County and city officials were caught off guard by a potential contract to add automatic license plate-reading traffic cameras at each of the Highway 15 and 34 entrances to Seward and asked the county’s Homeland Security coordinator to return after working with city and other county officials.
But the issue may be moot.
Blake Swicord, who works with the county’s drug interdiction task force, told the Independent on March 6 he no longer plans to place the cameras in Seward or anywhere else in Seward County after the March 4 discussion.
“It seems to be offending so I am going to take my cameras elsewhere,” Swicord said in a brief interview. “I can put them anywhere I need to put them.”
Other places are interested in using the cameras, he said.
“They won’t be in Seward County,” he said.
Three issues arose related to a contract with the Nebraska Department of Transportation to install, operate and maintain automated license plate readers (ALPR) on the two state highways:
The city of Seward had not been officially informed and had not approved use of the cameras by the Seward Police Department or the placement of the camera and accompanying solar panel on a city utility pole on West Highway 34 – where one camera had been installed but not activated since Dec. 31.
The commissioners were also unaware of the plan and questioned how residents’ privacy would be impacted.
The agenda item was added late enough that those who monitor agenda items said they had little time to research it.
Swicord is leasing four cameras for $12,000 annually from Flock Safety, which facilitates traffic monitoring across the country with ALPR technology. The arrangement will provide the task force access to the Flock data network for investigations involving people who may be in metropolitan areas like Chicago.
Such data, he said, “has made us hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
The Flock program stores video for 30 days unless a specific portion of the video becomes part of a criminal investigation.
The lease is funded by the task force’s asset forfeiture program, which generates funds when the task force confiscates sometimes large amounts of cash from individuals suspected of drug trafficking, but who have not yet been charged with a crime. They are given the opportunity to give up their cash to be released and avoid charges.
Swicord said ALPR video has been helpful in criminal cases, as well as with Amber or Silver Alerts when law enforcement is looking for missing children and older residents who may have health situations. He worked with similar systems in Georgia before he moved to Nebraska.
But the Homeland Security task force, which also includes the Nebraska State Patrol, Milford and Seward Police Departments, and the Seward County Attorney’s Office, and works with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Treasury, does not have use for the Flock cameras that record license plate information off vehicles traveling up to 40 miles per hour.
Swicord said the task force has used ALPR cameras since 2019 and owns 10 $30,000 cameras that are mounted on four Seward County Sheriff patrol vehicles to record vehicles traveling up to 150 miles per hour. With two or three cameras per vehicle, video captures both front and rear license plates.
Those ALPR cameras are linked to the Vigilant network, which Swicord said is a top system for law enforcement.
One online vendor selling Vigilant mobile ALPR equipment noted users could search the system by full or partial license plate number, year, make and model of the vehicle, and location of a crime in a specific timeframe.
“There are thousands of these cameras,” Swicord said, noting the state has cameras across Interstate 80’s path.
An online Department of Transportation map shows stationary cameras at each Seward County interchange.
City involvement requires council OK
Seward City Administrator Greg Butcher attended the meeting and said the city was not contacted regarding Swicord’s plans and further action would require the city council’s approval and policy development.
He said a city employee saw a vendor installing the camera on Dec. 31 and asked about it, but was told it was for the police department.
Swicord said he had talked with Police Chief Brian Peters, but city officials said there was no plan put forward for consideration. Swicord also said he thought the vendor contacted the city’s planning and zoning department.
But Mayor Josh Eickmeier said in a later interview the purpose for the cameras in Seward and the access to the information gathered is unclear.
“I don’t feel very comfortable pursuing that at this time,” he said. “If there is a good public policy reason, maybe I could be convinced.”
But he said he would take a “trust but verify” stance.
“The actions of the Seward County Sheriff’s Office reflect on the people of Seward and the county,” he said.
Commissioners
question impact
Swicord told commissioners he could move the camera from inside Seward’s city limits and pursue a “quick fix” by placing them out in the county.
But Commission Chair Misty Ahmic encouraged Swicord to contact the city to see if they want to work on this.
“Please do not just go out and put them in the county. We are trying to be good partners,” she said.
Commissioner Darrell Zabrocki said he attends planning commission and other meetings and had not heard of the ALPR options.
He asked if the Seward Police Department would use the system, but Peters said the decision to move in that direction required the city administration and council’s input.
“Most of the license plates we are going to capture are going to be Seward County residents,” the police chief said.
Commissioner Scott Pekarek shared that concern.
“I do not feel good about that,” he said.
Late agenda item questioned
City officials also questioned the last-minute addition of the contract on the commissioners’ agenda.
“When things start showing up on the agenda at the last second, I start to wonder why,” Eickmeier said. “To me the whole thing seems rushed, and I don’t know what the hurry was.”
At the meeting, Butcher said city staff monitor the agenda each week, and if an issue of interest to the city arises, they contact staff prior to the meeting.
“That is why we are showing up here this morning instead of taking care of this in the background and not getting in your business,” Butcher said.
Ahmic said the board also had short preparation time.
“We did not know either, so we are in the same boat,” she said.
Seward County Clerk Sherry Schweitzer said in a later interview that she and her staff compile the week’s agenda and received the request at 8:25 a.m. March 3, just five minutes before the deadline.
Agenda items cannot be added less than 24 hours prior to the meeting to comply with Nebraska Open Meetings Law. The commissioners meet at 8:30 a.m. each Tuesday.
Monitoring report questioned
An additional question raised was the lack of reporting from the existing ALPR cameras in Seward County.
Nebraska’s Legislature adopted the Automatic License Plate Reader Privacy Act in 2018.
Bryan Tuma, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, said the legislation sets out requirements for every agency that uses the ALPR cameras.
If a system is operational, the agency must file a report that is posted on the Nebraska Crime Commission website at least every 12 months, based on the month cameras are activated.
Annual reporting is to include the number of confirmed matches, non-correlated matches, manually entered numbers, confirmed matches and non-correlated matches. It also requires a governmental entity using ALPR to adopt and post a use policy and a privacy policy.
The act exempts from reporting those agencies for which cameras are for parking enforcement for a parking facility, controlling access to secured areas, electronic toll collection or assisting weighing stations.
The Nebraska Crime Commission website lists seven counties, nine cities, the Omaha Airport Authority, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the state patrol as entities using ALPR cameras and has links to their reports. The Seward County Sheriff’s Department is listed, but as of March 6 it had submitted no reports, which Tuma confirmed.
Swicord said reports are not yet required for the inactivate Flock system.
Though the task force’s mobile cameras have been in use since 2019, he said the task force does not use the Vigilant system to instigate traffic or other stops so does not file reports. He said the task force uses data gained in its crime investigations.
