QuickTake:

Springfield City Council asked city staff to return to council with limits on the use of the cameras. The council will make a decision at that time whether the cameras, which are installed but not currently active, will be used in the city.

The Springfield City Council on Monday, Oct. 20, discussed the use of automated license-plate cameras by law enforcement and asked city staff to return to council with a proposal that includes more guardrails on the technology. 

The Springfield Police Department installed 24 of the cameras throughout the city last month. The cameras were turned on for calibration and validation before being deactivated “until a broader community discussion takes place,” the police department said at the time. The cameras are being leased from Flock Safety with state grant money.

“I don’t think I’m ready to take them down yet,” Mayor Sean VanGordon said. 

VanGordon suggested asking police to come back with “the smallest step that we can take that yields the highest value from a law enforcement perspective.”

The mayor referenced a suggestion made by Police Chief Jami Resch earlier in the evening that police could limit Springfield’s flock camera data to Lane County law enforcement agencies and require case numbers. 

VanGordon said he didn’t know if that would lead to a “yes” vote by the council.

“But I think that’s realistically the scoping between, we either have to just be honest, we want to take them down, or try to find a way to get to the core most useful part of the tool and try to get as limited as we potentially could to sort of address what these broader privacy concerns are,” he said.

City Manager Nancy Newton said she would talk with Resch about what guardrails could be put in place with the technology. 

“We do have the benefit of this being a fairly limited duration,” Newton said. “I hate to use the word ‘pilot’ project, but it kind of is in the sense that it really could only potentially go into 2027 as we currently have it. So there are some opportunities I think here to perhaps pivot, but I don’t want to speculate on how that might look until I have a deeper conversation with the chief.”

The mayor asked Newton to come back to a City Council meeting with a “more limited scope” for the use of the Flock cameras. 

“I would say at that point we really have to make a decision if we’re going to do this or we’re not going to do this,” VanGordon said. “We’ve got to get to an answer here.”

Councilor Kori Rodley said she supported removing the cameras, while other councilors expressed reservations about their use. 

The council made the decision after hearing from nine community members about their concerns with the cameras. The lone speaker during public comment in support of the cameras was the director of public affairs for Flock Safety. 

“One of the reasons we’re so proud of Flock is that it’s customizable,” Trevor Chandler said.