New Surveillance Tools for Bloomington Police

1/11/2022

Bloomington Police are set to receive a new set of surveillance tools to add to their arsenal. The City is likely to approve a contract with Flock Safety to purchase ten Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR). This would be an addition to Bloomington Police Department’s Public Safety Camera Systems (PSCS), which currently has 18 cameras throughout the city.

This contract seemed to appear out of no where on Monday’s Bloomington City Council consent agenda. Multiple civil rights groups released statements questioning the transparency or need of these new surveillance tools.

Black Lives Matter BloNo asked on social media: Should there be more surveillance of residents without discussion and input from stakeholders in the community? How does BPD plan to use these cameras? Where do they plan to put them? How will they know if they actually reduce crime?

ACLU of Central Illinois President Carol Koos told WGLT, “We feel that it is an invasion of privacy. The efficacy of the system is not highly established. The community should have information and statistics from the police detailing what type of crime does this purportedly reduce? What are they focusing on? We’re also concerned this takes away from community policing. Instead, this puts police staff more into the realm of technology,”

Koos said the community deserves to know where the cameras will be placed in advance of the contract approval. She said in other cities it has been used to focus on minority portions of the community.

“We have a major concern with the over-policing of minority neighborhoods. There’s a concern that while police across the nation have been working to reduce the amount of heavy over-policing of black and brown neighborhoods, that what they’re replacing it with can be this type of video monitoring,” said Koos. “Are they just another method of putting basically an electronic moat around the Black and brown neighborhoods?”

“It’s a technology that has the capability of observing people who are unaware the cameras are there. So, this really is rather creepy. And it begs the question, how much this threatens our freedom to congregate, our freedoms just to do what we have a constitutional right to do? You know, you’re being spied on when you’re not breaking a law. So, this is not a good direction to be going in,” said Koos.

“In many communities, there is a support by the community for these cameras. We all live within societies. If the people within the community after getting more information, say hey, this is something we want, we really like what this potentially does, then fine. The community should speak. This should be based on what the community sees as beneficial,” said Koos.

Ward 8 Alderperson Jeff Crabill pulled the proposal from the consent agenda for discussion.

Crabill said these cameras specifically will capture thousands of license plates on a daily basis and less than 1% will solve any crimes. He asked for a written policy regarding these new cameras. He said, “I agree with the [police] Chief [Jamal Simington] that both the council and the police department have an obligation to leverage technology to protect our residents. But, we also have an obligation to protect the community’s privacy.”

Crabill then asked item be tabled till end of February.

Ward 7 Alderperson Mollie Ward seconded the motion to table. She says there is general support in her ward for more cameras. She described a situation of hers saying, “I have experienced gun fire from my property–a year and a half ago–at a neighbor. I was asked by the police if there were any surveillance cameras, and I think having surveillance cameras might have changed the outcome of that neighbor moving.” However, Ward says she still has mixed feelings about increased surveillance and wants more time to consider the matter.

Ward 2 Alderperson Donna Boelen, Ward 3 Alderperson Shiela Montney, and Ward 5 Alderperson Nick Becker all expressed profound support for the contract. All three explicitly mentioned how cameras could have helped solve the Jelani Day case.

Additionally, Alderperson Boelen said, “I had a personal interaction with the woman that lived on Roosevelt Street, near Holy Trinity, whose house was riddled with bullets. She was sleeping with her children in that home; bullets went into the walls. And, her major concern was there a record, was there pictures, of this person who did that.”

Alderperson Montney proclaimed that protecting our community has been the goal of local government since time immemorial, and we are risking crimes not be solved because the police do not have this tool in their arsenal.

Alderperson Becker was ecstatic when he heard about the cameras, and claimed his constituents have been begging for cameras, especially in neighborhoods with abandoned buildings and high levels of transient activity (though, it’s not clear how license plate readers would address that).

Ward 1 Alderperson Jamie Mathy, the town libertarian and self-proclaimed biggest nerd on the council, explained he had almost no technology like Zoom doorbell or Alexas because he doesn’t trust corporations. Because of Mayor Mwilambwe’s absense, Mathy took the role of Mayor Pro Tem and did not ultimately vote.

