The cameras would be able to recognize license plates and automatically alert officers if a plate number is associated with a police report.
Police Chief Ed Tjaden said the department would most likely use cameras produced by Flock Safety, which operates in more than 5,000 municipalities across the country and is growing rapidly.
“If you don’t do this, you’re going to be left behind,” Mayor Barry Redfern said at a City Council budget hearing Thursday.
FLOCK ALPR CAMERA
The Kearney Police Department uses automated license plate readers.
Its “business model … effectively enlists its customers into a giant centralized government surveillance network,” the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in 2022. While the ACLU clarified in 2023 that checking whether cars were stolen or associated with Amber Alerts was appropriate, it raised concerns about databases capable of “creat[ing] comprehensive records of everybody’s comings and goings.”
The Florida Highway Patrol, for example, was criticized for using Flock Safety cameras to track undocumented immigrants. Additionally, the city of Austin recently ended its collaboration with Flock over safety concerns.
Tjaden, however, appeared unconcerned about potential privacy issues.
“They’re only in public areas, so there’s no privacy issues there,” he told the City Council.
Bellevue is among the jurisdictions in Nebraska to deploy license plate cameras to track stolen vehicles or missing person reports. Cameras sit behind traffic lights at 15th Street and Cornhusker Road in Bellevue.
The cameras are available only by lease and would require payments of $3,000 per camera annually, plus installation fees of up to $1,000 per camera.
“Everything is a subscription these days,” Tjaden said. “I don’t like it, but that’s the way of the world.”
The Police Department is also requesting funding for a new patrol vehicle, continuing a pattern of purchasing one vehicle per year for the past several years. This addition would bring the patrol fleet to seven vehicles. Tjaden said he does not intend to expand the fleet further after this year.
Other department budget requests include new automated external defibrillators (AEDs), new fencing and equipment maintenance.
POLICE STATION CARS
Three York Police Department cars are parked at the police station.
FIRE DEPARTMENT PROPOSES NEW LIEUTENANT
The Fire Department also presented its budget requests. Chief Tony Bestwick hopes to establish a lieutenant position that would formalize duties currently handled by the most senior person on each shift. The new role would be filled by someone who has received specific training.
This change could support younger firefighters who want to move up the ranks more quickly, City Administrator Sue Crawford said.
Bestwick agreed. “It helps with our succession planning for the future,” he said, “because in the next five to six years, we’re going to have a big turnover of our officers.”
LIBRARY REQUESTS SPACE PLANNING, MAKERSPACE ASSISTANT
The Kilgore Memorial Library has outgrown its current building and cannot house as large a collection or as many programs as Executive Director Deb Robertson would like. However, there are no immediate plans to expand the building.
In 2016, the Kilgore Memorial Library Foundation commissioned a study exploring what an expansion might look like, Robertson said.
“Many amazing things happen when you go as far as you can to the north, east and south on that building,” she said. “Then we have all kinds of spaces.”
The foundation is eager to help again, she said, but it doesn’t have the funding to do so alone — and many of its funds are earmarked for specific uses by donors.
One City Council member estimated the cost of a new library building at $10 million or more.
For now, Robertson hopes to maximize the current space. She requested funding to hire an interior designer to determine how to “carve out another inch in that building to do something with” and to update the 1980s-style furniture.
The additional space is needed to support high usage: the library’s foot traffic is comparable to that of the community center, Robertson said.
“I’m kind of amazed sometimes at how many cars are there and how much activity is going on … it’s a real pulse over there,” Redfern said.
Other library budget requests include funding for a part-time library assistant to staff the makerspace.
PUBLIC WORKS SEEKS WATER SYSTEM UPGRADES, NEW EQUIPMENT
Public Works Director James Paul II requested funding to replace aging water mains to increase water capacity, which would also improve fire safety in affected neighborhoods.
Replacements would be carried out in a way that avoids removing trees or tearing up roads, Paul said.
Paul also hopes to replace the city’s aging street sweeper, which has been in use for several years and no longer functions effectively.
“It’s not doing a great job,” Redfern agreed. “We should probably look closer at its performance.”
In addition, the city needs a vehicle lift with a higher weight capacity. The current lift has been used for vehicles that exceed its limit, Paul said.
Other Public Works budget requests include:
- Wastewater pump station door replacements.
- Removal of solids from a reed bed.
- A new vacuum truck.
- $100,000 for miscellaneous wastewater projects throughout the year.
- Results from the Retail Coach consumer survey were presented. Response rates were especially high among high school students.
- Jared Pack was appointed to the Anna Bemis Palmer Museum Advisory Board.
- Vendors selling goods in the city may now opt to pay their fees annually rather than in smaller, more frequent payments.
