Stillwater installs cameras, license-plate readers to deter crime

Seven cameras that scan and record the license plates of every passing conveyance have been installed this year at intersections in Stillwater and more are coming Stillwater Police Chief Brian Mueller reported another Flock Safety automatic license-plate readers are expected to be installed throughout the city by the end of the year A Flock Safety license-plate reader which helps police track vehicles involved in crimes mounted on a light pole at the intersection of Maryknoll Drive and th Street North in Stillwater Courtesy of Stillwater Police Department The solar-powered license-plate readers are meant to act as a deterrent to anyone considering committing a crime in the city Mueller noted the readers will not be used for speed-limit enforcement In addition fixed surveillance cameras downtown and four in other parts of the city will be installed soon Four of those cameras and two Flock license-plate readers will be placed in the city-owned parking ramp downtown he mentioned In all cameras and license-plate readers are expected to be deployed around the city Mueller declared The extra defense measures are needed now that downtown Stillwater has become a major tourism destination Mueller commented It s an entertainment district Mueller commented The tourism the people who are in the bars and restaurants people who are coming to events that s what s happening downtown and that s a different policing model than like a mall in Woodbury or particular other gathering place People who go to other entertainment districts around the country such as Nashville or New Orleans fully expect to be on camera Mueller announced and people visiting Stillwater should have the same expectation Hopefully that is a deterrent moving forward he mentioned Civil liberties concerns But groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have raised concerns about automated license-plate readers saying Flock and other mass-surveillance systems have severe privacy implications The system is growing not just in numbers but also in power and intrusiveness announced Jay Stanley a senior protocol analyst with the ACLU s Speech Privacy and Hardware Project in Washington D C Every customer of Flock that shares their evidence with other departments is contributing to a nationwide surveillance grid of Orwellian proportions Stanley also raised concerns about officers from U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement accessing and using content collected by Flock Safety s automated license-plate readers It s been an issue around the country where particular of the more liberal communities that have decided as a initiative matter not to cooperate with ICE are finding to their surprise that their police department is collecting a lot of information on the comings and goings of their residents and that ICE is able to search that he noted Once you create records of where people are going and at what time it s not inevitably easy to control who s accessing that and for what purposes But Mueller reported he expects the cameras to help solve crimes in Stillwater and elsewhere If an event occurs like the one that happened in Waukesha Wis in December when the driver of an SUV plowed into a crowd of people at the city s annual Christmas parade killing five and injuring others we can pull up those cameras live time and start utilizing them in a command post Mueller stated Cameras also would have been instrumental in helping police figure out what happened to George Musser in Mueller disclosed Musser of Stillwater was seen leaving Brian s Bar around a m Christmas Eve His body was ascertained around p m on Christmas Day about two miles from the bar in Baytown Township I don t know that with this camera system we would have been able to save his life but I do feel confident that with a more robust camera system we would have been on his trail a little bit sooner Mueller noted How it works The Stillwater City Council last year approved spending for the cameras and license-plate readers installation and the first-year annual recurring cost for upkeep and maintenance The annual upkeep cost will increase once the license-plate readers and cameras are installed in the parking ramp The city has received two grants one for the other for to help cover the cost The grants are from Washington County Urgency Management which utilizes the Urban Area Safeguard Initiative a federal grant project to enhance its emergency-preparedness capabilities Mueller declared Here s how the motion-activated Flock cameras work They identify and take a snapshot of the critical details of a bicycle that passes by it The cameras capture the make automobile type color license plate full partial or missing and various motorcycle features including damage and after-market alterations The operation alerts officers to stolen or longed vehicles stolen license plates and missing persons It also can be used as an investigative tool to search for vehicles involved in criminal activity Mueller explained Police officers last week arrested someone who was driving through town who had a warrant out for his arrest Mueller mentioned That s the end goal We catch bad guys utilizing this According to details in Flock s transparency portal which is linked to the city s website the existing license-plate readers in Stillwater have detected vehicles over the past days Using information from the cameras officers conducted van searches in that period Law enforcement agencies that use Flock can connect with other Flock-equipped agencies around the country to locate individuals revealed Stillwater police Capt Hunter Julien who is overseeing the implementation of the activity Basically the huge benefit of having Flock is the access you get with other agencies nationwide Julien disclosed For example if someone commits whatever crime in Stillwater and flees the state or area in a van we can track that bus as it moves through the state or country if it passes other agencies Flock cameras I can think of several times we could have used this in the past