QuickTake:

Police say the technology is being installed to meet a grant deadline, but the department says it will await a “broader community discussion” before activating them to track vehicles as part of criminal investigations.

Springfield police have started installing Flock Safety license-plate recognition cameras on city streets, the department said in a statement Friday, Sept. 26.

But police have yet to activate them for tracking and identifying vehicles as part of criminal investigations.

“Once each site is verified, the cameras are deactivated until a broader community discussion takes place,” police said.

The technology has elicited increasing opposition from local citizens concerned about what data is collected and how it is used. Springfield elected officials said they’d like more information about the technology, which police leaders said helps solve crimes.

Installation began in order to meet a grant funding deadline, with cameras turned on “for calibration and validation,” the Springfield police statement said, describing a verification process for each of the mounted cameras.

Springfield police have said a $93,000 grant from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission to fight organized retail theft is being used to pay for the cameras.

Community members opposing the technology have spoken during public comment portions of city council meetings in both Eugene and Springfield. Several expressed concerns about data from the cameras being accessed by federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A site with basic information from police about the technology in Springfield says 24 were installed as of Friday.

The site lists “immigration enforcement” among prohibited uses, along with “traffic enforcement, harassment or intimidation [along with] usage based solely on a protected class (i.e. race, sex, religion), [and] Personal use.” Springfield police has a two-page policy approved in July that governs how the technology is to be used within the department.

Flock Safety, the company that provided the cameras to Springfield, touts how police departments can share networked data with other law enforcement agencies, stating that each department controls the agencies with whom they share information.

But critics have questioned whether the data is secure when Flock Safety maintains the data and outside departments have access. In California, usage records released under open records laws show queries made on behalf of federal agencies, despite a statewide law prohibiting the sharing of license-plate data with any federal agencies.

Opponents of the technology have become more outspoken across the country, often citing concerns about priorities such as stepped-up immigration enforcement under the administration of President Donald Trump.

Springfield police also released a map Friday showing more than 20 camera locations, including the traffic circle where Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway meets Pioneer Parkway West; Mohawk and Olympic streets; Gateway Street and Beltline Road; and on Franklin Boulevard near Interstate 5.

Police Chief Jami Resch in August told members of the Springfield Police Advisory Committee, a citizens’ advisory group, that 25 cameras were planned for installation.

“They’re not intended to be in residential areas at all,” Resch said back in August.

The map shows cameras on major thoroughfares. Even so, two camera placements on McKenzie Highway — near a city welcome sign at 75th Street — are in a mostly residential neighborhood.

Resch told committee members at the August meeting that “in order to keep the cameras up and running, we’ll have to apply for more funding in the next round of the retail theft grant,” adding that Springfield police “basically leased them from Flock,” so the company is responsible for repairs.

Eugene police have said only Oregon police departments will be able to access their license-plate reader data network. Resch, in an August interview, said no such decision had yet been made for Springfield.

“I don’t want to say we’re never going to share it with an outside agency,” Resch said.

In Eugene, the first license-plate cameras were installed in May. Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner has called the technology “really important” in solving crimes.

“We’re in the crime-fighting business, and this community is asking us to fight crime and solve crime, and we need to leverage technology to be able to do that,” Skinner said earlier this month. 

The Eugene City Council has a work session planned for Oct. 8 to discuss the technology.