Council to explore other automated license plate reader options
By MEGHAN BRADBURY
mbradbury@breezenewspapers.com
The Sanibel City Council took an informal consensus last week to leave Flock after they make a formal decision of which automated license plate reader cameras they will use to replace the current system.
The city currently has three Flock cameras, restricted for just Sanibel use. Two of them are located on the causeway, and one at Middle Gulf Drive outside of Sundial.
Weekly and monthly audits are currently being done with the Flock cameras with no indication of misuse. There are specific guidelines to follow — who is using it, and entered justification for use.
City Manager Dan Souza said if the direction is to remove the Flock cameras, they are prepared to do so.
“If you want us to continue to explore Genetec or other options to make our community and council feel more comfortable that the data is secure and protected and there are limitations,” he said they have staff support. “We have limitations on the camera we have deployed. Whatever cameras were to be replaced would be also at that fundamental level.”
Souza reassured the council that they would always have control in the future in terms of technology.
“If council so chooses not to have that as a tool, we will remove it. It is a very useful tool. We don’t abuse it and there are safeguards in place,” Sanibel Police Department Police Chief Bill Dalton said.
Souza said the trust level is critical to him, Dalton and staff.
“What it feels like you hear from the community — it’s not personal — but there is a lack of trust in what we are doing, how we use the cameras,” he said. “We need to have your trust, the community trust in whatever technology we are deploying. You give direction on how you want to move and we will follow that direction.”
Councilmember Richard Johnson said it’s a question of balance.
“If we turn off everything, the limited camera system that we have today, and the limited capability of the camera, what are we going to loose? What can our residents expect from law enforcement without,” he asked of the Flock cameras.
Dalton said they would loose investigative capabilities.
“We will loose information that is very specific to Sanibel,” he said.
IT Director Bert Smith said a report is given when agencies receive a hit for their data, but with Sanibel turning off the sharing button last month with council direction, no outside agencies can search Sanibel.
“It is not set up to share,” he said.
The current cameras, Smith said will only identify characteristics of a car, but does not look at text, and there is absolutely no facial detection or tracking of subjects. He said if a vehicle goes through the camera, it generates a license plate.
Smith said they looked at the most in use alternatives for Flock — with the city using Flock Falcom — available. The list included Flock, Axon, Genetec AutoVu, Genetec Cloudrunner and Motorola Vigilant.
He said the closest to what they use now with Flock is Genetec.
“All of the other options had significant AI capabilities in their system, which can be turned on and off in most cases,” he said. “Flock is probably the lowest technology option to the closest direction you are heading.”
As far as Genetc, Smith said the city would be responsible for the infrastructure to get the camera on line. He said with this option, the data can be totally Sanibel without having data up in the cloud.
“The other cameras are all solar and stand alone and have networking built into them,” Smith said. “Genetc does not.”
He said they can do either of the options Flock, or Genetc.
“If you want to get rid of the Flock because of the lack of trust, the Genetc solution will work. It’s less resilient, but the data is totally here,” Smith said of owning the information.
Additional information will be brought back to the council in November regarding alternative ALPR options.