Council asks staff to draft policy barring purchase of automated tracking cameras

A council member moved Monday that staff draft a legislative policy directive that would bar the city from purchasing or subscribing to automated license‑plate readers, location‑tracking systems and similar surveillance technology.

"I would like to make a motion, to ask staff to draft, a legislative policy directive, in a way that doesn't interfere with current operations…" the council member said. The motion was seconded, council members asked clarifying questions about current camera uses, and Chair Sue Haas later said, "There ain't no objections. We'll send it forward." The council asked staff to draft the language to avoid interfering with existing safety equipment such as building security cameras and body cameras.

City staff had earlier told the council a public mapping service mixes privately owned surveillance cameras with the city's Miovision traffic detection devices and stressed the Miovision units "do not take video nor do they store any images" and are used only for signal timing. The draft directive will aim at automated systems that perform automated tracking and location analytics rather than general security cameras.

Next steps: staff will prepare a proposed legislative policy directive for council review; the council did not take a formal roll‑call vote on the motion and treated the request as direction to draft policy language.