Coralville moves forward with license plate reader cameras

CORALVILLE — The city of Coralville is moving forward with plans to add automatic license plate reader cameras at several locations in town after the city council approved a policy for their use by the police department.

The cameras will be placed on First Avenue near Interstate 80, First Avenue near Highway 6, and Coral Ridge Avenue near Highway 6.

Discussion about the plan to add the cameras has been contentious, with hours of public comment from residents expressing concerns about privacy and the use of data collected from the cameras.

The city council this year approved a budget that included $18,000 for the cameras. The full contract with Flock Safety, which provides the cameras, is for $36,000 over the course of two fiscal years.

The cameras are designed to give law enforcement agencies alerts when a vehicle identified through an Amber or Silver alert — issued to help authorities find missing children and adults — is detected. The cameras also save license plate numbers and other information about vehicles that pass by, running that information through a database of arrest warrants and missing vehicle reports.

The cameras are not traffic enforcement devices and cannot issue red-light or speed violations. However, the cameras may report a violation in order to dispatch an officer or provide vehicle information to a neighboring jurisdiction, something community members expressed concerns about.

Flock Safety has said its cameras are meant to capture only license plates and vehicle characteristics, not photos of the occupants. A Flock representative confirmed that the cameras capture the make and model of vehicle as well as dents or bumper stickers on the rear of the vehicle.

Concerns surrounding privacy

Last week, the city council approved a police department use policy by a vote of 3-2. Council members Royce Peterson, Laurie Goodrich and Rich Vogelzang all voted in favor of the policy.

Members of the public that spoke against the policy expressed concerns over data storage as well as data sharing rights across law enforcement departments.

Other speakers also have referenced ACLU of Iowa’s opposition to Flock cameras and other license plate readers. The organization says the problem with the cameras is they enable the creation of “databases with location information on every motorist who encounters the system, not just those whom the government suspects of criminal activity.”

Vogelzang said that while the majority of public comments at council meetings have been against use of the cameras, other constituents he’s spoken to have been in favor of implementation.

“Think about the different types of opportunities that these cameras can use to identify perpetrators of crimes and situations where missing persons are needed to be found. I think they're a great tool, I really do, and we have to look at the greater good of our community,” Vogelzang said at a council meeting.

The two council members who voted against the policy — Hai Hyunh and Mike Knudsen — said that concerns expressed by residents weren’t adequately addressed by Flock for them to be comfortable moving forward.

“I am all for providing the tools so that our police department, our law enforcement, have the tools to protect the community, better. … But when there's a tool that we don't feel it is 100 percent beneficial for all of us, then maybe we need to take a step back and reevaluate,” said Hyunh.

Knudsen said he’s not in favor of the license plate readers and would like to see a more restrictive policy that further limits what data can be shared and how long it is stored.

Council approves policy for police department use

The policy approved by the council addressed the use of the ALPR system by the Coralville Police Department. ALPR system audits will be conducted by those within the agency.

The approved policy states that the ALPR system cannot be used solely based on “a person's race, gender, religion, political affiliation, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, any other classification protected by law, for the purpose of or known effect of infringing on First Amendment rights.”

ALPR system access is restricted to officers that have completed system training, and all searches are required to have a call for service or case number as well as a written report for the search.

The department policy requires that any other law enforcement agency requesting access to Coralville’s data submit a written request that must include a call for service or incident report number and intended purpose for use of the information. Requests will be approved or denied by a member of the Investigations Division.

The policy does not list a specific time frame for when the data will be deleted. The council discussed a 30-day window when data will be stored, a timeline similar to other law enforcement agencies in the area using Flock.

License plate reading cameras are becoming more popular across the state. The University of Iowa police department installed 28 of them in 2023. Last year, Marshalltown installed 32, and North Liberty installed 12. Cedar Rapids has 70 license plate reading cameras. All of those cities bought their cameras through Flock Safety.

Cedar Rapids has set up an online transparency portal that lists the city’s camera policies — what the cameras can and cannot be used to do — as well as the 50 agencies that have access to Cedar Rapids camera data. The site also includes the number of vehicles detected, hotlist hits and searches for the previous 30 days.

The Coralville Police Department is one of the agencies that has access to the Cedar Rapids database.

Members of council said they would be open to changing the policy as needed.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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