Though the Milwaukee Police Department is no longer sharing information from its automated license plate reader cameras with outside law enforcement, there are still ways for entities like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to access that data, according to information shared Tuesday during a panel discussion at Marquette University Law School.
Civil rights advocates, elected officials and residents have questioned whether recent safeguards put in place by MPD go far enough, which was a topic of discussion during the panel.
MPD has limited access to supervisors, restricted the types of investigations for which license plate readers can be used and shortened its image-retention period to seven days.
MPD said it uses the cameras, which can photograph passing vehicles and record information such as license plates, locations and times, to investigate crimes.
Tuesday’s panelists included Heather Hough, chief of staff of the Milwaukee Police Department, Melinda Brennan, executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin, and DeForest Police Chief and former MPD officer James Olson offered familiar takes that day on the benefits and risks of the technology.
Here’s what we learned.
MPD: ‘There are side doors everywhere’
MPD recently changed its practices to stop other law enforcement agencies from directly accessing its license plate reader data.
Still, Hough said, those restrictions can’t eliminate risks associated with these systems. The comments came during a discussion about whether federal immigration authorities could obtain information indirectly, even if MPD doesn’t share it with them.
“There are side doors everywhere,” she said.
She said the department’s previous data sharing practices could have allowed federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to obtain MPD data.
Despite the changes, other law enforcement agencies and private businesses can and do contract with companies like Flock and implement their own data sharing practices.
“The side door issue is a real concern,” she said.
MPD contracts with three vendors of automatic license plate readers, including Flock.
Hough defended MPD’s continued use of the cameras, arguing that they help police investigate serious crimes.
ACLU: ‘These new standards that you’ve got are good’
Brennan praised MPD’s recently adopted restrictions on automatic license plate readers.
“Do I think these new standards that you’ve got are good? Yes,” she said.
But her praise came with an immediate catch: “Why weren’t they in place earlier, and why isn’t every law enforcement agency adopting them?”
Brennan said that even with MPD’s new safeguards, the department remains part of a broader network that conducts surveillance without a warrant or probable cause.
The potential for abuse is grave and real, she said, and could be used to track people attending protests or traveling across state lines to obtain reproductive health care.
Brennan remains concerned about the possibility of the federal government obtaining camera data indirectly through other agencies with weaker safeguards, a possibility Hough confirmed.
“The thing that haunts me in this conversation … is a thought I keep having over and over again: How many times were these cameras utilized by (the Department of Homeland Security) to take our neighbors?,” Brennan asked.
DeForest police chief: ‘I think Flock did a great job marketing to law enforcement originally’
Asked why Flock cameras have become so common among Wisconsin law enforcement agencies, Olson, who is also vice president of the Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association, pointed to the company’s sales efforts.
“I think Flock did a great job marketing to law enforcement originally,” he said.
Olson described Flock as a useful product and said agencies have had success with it.
But, his own department does not have Flock cameras.
Olson said cost was the initial obstacle. He said he was not willing to spend what the company proposed to establish a camera network in DeForest, which is around 80 miles west of Milwaukee.
The Dane County Sheriff’s Office has automated license plate reader cameras surrounding his village, he said, giving his department a potential investigative resource without purchasing its own system.
Olson said departments using the technology need a plan, a policy and a commitment to enforcing that policy, including holding officers accountable for misuse.
“Law enforcement is one of those unique professions that we operate on the consent of the people that we serve,” Olson said.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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