Citizen speaks out against AI traffic cameras

MANAWA – The City of Manawa is moving forward with the installation of two Flock Safety automated license plate reading (ALPR) cameras, but the new technology is drawing criticism from some residents concerned about civil liberties and police overreach.

In June, the Manawa Common Council voted to install two Flock cameras, which will be placed near the intersection of State Highway 22 and Pine Street, and near the Manawa Masonic Center. The cameras are currently in the permitting process, so an exact installation date is not yet known, according to Manawa Police Chief Jason Severson.

The initiative is fully funded for its first year through donations. The Masonic Center and Treehouse Foods each contributed $650 for installation and $3,000 to cover the first year of service.

The Flock system uses artificial intelligence (AI) to capture license plates and unique vehicle characteristics, such as luggage racks or bumper stickers.

Severson said at a previous council meeting that the system is a critical investigative tool, noting it has already helped solve a high-speed pursuit and a credit card skimming case elsewhere in Waupaca County.

“The benefit of it, in my opinion, far outweighs the concerns that people have because it is heavily monitored,” Severson told the council.

Residents Carrie and Dan Thompson, who attended the July 20 council meeting, said they are against the cameras. Carrie Thompson said she has met with Severson privately to share her concerns and spoke to the council at the meeting.

Thompson said that the technology poses risks to government accountability, privacy and civil liberties.

“Do you really want to take on the legal risk, public backlash and privacy concerns of this kind of surveillance for a town of only 400 people?” she asked the council.

“Less than one percent of vehicles scanned by those ALPRs are connected to any crime or wrongdoing,” Thompson added.

Thompson said that vendors are increasingly marketing ALPR systems capable of tracking “electronic fingerprints,” which associate wireless signals from devices like smartphones, earbuds and smartwatches directly to a person’s vehicle.

Severson pushed back on those characterizations this week and said there is “misinformation” being circulated by social media accounts and websites like Deflock.org.

Severson said that the Flock cameras cannot download information from devices inside a vehicle, nor can they capture vehicle speeds, record red light violations, or utilize facial recognition.

He added that the system cannot track vehicles for long periods of time or sell information to third parties, noting that collected data is stored for 30 days and then deleted.

Severson also noted that Deflock.org falsely claims Manawa already has an ALPR on the triangle downtown. He clarified that this is a standard live-view traffic camera that has been there for about a decade.

“One person continually claims it is watching the bars downtown, when it points down into the intersection and towards the east side of the street that fits in the frame,” he said. “Our live view city cameras have solved incidents in the parks, near city hall, and near the intersections where they are mounted.”

He said that individuals can create accounts on such websites and randomly add cameras “for whatever their motivation is,” inflating the actual number of cameras in neighboring cities.

During her comments to the council, Thompson also highlighted the potential for police misuse, citing an Institute for Justice review that found at least 21 documented cases nationwide where law enforcement officers misused ALPR or Flock systems to stalk or track individuals for personal reasons, including three cases in Wisconsin.

Though Severson did not respond to Thompson’s comments at the meeting, he previously told the council that the system includes built-in privacy safeguards. Officers are required to enter a case number and a reason for every search, creating a permanent audit trail.

He also said an AI tool alerts administrators to unusually high search activity by an individual officer, and a public transparency website will allow citizens to track how many plates have been scanned and review the associated search case numbers.