At Tuesday night’s selectboard meeting, Manchester officials heard an update from Chief of Police James Blanchard about the town’s current contract with Flock, maker of the controversial automatic license plate recognition system, set to expire in March. The town had previously paused the use of the F, pending a review by the Agency of Transportation since the cameras were initially meant to be used for work-zone traffic safety, not as a policing tool more broadly. The town resumed their use in February of this year after assurances from Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn that the town’s current camera use fell within the existing law, following consultation with the Department of Public Safety confirming that data gathered by such systems is not promulgated.
The upcoming July legislation, though, means that Manchester will likely lose the ability to use any automated license plate recognition system. Chief Blanchard has publicly expressed concern over the loss of the tool. But given the town’s soon-to-expire Flock contract, the legislation set for July and the possibility of changes to the law before then, Blanchard is trying to navigate a reasonable way forward that is centered on researching possible alternative systems. In an Oct. 15 email to Town Manager Scott Murphy, Blanchard outlined some of his concerns. “Before the Town makes a significant investment in any replacement system, I think it would be worthwhile to obtain updated guidance from the State on how they interpret Section 1609 and whether any automated license plate reader system would still be permitted after that date,” he said. “My preference would be to continue researching alternatives over the next few months so we can make an informed decision before the renewal comes due,” adding that “my concern is simply that we’ve found the automated license plate reader to be a valuable investigative tool, and I’d like to avoid losing that capability altogether if there’s another solution that better fits the Board’s expectations and remains legally viable.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Blanchard described the current state of his research into possible alternatives. One alternative his team is looking into is the Unify Camera System. “That’s actually the camera system that we currently use on the public safety building,” he said. “They’re the cameras that are around the exterior of our building. So we’re familiar with it. One of the reasons that it’s appealing is that it has the potential to store all of the data locally on town-owned equipment, rather than a vendor-managed cloud, which addresses mainly the primary concern that we had heard.” Blanchard outlined some of the “hiccups” that would come with adopting the Unify system, including potential cost, how data would be transmitted to the in-house server and whether the system could offer the capability Blanchard is seeking. A second challenge would be how the cameras are powered. Currently, Flock cameras use solar power. Blanchard expressed a preference for a system that was hardwired and would need additional research to know if that would be possible with Unify. Whatever the town decides to do, Blanchard reiterated his desire to find a tool that would approximate the same policing capabilities within the expected legislative changes. “We’re certainly not looking to continue our relationship with Flock past March, but I would like to focus on finding an alternative because it is an extremely valuable resource from a public safety perspective.”