if we had this system for serious crimes Once all the Flock cameras and license-plate readers are installed a map of their exact locations will be published on the city s website We want this to be constituents We want this to be transparent Mueller revealed We want the inhabitants to know where all of these cameras are They re not going to be hidden We want to publicize that there are cameras downtown so none of this is quiet or Big Brother or secret stuff happening We want everyone to know that our intention is to make downtown a safe area to come visit and hang out in The Flock transparency portal linked to in the city s website spells out what is detected license plates vehicles and what isn t facial recognition people gender race Material is used for law enforcement purposes only the portal states Information is owned by the Stillwater Police Department and is never sold to third parties Related Articles St Paul Fire Chief Butch Inks appointed to second term Roseville police New information in unsolved killing of Susan Capistrant Man randomly struck wounded by gunshot fired outside his St Paul home -pound meth situation investigated by St Paul officers draws federal charges Through tears Sen Nicole Mitchell testifies in her burglary trial Prohibited uses include immigration enforcement traffic enforcement harassment or intimidation usage based solely on a protected class i e race sex religion and personal use the portal states All records will be deleted from the system after days unless it is being used in an working scrutiny Julien declared The cameras and license-plate readers are being installed on stoplights city-owned light poles and special Flock poles erected to house a camera or license-plate reader Police had hoped to have a few of the cameras installed downtown before this weekend s Lumberjack Days the city s popular summer music festival but Flock personnel were not able to schedule the installation on the city s new LED streetlights in time Julien revealed The cameras should be installed within the next sparse months he reported Other cities using cameras Other communities in the area have installed or will be installing Flock Safety cameras including Hudson Wis Forest Lake and Woodbury Woodbury has had license-plate readers installed in different commercial and shopping areas of the city for the past two years stated Cmdr Tom Ehrenberg of the Woodbury Masses Safety Department We have now and we ve had a ton of success with them he noted They re not in residential areas They re only checking the back side of the carriage not the front so there is no concern for profiling individuals It s just the car It really is just to alert us to higher-level crimes like stolen vehicles and assaults Eighteen Flock Safety license-plate readers have been installed in Hudson mostly at entry points into the city and along main thoroughfares including Vine Street and Crest View Drive commented Police Chief Geoff Willems They have been instrumental in solving crimes for us Willems commented There are too plenty of success stories to even remember Those coupled with our traffic video cameras have solved countless crimes Forest Lake administrators are in the process of having license-plate readers installed throughout the city and three cameras installed in city parks declared Capt Luke Hanegraaf of the Forest Lake Police Department Final permits are being processed and the readers and cameras should be up and running in August he revealed Twelve Flock automatic license-plate readers will be installed in Cottage Grove by the end of the year The exact locations are still being determined mentioned Phil Jents a spokesman for the city Representatives in St Mary s Point voted in to install four Flock license-plate readers but then decided to cancel the order after receiving pushback from residents mentioned City Clerk Administrator Cindie Reiter The ACLU s Stanley disclosed he is optimistic that communities will eventually reject the use of mass-surveillance instrument like license-plate readers I m optimistic long term about privacy he stated I think that people do after a while start to push back It takes a long time for people to really become aware of new privacy intrusions It takes a while for people to become aware of how it can affect them The arc of history is long but it bends towards privacy I think what we ve seen historically is that over time people do eventually start to push back and to reclaim the freedom that they once had to not feel like they re being watched every minute New mobile blockades Another Stillwater safety measure Pitagone F Mobile Conveyance Limitations to be used at events like the World Snow Sculpting Championship the Fourth of July and Lumberjack Days We have a lot of events held in Lowell Park and our whole goal is to separate vehicles from people You know those don t mix Mueller explained We re trying to build that barricade around where the people are versus where the vehicles are Related Articles Through tears Sen Nicole Mitchell testifies in her burglary trial Cottage Grove -year-old Hastings woman killed on U S Feds say they re examining massive scheme to defraud MN s Housing Stabilization Services Venture Stillwater Silver Sobriety marks years with new location new executive director Weeklong burglary trial for Minnesota Sen Nicole Mitchell begins The walls which are designed to stop or significantly slow down vehicles will help protect people from any realizable directed intentional terrorist attack or from someone who s trying to do harm he reported but also from anyone who has a healthcare event behind the wheel or loses control of their conveyance Tragic things happen he commented It s not just someone trying to kill people The police department spent on the new mobile bus limitations Mueller announced The bright red and yellow impediments won t stop vehicles dead in their tracks he commented It s going to roll under hit the engine basically the drive train and make the van inoperable So it s not immediate but it s going to stop you in short order versus just continuing on through people