The motion to table passed 6-2 with only Montney and Becker voting no. It will be brought back at the the February 14th, 2022 Council Meeting. The issue will be discussed at both the Public Safety & Civilian Review Board (PSCRB) and Technology Commission. The Technology Commission has its next meeting on Tuesday, January 25th, 2022 at 4 PM. The PSCRB has its next meeting on Thursday, February 3rd, 2021 at 3:30 PM. People wishing to speak at either meeting should register at the City website.

The City released additional information regarding the proposed Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR). According to the Communications & External Affairs Manager Katherine Murphy, the following procedures will be in place regarding the usage of this technology and the data collected:

• ALPRS take still images, not video, on public roadways. They work during daytime and nighttime hours;
• They are designed to capture and examine data that is [allegedly] unbiased and objective. They are not designed to capture faces or images of the driver/passengers, therefore profiling vehicles based on race is not a concern;
• ALPRS take a photo of the vehicle license plate and use machine learning to decode the image and make it searchable for make, model, color and plate number;
  • ALPR data is stored in a AWS Government Cloud Server (FBI CJIS compliant), encrypted, for a maximum of 30 days.
  • If a case is generated, the capture will be downloaded to the corresponding criminal case
  • Data is not sold or monetized by FLOCK or BPD
  • ALPR data would be exempt from FOIA
• Captured data is automatically cross-indexed with FBI NCIC data on stolen vehicles, missing persons bulletins, Silver Alerts (lost elderly persons), Amber Alerts (missing endangered youth), sending alerts to BPD when matches are found.
  • BPD claims it will not be using FLOCK ALPRS for traffic violations, citation, etc
  • BPD claims it will limit FLOCK ALPRS use to missing persons investigations and major crimes (homicides, shootings, robberies, arson, sexual assaults, burglaries, aggravated batteries, stolen cars, etc.). BPD’s use will also be controlled by existing state, federal law and implementation of a strong departmental policy.
  • As with some of our other technologies, “hits” generated from FLOCK will require additional validation from a command officer before any enforcement action is taken.
• Data from the system can be shared, at our discretion, with other Illinois law enforcement agencies. FLOCK currently has 64 agencies in Illinois using the system including Champaign County Sheriff’s Office(SO), Pekin Police Dept.(PD), Springfield PD, Decatur PD, West Peoria PD, Kankakee PD and Grundy County SO. Peoria and Champaign are in the contract signing phase of the project.
  • Data will only be shared with other local agencies.
  • At no time is ALPR data shared with any non-law enforcement group or agency.
• BPD’s proposed installation sites are evenly spread around the city. Installation sites are the result of violent crime analysis in areas impacted by violent crimes. They include areas of Clearwater Ave./Hershey Rd., Prospect Rd./Empire, N. Hinshaw/W. Market, Oakland Ave./Four Seasons Rd., Eldorado Rd./Arcadia Dr., S. Main (51)/I55 Interchange, N. Main St./N. East St (downtown), W. Market/Morris Ave., N. Center/Graham St., W. Washington/N. Morris Ave. This ties directly to BPD’s Strategic Plan: Reduce Crime and Fear of Crime, Improve the Quality of Life in Neighborhoods, and Maintain Advances in Law Enforcement Technology.
• BPD’s policy will require our agency to publish (monthly), the FLOCK ALPR usage logs to the BPD Transparency Portal on the BPD website. BPD will be one of the first to stand-up a transparency portal. In addition, misuse will not be tolerated and internal audits of BPD usage will be in place.
• BPD gave several examples of the alleged success of use of ALPR data:
  • FLOCK ALPR data from a partner agency was used in a 2021 homicide. BPD located a suspect vehicle in another city after it passed a FLOCK camera installation. This was instrumental in the investigation.
  • In another 2021 homicide, BPD utilized ALPR data from another local agency to rule out a suspect in the case. This proved extraordinarily valuable in the case.
  • In 2021, partner agency, Rantoul PD, utilized their FLOCK ALPR data to make an arrest in a shooting in an attempted murder case that was tied to an Urbana, IL homicide. Using the ALPR, the vehicle/suspects were located in under 15 minutes.

Again, this issue will be discussed at both the Public Safety & Civilian Review Board (PSCRB) and Technology Commission. The Technology Commission has its next meeting on Tuesday, January 25th, 2022 at 4 PM. The PSCRB has its next meeting on Thursday, February 3rd, 2021 at 3:30 PM. It will be brought back before the city council on February 14th, 2022. People wishing to speak at these meetings should register at the City website.

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