City Briefs

Council OKs license plate cameras at city entrances

The Shelton City Council on Tuesday evening gave final approval to contracting with Flock Safety to install 12 cameras at city entrances that read vehicle license plates and within 20 seconds alert Shelton Police of stolen plates or cars, missing persons or abducted children.

The council gave the measure preliminary approval at its Aug. 6 meeting.

A two-year subscription to Flock Safety will cost the city $40,800 the first year, $36,000 the second. The first year’s cost includes startup fees, and after that it’s $3,000 per camera per year.

The cameras do not capture the faces of drivers and are not used for tracking speed or parking violations. The data automatically deletes every 30 days. Even if the vehicle doesn’t have a license plate, the cameras can identify the make of the vehicle, the body type, color, and the back and top racks. The license plate recognition cameras are solar powered and motion activated.

Flock Safety’s system is used in 61 communities in the state, including Olympia, Kent, Marysville, Omak, Centralia and Aberdeen.

Jeffrey Denison was the only person who spoke during the public comments. He said the system offers no protection for a person’s privacy and urged the city not to adopt it.

“This system is not merely a license plate tracking system but an AI (artificial intelligence) system that creates a fingerprint of each vehicle, uploads the data to the Amazon Cloud and allows police and federal agencies access to upload and save that data,” he said. “The vehicle fingerprint includes not only the vehicle make and model, but particular details such as a rusty fender or a political bumpersticker.”

Shelton Police Chief Chris Kostad reiterated that the cameras only capture the back of the vehicle. “The truth is we do have checks and balances in place,” he said.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the council also gave final approval to asking Mason PUD 3 to use existing power poles to mount the Flock Safety cameras instead of contracting with Flock Safety to install new mounting poles.

City extends dump cleanup monitoring contract

The Shelton City Council on Tuesday passed a contract amendment with Aspect Consulting for the postconstruction monitoring of the city’s former C Street dump.

At its Aug. 6 regular meeting, the council gave preliminary approval to adding $147,219 to its contract with Aspect Consulting and extending the monitoring contract through 2029. The monitoring and reporting are required as part of the state Agreed Order.

That cleanup plan was executed last year at the 17-acre former landfill west of downtown Shelton and U.S. Highway 101 and north of Miles Sand & Gravel. Now the city is dealing with post-cleanup matters and monitoring.

Last year, the city paid almost $2.6 million to the contractor on the cleanup, Brumfield Construction.