When the Watonga City Council met Tuesday in regular session, the residents had multiple concerns about the proposed installation of a plate reading camera mounted at the intersection of Russworm and Clarence Nash, commonly known as the four-way.
According to the memorandum of understanding proposed between the Blaine County Sheriff's Office and the City of Watonga, the camera would be subject to several restrictions.
They include allowing only law enforcement to operate and access the system and only allowing enforcement of compulsory insurance regulations and no other traffic laws. Under the agreement, if a driver runs a red light, but has proper insurance, they will not be cited for the traffic violation. The license plate reader information could be used to alert law enforcement if a vehicle passes through the intersection after it has been involved in a major crime or suspected in a child abduction or has been reported as stolen.
Additionally, the plate reader data shall be deleted within 30 days of recording so that it is unrecoverable. If the information is part of an ongoing investigation, it may be retained until it is required by law to be destroyed.
The plate reader would be owned by the sheriff’s office, which cannot license it for use for any other purpose, unless the office shares the information with other law enforcement agencies for legitimate purposes.
Those restrictions are what is in the agreement. However, the residents were not reassured. The opinions were largely influenced by the recent allegations of failure – and resulting contract cancellations – with the Flock camera systems.
Those included fears the cameras were being used by federal agencies to track individuals, officer misconduct and system errors. There are stories of the crowdsourced data being accessed by unauthorized individuals, officers using the system to track spouses or exspouses and citizens being arrested because their vehicles resembled a stolen car or one used in a crime.
The previous city manager had allowed cameras to be installed around town, but those were decommissioned in 2023, according to Blaine County Sheriff Travis Daugherty, who addressed the council and the citizens during the meeting. The current city manager felt it was too significant an issue for him to make the decision without a vote from the council.
Daugherty said it was important that citizens recognize the cameras were not Flock, but instead provided by Axion, the same company that provides the department with patrol car and body cameras.
He also noted that in spite of the ill effects of Flock cameras, the ones in Watonga had contributed to the recovery of five children and 15 women who were recovered from sex traffickers.
“I know you guys (the council) have to answer to the citizens, just like I do,” he told the council members. “But I have seen great things come from them (the cameras).”
The new camera, he said, would pick up Amber and Silver alerts that are issued when a child or an endangered senior citizen is reported missing.
Council member Howard Hursh was not convinced. He asked how many people would have access to the camera film and was told there are 12 employees who had an Axiom body cam and could log in to the system. Additionally, Daugherty said, accessing the system creates an audit log that is maintained even after the film has been destroyed.
Hursh pointed out that there were 12 right now, asked who and how many there would be in the future and even after Daugherty was up for re-election. A citizen also explained that the films were subject to Freedom of Information Act acquisitions, meaning that anyone who filed a FOIA request could access the film.
The sheriff agreed that he might not be in office forever but also noted he could only enter into a contract with the camera company for a year. The contract could be renewed, but it would have to be reapproved each year. After a protracted discussion, city council member Tara Bomhoff asked the matter be tabled so that she and the other members could learn more about the camera and its use. Daugherty, for his part, offered to have a spokesperson for Axion get in touch with the council members so that the information they receive is directly from the company.
A tabled matter is automatically entered into the next agenda for the body which tables it until it is lifted from the table and voted on.