PORTAGE, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Portage public safety officials got a grilling last night from the city council to make sure that their Flock license plate readers are not being accessed by federal immigration agents.
Sergeant Nick Madsen assured the council that the Portage Public Safety Department has checks and policies in place to make sure that won’t happen, and Flock, the firm that operates the system, has fortified their security.
“When it gets transmitted wirelessly, its encrypted and then it goes to their data base, cloud storage, it’s encrypted. Their press releases and every information that we they’ve given us is they’ve never been hacked,” says Madsen.
He says they do share information with other police agencies, but they have to have a criminal complaint number and a reason that is permitted by Portage’s policy.
“We have filters, and if any keyword related to immigration or reproductive health is in that reason, the search automatically blocks it.”
But councilmember Jihan Young suggested there may be ways to work around that.
“People lie, people won’t tell the truth so they will manipulate the system to not say “ICE” they will manipulate the system to know not to say “reproductive” they will manipulate the system to know what words not to say,” Young warned.
Councilmember Chris Burns says he knows efforts are being made by Portage investigators to adhere to their policies, but not everyone may.
“So I think the concern may be that some other departments with whom we share data don’t have our same policies around the use of these systems.”
Council members suggested that the Portage Public Safety Department work with Flock to identify those police agencies with similar policies, and limit interconnectivity to them.
Portage has 29 pole mounted license plate readers that record the plate number, the time and location of every car that passes, and can help identify cars used in crimes.
The data appears as a series of snapshots of the back bumpers of cars.
Officers then must use other secure data systems to identify who owns the car.
The system can also alert the department when a number they are looking for passes.
Every time an officer taps into that data, it’s recorded and they must have a case number and a valid reason that matches their policy to make the data appear.
Requests from other agencies are individually reviewed and approved by department officials.
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