Full transcript
Welcome into the news at 10.
I'm Morgan Romero.
Tonight,
the Wilder City Council voted on changes
to its surveillance cameras after residents raised concerns
that the current contract breaks Idaho law.
Aspen Shumpert joins us live from uh from Wilder and Aspen.
It appears that at one point tonight's meeting got heated.
Yeah,
Morgan,
this is a controversial topic across the state,
and residents grew emotional over what these cameras specifically track.
There's one sitting just off my shoulder behind me here
in the city's park.
Now FL cameras are automated license plate readers
that are helped to help police capture criminals,
investigate traffic accidents,
or find missing.
And endangered people.
In June,
the group Deflock Idaho argued Wilder's flock safety contract violates Idaho code
because state law limits license plate data to law enforcement use,
while Flock's own terms let the company use the data to improve its product.
Some residents who wanted the contract terminated entirely
say the cameras violate their Fourth Amendment.
Arguing footage from their community shouldn't be
used to develop the company's products.
They point to the camera right here in the city's park,
one side that faces the road to read those license plates,
but the other facing the park.
Now the one facing the park is just a flock security camera
that doesn't read plates but captures activity in the park,
including children at play.
Giving our children's data the flock with no contract
that covers anything about who uses that data,
how it's used,
where it's used,
what they do with it.
You're just giving them our children's information,
our biometric data.
Tyler,
hey,
this will be the one and only warning
that you get.
Council went on to unanimously vote to
change the contract language and prevent Flock
from using data to train its own technology.
Now Councilman Paul Allen took things a step further with an ordinance proposal
to require council approval and public input before technology like this
can be installed.
Or purchase in the future.
This is a direct response to residents' concerns from
earlier this year regarding the cameras being purchased without input
from council or the public.
The Idaho attorney general's office looked into
those complaints and previously said the police chief
had the necessary approvals for the mayor to purchase the cameras.
I'm,
I'm
fearful of a little bit of micromanaging
because
the departments don't need to be micromanaged by us.
We have heads of that department,
but I think you're right about
there is some technology we need to be looking at that
we are looking at a little bit closer as a city council
as a community.
council ultimately voted to table that ordinance for now.
They're gonna bring it up next month.
They say they wanna fine tune it a little bit
to not be so specific for this specific technology because they say
more AI technology could come in the future.
So they want to broaden it in case this happens again.
Another consideration comes up
now,
Morgan,
like I said,
this is a hot topic across the state.
This is not the only city dealing with concerns from residents.
I know different cities are going through different
methods right now to address those concerns,
and we will continue to closely report on what
those developments continue to be across the state.
Yeah,
and not just Idaho,
but across the nation.
These groups are sort of cropping up.
Aspen,
thank you.