By DAVE SCHULTZ
Members of the Bluffton Common Council will allow the purchase and installation of license plate cameras to go forward.
Matt Yergler, chairman of the Wells County Libertarian Party, spoke to the council Tuesday night indicating “the taxpayers of Wells County” do not want surveillance cameras watching them.
“I know that a majority of the council … if they had a redo they would take it,” Yergler said. He closed his remarks by telling the council members “it is your duty” to rescind the funding for the cameras.
“Tyranny is built plank by plank,” Yergler said. He then said there should be a discussion on the cameras at that moment.
Although it is true that some council members said they were not in favor of the cameras, they were all opposed — to one degree or another — to the idea of going back on the decision now.
“Once an ordinance is passed, it is my job to support it,” council member Roger Thornton said, referring to the city’s budget ordinance. Thornton was the one “no” vote on Feb. 22 when the Board of Works — Thornton, Scott Mentzer, and Mayor John Whicker — voted to allow Police Chief Kyle Randall to purchase the cameras.
The cameras, which will be supplied by Flock Safety, will take photos of license plates and compare them to plates linked to crimes or to Silver Alerts (for missing senior citizens) or Amber Alerts (for missing children). They will not take pictures of drivers or vehicle passengers.
City Attorney Tony Crowell has been asked to draft an ordinance that would forbid any use of camera footage other than the uses intended in the contract for the camera. License plate footage would only be made available to police officers and would only be held for 30 days.
That didn’t impress Yergler. He had noted that he had driven over the Crosbie Bridge that carries Ind. 1 over the Wabash River 22 times since the Board of Works granted Randall permission to purchase the cameras. Had the cameras been in operation, he said, that 30-day cycle would reset and authorities would have access to his car’s license plate over and over again.
Council member Janella Stronczek cited the Silver and Amber alerts as a reason to be in support of it. While she understood the concerns about privacy, she said, “we want to find that lost child or the grandmother who went too far out of the way.”
Mentzer supported the process. “This has been deliberated; we voted a bunch of times,” he said. “I know the comment may sound trite, but it’s true.”
Moments later, Mentzer said he puts his faith in Randall and considers the decision to be a one-year trial period for the cameras. After a year, he said, Randall would report to the council on whether the lease of the cameras was worth the $11,000 that will be spent on them — $2,500 each to lease four cameras and $1,000 for the software needed to operate them.
“We’ll have an opportunity to do the redo in a year,” Mentzer said.
Thornton told Yergler that he disagreed that most people were absolutely opposed to the cameras. “I respect you, but I don’t think your positions represent the people,” he said.
Thornton also said that no one who was a resident of his district has said anything to him. “I have not received a single comment either before or after the vote from anyone who lives in my district,” he said. He said he had heard from Yergler, Brandon Harnish, and some county officials had contacted him, but no one he represents.
Council member Josh Hunt agreed with Thornton, that he did not hear from a resident of his district on the issue. Hunt said he supported the proposed ordinance that would limit the use of the camera’s data, “and I don’t view that as a cop-out.”
“Crime does travel, but privacy’s important,” Hunt said.
Elwell spoke against approval of the camera at the Feb. 22 Board of Works meeting. He declined to push the matter further Tuesday night, saying that he had made his views public two weeks earlier.
“I respect the viewpoint on both sides,” he said, “but I lean privacy.”
Whicker summarized the council’s stance on the matter — there was support for the ordinance “and we do agree on limited use of the cameras.”
Also, Whicker said, “I don’t know anyone more conservative with the bucks than our police chief.”
daves@news-banner.com
