After pushback from the community in response to a presentation by technology company Axon, Chelsea’s Mayor Kate Henson confirms the city does not intend to utilize AI-powered license plate readers in the city.
“It’s a fine line, right?” Henson said to The Sun Times News. “Because we want to be supportive of the police department, and we want them to have technology that will make their job easier, but in this climate the benefits don’t outweigh the negative consequences that could potentially come with that kind of technology.”
Presentation to Council
The discussion was initially sparked by an offer from Axon to include license plate reader technology in the city’s most recent contract for body and vehicle cameras. While license plate readers were not included in the contract passed at the June 22 meeting, Axon did present to Council information about the potential for future use by the city.
“We don’t do facial recognition, we don’t take a screenshot and zoom in into, like, the passenger or the driver,” Chris Tran, Axon’s presenter, said at the meeting. “It’s just a picture of the license plate in the car itself. We don’t have any facial recognition software.”
Tran emphasized that the data collected is entirely controlled by the police force or agency using the software, not the vendor, stating, “Everything is built for accountability and transparency.”
Community Feedback
Despite this, several citizens raised concerns about individual rights to privacy and safety during a public comment period that lasted over half an hour. Local resident David Bloom cited cases of similar technologies misidentifying plates and leading to lawsuits against departments that can end in hefty payouts from the city.
“I almost want to look at this more from a risk assessment,” Todd Dziobak, another resident of Chelsea, said in agreement. “I don’t know why Chelsea needs this. There’s low crime, it seems unnecessary, and all it is is potential liability. You’ve got liability for misread plates, you’ve got liability for data breaches, and also there’s been instances of misuse by, not our police department, but you don’t know who’s gonna be running it in the future […] All it does is open Chelsea up to liability.”
Further concerns about privacy were raised, including by members of surrounding communities that would also be affected any time they drove through the city.
“You’re going to surveil every citizen in this town, and everybody who comes to this town, and everybody who passes through this town, and all of that data gets swept up into the mass surveillance that is rolling out across this world, or you’re going to say no,” a Manchester resident stated at the meeting.
City Response
Community members were encouraged to direct their concerns to the police department, where they will be answered in the upcoming August newsletter.
“The concerns seem to focus on how long any data will be stored, the ability of an outside agency to access our data and having a comprehensive and clear policy in place for the use of the cameras,” Kazyak said.
Kazyak also addressed concerns regarding information collected by the department being subject to FOIA.
“FOIA requests are request specific; information provided in one request, may not be available or provided in a different request,” he said. “The city follows the FOIA rules set forth by the State of Michigan.”
Due to the vocal response from many members of the Chelsea community, both Mayor Henson and Chief of Police Kevin Kazyak have confirmed that there is currently no intention to pursue a contract with Axon for license plate readers. Kazyak stated the Council “is not moving in that direction at this time.”
“You want the citizens to be on board and trust whatever’s happening, and that that trust isn’t there,” Henson said.
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