Kyle council hears license plate system proposal

KYLE — At its April 18 meeting, Kyle City Council discussed the possibility of adding the Flock Safety Automated License Plate Reader System.

Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett proposed the item with the pretense that the Kyle Police Department (KPD) has taken feedback into consideration since the previous discussion seven years ago.

“This topic has been discussed here in this council chamber many years ago, but I want to tell you that what we are discussing tonight is different than what we talked about in the past,” said Barnett. “This is not the same program that we looked at about seven years ago or so. At that time, we looked at a program that would mount cameras onto the police cars and as those officers drove through the community, those readers, those systems would read license plate numbers, keep and store that data. If we needed it for [stolen and wanted cars or a missing person], the officers and the investigators would have accessed that … It wasn’t the best need or suit for the city at that time.”

Flock Safety, a license plate reader system, is used not only nationwide, but in other cities within Hays County including Buda. The system reads license plates through 12-foot mounted cameras in key points throughout the city determined by both Flock Safety and KPD. Activated by motion, the cameras photograph the vehicle to collect the following data: color, make, license plate number and how often they have passed through an area in the last 30 days. Data is then stored for 30 days, which would be available via the creation of case numbers through KPD.

“Crime is continually on the rise … [and there is an] opportunity that lies in technology,” said a Flock representative that has been working with KPD for the last year. “Things like the plate … the make of the vehicle, for example if it’s a Toyota, the color of that vehicle, when it was actually tagged, what camera it was tagged on and the number of times it was seen within the last 30 days [will be available in the system] … [This] alerts police officers efficiently about those wanted vehicles and whether they are on a national database. We are able to use [that information] to pursue these crimes and solve them efficiently and quickly … Once criminals entering our jurisdiction find out about this and see how powerful it is, they’re not even trying [to commit crimes]. They’re not even entering the community.”

Due to a string of stolen cars and jugging, a term that describes the following of individuals to rob their cars for potential money when they enter a store, Barnett believes that this would be a system that would not only provide efficiency for police officers in assisting with these cases but would provide comfort to residents.

Barnett mentioned two cases that are sensitive to the community — the deaths of John Lyon, 53, and Bret Steinmann, 26. Both were victims of fatal hit and runs that occurred weeks, if not months, before the culprits were arrested.

“We feel that those two specific cases, had this equipment been in place as we proposed, would have quickly resolved those two cases and would have brought some resolve to the family members,” he said.

As budget season is creeping up on council, Mayor Travis Mitchell’s inquiry about the costs of the system is necessary.

“Your intention would be to increase [the number of cameras and therefore, money] with the following budget years,” said Mitchell.

Barnett was quick to reassure council on the current payment details for the system, with the option of potentially growing the system in the future.

“We do already have an allotment of funds, $50,000, that was approved during our annual budget process,” said Barnett. “No additional staff will be necessary … We would train all law enforcement officers and all dispatch telecommunicators, so that when they get the alert, they know what to do with it, they know how to interpret that … This would be a system operating in the background that they log into, minimize and let do its work.”

Barnett explained currently, they would want to post cameras in the areas that have a concentration of businesses and contain financial institutions, as well as major entry points to the community such as I-35 exits, RM 150 and more. After confirming that the future goal would be to have cameras on every major street in town, Mitchell brought forth the concern of the safety of the data collected.

The misuse of data has been circulating national news for some time now with over-surveillance and the siphoning of data steadily increasing over the last decade.

“So, if you have a vehicle in the city of Kyle, you will have your vehicle's photograph taken everywhere you go, every single time you go past one of those … And we’re supposed to trust that, and it doesn’t matter if you are a criminal, not a criminal, have a warrant, no warrant, good, bad or indifference, you will be surveilled on our streets,” Mitchell emphasized.

“What we are not capturing are people. We’re not capturing any facial recognition. This is not for traffic enforcement, it’s strictly for crime prevention and reduction,” said the representative. “The data is stored for a rolling 30 days and it automatically deletes every 30 days … The footage that is captured is owned strictly by the agency in the city.”

Despite the data being owned by KPD, there is limited access that Flock would have as the provider. This does not mean that they have direct access to the metadata, which is what holds the photographs.

Still, Mitchell continued, “We’re reading news reports right now currently of major surveillance being compromised and Americans, individual rights and secrets being compromised at a much higher and more sophisticated level than the Flock system ... Those are just my questions to get folks thinking about why it is that the city council said no to license plate readers in the past. As far as I can tell, this is not a better program in terms of safety, security and surveillance.”

The council ultimately ended the discussion with a final note from council member Yvonne Flores-Cale that represents the reasoning the chief proposed the item to begin with, “I have three kids and two grandkids and in the event that any of them are missing, I wouldn’t care less where you stick a camera, as long as it could assist in finding them.”

The item will be brought before council again at a future date.