grant for license plate reader cameras<\/a> Tuesday, and the City Council and mayor voted 6-1 against approving the grant award.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThat means the Green River Police Department will not receive the $111,956 in federal Department of Homeland Security money that the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security had awarded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Green River Police Chief Shawn Sturlaugson had planned to install around four Motorola brand license-plate readers, largely at city entrances, to respond quickly to criminal getaway or vulnerable-person situations, he told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He defended the plan at the City Council meeting Tuesday evening, saying a guardrail policy is in progress. He hoped to limit data storage to 30 days and he had no intention of using the cameras proactively or on things like expired registration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Green River City Councilman Gary Killpack moved to accept the grant award. Councilman Robert Berg seconded the motion for the sake of holding a vote, he said. Then Berg, Mayor Pete Rust, and the other four council members \u2013 Jessica Maser, Mike Shutran, Sherry Bushman, and Ron Williams \u2013 voted nay. Some of them applauded with the crowd after their nay votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The people’s proactive shutdown is unique. Oftener in Wyoming cities such as Cheyenne, Jackson and Glenrock, the major outcry against license-plate reader cameras unfolds after the cameras are already in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the case of license-plate readers that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Wind River Intertribal Council had installed at the entrances to the Wind River Indian Reservation, it is unknown if any public meeting was held on the topics prior to installation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Outcry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
But first, numerous people attended the meeting and 10 spoke against the cameras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No one spoke in favor of the license plate reader grant or installation effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marshall Burt \u2013 a former lawmaker and the first Libertarian elected to the Wyoming Legislature \u2013 acknowledged that he\u2019d \u201ckicked the hornet\u2019s nest\u201d by raising awareness of the meeting and urging people to attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know you, chief; I want to say you\u2019re a good person and I believe you have good intentions,\u201d Burt said to Sturlaugson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, he warned, Motorola would store the license-plate reader data and could aggregate or share it. Litigation is unfolding on these data problems nationwide. And the government can work around the Fourth Amendment by going through third-party data holders, said Burt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow yes, I\u2019d say we are more than (surveilled) every day of our lives,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of those choices come from myself. If I use my phone and I add an app, and it says I\u2019m going to be monitored, then I make the choice to be monitored myself, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burt suggested \u201cstrongly\u201d that the city study Motorola\u2019s software system closely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gregory Sherwin, who identified himself as a lifelong resident of Green River, cast the system as just another slow, well-intentioned erosion of freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He urged the City Council to \u201cdefend these principles of due process, presumption of innocence and freedom of association \u2013 and the simple right to move about our communities without being constantly monitored, analyzed and profiled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sherwin added, \u201cThese are not outdated ideals. They\u2019re the foundation of a free people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As with many speakers, robust applause followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another resident, Dr. Blaine Saunders, reflected on others\u2019 comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful to be in this town. It\u2019s nice to hear people stand up for their rights. Nice to hear they\u2019re standing up for the Constitution,\u201d said Saunders. \u201cMy grandfather was a Wyoming pioneer, and I think he\u2019d be proud of what we heard tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multiple people paid respects to Sturlaugson or thanked him for his service. He acknowledged their concerns and their passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTher\u2019s no one who takes the Constitution and civil liberties more seriously than me,\u201d said Sturlaugson, adding, \u201cI also took an oath to protect the citizens of Green River \u2026 This is my job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He later said, \u201cOutside of my uniform, I might be sitting with them (the critics).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apologies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Some council members apologized for voting in favor of the grant application months earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI also want to kind of issue an apology on my part,\u201d said Councilwoman Jessica Maser. \u201cBecause when we applied for this grant \u2013 I know I voted in favor of it \u2013 I did not fully understand what this was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Councilman Mike Shutran said he wanted to echo Maser\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis type of a situation I think the gravity\u2019s probably a little bit more than we anticipated. I think public safety is always at the forefront, but undermining the trust of the citizens is something we probably can\u2019t undo,\u201d said Shutran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Councilman Berg touted the advances of technology. But, he said, \u201cI cannot vote for this due to the fact I\u2019d be telling the citizens of Green River that I think I know what\u2019s best for them. And they have spoken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Councilwoman Bushman gave an example of the cameras\u2019 potential benefits \u2013 of flagging a sex offender near a school \u2013 but she voiced concerns about the potential for a data breach of Motorola\u2019s system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten people urged against the camera installation during the public comment segment. Several more sat in the room and watched. As of Wednesday morning, the YouTube stream of the meeting had garnered 118 views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rust and Killpack both speculated that though they heard staunch opposition Tuesday evening, \u201canother side\u201d would emerge from the residents with time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rust theorized some people with children want the cameras and will trade their privacy concerns for that safety reassurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are only hearing one side tonight,\u201d said Rust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Berg countered: \u201cThe other side had the same opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spectators erupted with applause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Killpack moved to table the vote to a workshop to draw out that other side. His motion died without a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though Rust defended the cameras and speculated about the silent \u201cother side,\u201d he explained his later nay vote on the grant approval by saying he\u2019s concerned about the third-party data holding issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And look who is behind the attempt to put Motorola ALPR cameras in Green River. Kudos to the residents and their city council for voting it down, but we’ll how long that lasts. That means the Green River Police Department will not receive the $111,956\u00a0in federal Department of Homeland Security money that the Wyoming Office […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-wyoming"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17934,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17933\/revisions\/17934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/green-river-council-meeting-7-7-26.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")