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Booneville resident backs police use of license-plate readers but urges local data safeguards
Summary
At the Aug. 3 council meeting, resident Tal Windalus praised Booneville police use of license-plate readers for public safety but warned that regional storage practices—specifically uploads to an HHIDTA database retained for two years—create privacy and oversight risks; he offered to help design local storage and security safeguards.
Tal Windalus addressed the council during the public-comment period to voice both support for the Booneville Police Department and concern about how license-plate reader (LPR) data are stored and shared. "Our local officers put their lives on the line every day to keep our families safe, and they deserve the best tools to do their jobs," he said, adding that LPRs help solve crimes and respond to Amber Alerts. He also noted the city purchased Leonardo/LSAG cameras and that the hardware cost the department about $38,000.
Windalus said powerful commercial platforms and AI features can enable event profiling and co-traveler tracking, and he singled out regional/federal data storage as a major privacy risk: "When Boonville exports its daily traffic scans to this database, our residents aren't just viewed by police officers. They're accessible to thousands of private civilian contractors," he said, adding that the regional HHIDTA server retains local scans for two years. He urged the city to explore keeping data locally where feasible and offered to help craft technical and policy safeguards to preserve functionality like Amber Alerts while limiting broader access.
