Board members list varying reasons for votes — Whicker and Mentzer in favor, with Thornton in opposition
By DAVE SCHULTZ
The three members of the Bluffton Board of Public Works and Safety approved Police Chief Kyle Randall’s request for license plate cameras late Tuesday afternoon by a 2-1 vote.
Mayor John Whicker and Scott Mentzer voted in favor of the proposal with Roger Thornton opposed.
It was about a year ago that Randall first brought up the idea of leasing four cameras, at an annual fee of $2,500 per camera, which will be posted at four spots around the city.
Randall said when he first proposed it and has repeated the information on multiple occasions since: The Flock Safety camera system will not compromise anyone’s privacy; it will only identify the license plate number and the make, model, and the color of the vehicle; the information will be held by the Bluffton PD — and only by the Bluffton PD — for 30 days; and it will be a “budget-conscious force multiplier.”
The images from the cameras will be fed to servers that will determine if that vehicle has been connected to a crime or to a Silver Alert (missing senior citizen) or an Amber Alert (for a missing child).
He reiterated those facts before the board began considering whether to allow Randall to purchase the cameras.
After Randall concluded, Thornton was the first to speak. After thanking Randall for his due diligence on the proposal, he eventually said he was opposed to it.
Thornton said the use of data when it comes to surveillance is a complicated issue, and he was uncomfortable getting the city involved in a process that could get away from the officers running it. A contract with Flock Safety covers how the system is used, he said, but “contracts — in my view — have less force than law.”
If it was a different time, perhaps even six months ago, Thornton said, his vote may have been different.
“At this point, I can’t get there,” Thornton said. “We don’t say ‘no’ often, but on this one, I have to say ‘no.’”
Rick Elwell, who serves on the Bluffton Common Council with Thornton and Mentzer but is not a member of the Board of Works, spoke to the board and said he agreed with Thornton. Elwell said he works in technology and does a lot of surveillance work. He emphasized that he was not accusing Flock Safety of not abiding by the terms of its agreements, but abuse of the system was possible — and that gave him pause.
“If I had to choose again, I’d like to hold off for a while,” Elwell said.
Mentzer was the next to speak among the board members. “I would hope we have this much discussion on all the issues that come before council,” he said.
Council members approved the city’s 2022 budget without removing the Flock system from the Police Department’s spending plan. The council is a legislative body while the Board of Works is an administrative body. At one point, Mentzer referred to his role as a Board of Works member as being a “bureaucrat.” As he sees it, the council makes policy and the Board of Works shepherds the process.
While installing cameras and reviewing license plate numbers may draw questions of privacy and surveillance, he said, allowing the Board of Works to override something that the Common Council approved during its budget deliberations is a road he did not want to travel. “I think that is a much more dangerous precedent,” he said, and said he was not going to vote to undo the council’s original decision.
Mentzer also noted that Randall could have altered the proposal, removing one of the cameras to make the total $7,500. (The cost of the software to operate the cameras will be an additional $1,000 a year.)
Had Randall been under $10,000 with the camera project, he would have been able to have leased the cameras without the approval of the Board of Works. Mentzer said it was a penny’s difference: “If it had been $9,999.99, he would have been able to spend the money on his own authority,” Mentzer said of Randall.
With Thornton prepared to vote “no” and Mentzer prepared to vote “yes,” the deciding vote was going to be Whicker’s. He voted in favor.
“I look at this differently,” he said, explaining that he was prepared to vote in favor because he had a high level of confidence in Randall and in Deputy Police Chief Andy Ellis.
“I look at this as another tool in their tool box,” he said. “I really and truly believe it’s worth the $10,000.”
“I have a lot of faith in Chief Randall and (Deputy) Chief Ellis,” Whicker reiterated. “For that reason, I support this.”
All noted that the contract with Flock will only be for a year. Whicker said that Randall and Ellis would review the system’s use and value after the year is completed and make a determination at that time if it was valuable.
daves@news-banner.com
