Ben Gargacz/Daily Mining Gazette From left, Brad Dakota, James Niemela, Lee Deleon, Craig Kent and Bill Menge tabled a decision on Flock Safety during Monday's board meeting.

L’ANSE — The Baraga County Board of Commissioners has tabled the issue of Flock Safety license plate readers. At its regular meeting Monday, commissioners discussed the readers, which are cameras that track vehicles via license plate numbers, vehicle styles and colors. Flock Security then stores the data and can share information between communities that also have the Flock system.

At its May meeting, the board watched a presentation from Flock Safety which highlighted the features of the system. Commissioners showed interest in the possibility of using the cameras to track crime. Flock Safety is know for assisting in the investigation into human trafficking. The cameras have also contributed to solving Copper Country crimes such as assisting in the location of scammers who stole gold from a Hancock resident and are currently used in several U.P. communities. Though Baraga County Sheriff Joe Brogan and the board showed interest at first, further reading and feedback from the community has caused them to pause consideration for the system.

Some people with concerns spoke during the public comment period of Monday’s meeting. Residents showed concern with privacy and the storage of information. Commissioner Craig Kent showed the same concern.

“I don’t take it so much as on a county level, because I do see the good in it for the human trafficking, that type of thing,” Kent said. “But my fear is, what other governmental entity is going to have access to this down the road? You take my industry, the trucking industry, is the Federal Motor Carrier are going to step into this and start using this to track our hours of service? Who knows where this could go? That’s a concern that I have. It’s not on a local level, but it’s when it leaves Baraga County, who’s going to have their hands on that?”

While Brogan said there is not an expectation of privacy for license plates, he did bring up people who reached out concerning the storage of information the cameras take and potential Fourth Amendment violations. Brogan said he has no intention of entering into an agreement with those Amendment questions.

Brogan said if the cameras are used properly they would have the potential to do a lot of good, though if it is at the expense of traveling rights that it is something that should be erred on the side of caution. The board also decided it be best to table the issue as Flock Safety is currently facing lawsuits in Virginia and Colorado.

Commissioner James Niemela said he would trust the current county officers to utilize the tools ethically, but is concerned for those who come afterwards.

“There’s this thing where we can say we set something in place, and our people that we have now aren’t going to abuse it,” Niemela said. “And we have good people in place now that I don’t believe they would abuse it. But once the system’s in place, then people that come down the road that may be different than what we have now could use a system that’s already in place to use it in the wrong way.”

Niemela said if the board held a vote at this time, he would vote no, and if they voted at the next meeting he would still vote no to installing Flock Safety. Another factor that has made some commissioners board hesitant is the cost of maintaining the cameras once installed. The board will continue research into Flock Safety with members open to having a public hearing on the subject. The public hearing was suggested by Catherine Andrews of Baraga Township during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Brogan reported that three of the department’s five vehicles have more than 100,000 miles and the department is in need of a replacement. Chairman Brad Dakota said this issue will be discussed at a Finance Committee meeting.

A meeting including MSP Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division will take place Monday June 16 at 10 a.m. for potential applicants for funding considerations due to the flooding in May.