cameras from ever being allowed in Horace." The council did not take action on the request during the meeting.
Why it matters: automated license-plate readers collect location data at scale and are often paired with commercial vendors; residents and privacy advocates say local policy can limit data retention and sharing. Bridal's remarks put the surveillance question on the council's public record and flagged a potential policy item for future agenda consideration.
