Mankato, Minn., Police Look to Expand Video, AI Use

Read Time:5 Minute, 25 Second

(TNS) — Using new high-definition camera systems, license-plate tracking, software powered by artificial intelligence and a nationwide law enforcement surveillance network, Mankato’s Department of Public Safety is preparing to amplify its ability to monitor people and vehicles moving through the city.

“It’s definitely an aspect any city should be evaluating … to be more responsive, more effective,” said Public Safety Director Jeremy Clifton.

Before finalizing the plans, Clifton and Information Technology Director Doug Storm wanted to gauge the City Council’s comfort with the expansion and upgrades, recognizing that some residents will see the program as intrusive.

“We’re concerned about privacy and the privacy of our citizens in Mankato,” Clifton said at a work session devoted to the topic Monday night.

Council members asked numerous questions and emphasized the need to reassure residents about privacy-protection policies and procedures. But none expressed concerns about the plans that could be fully in place by later summer or fall at a cost of $130,000.

“At this price, ‘How fast can you buy them?’ is my thought,” said Council member Jessica Hatanpa.

Before delving into the upcoming strengthening of the system, Clifton and Storm provided a primer on the current program. Mankato’s surveillance regime, which began in 2005 with about 30-35 cameras installed in the downtown area, has grown to 300 in the city center and 541 citywide.

Along with the 16-fold increase in municipal fixed cameras, there are also cameras installed at Mankato Area Public Schools properties. Both sets of cameras use the Milestone software system, creating a single database with the video fields sent to the Blue Earth County Justice Center.

“So Blue Earth dispatch actually monitors our cameras 24/7,” Storm said.

Some cameras in strategic locations, such as the entrances and exits of downtown parking ramps, will be replaced with new AI-enhanced cameras under the proposed upgrades. Coupled with the latest version of Milestone software, which both the city and school district installed over the Christmas holiday break, the improvements will allow police to systematically track suspects, potential witnesses to crimes and missing persons as they move through various parts of Mankato.

Police can already do that manually, but the new AI-backed software will allow it to be done much more quickly and automatically. In fact, police will be able to input descriptors for a person of interest — “‘Give me anybody wearing a red shirt and blue jeans within that timeframe'” Clifton said, offering an example — and the system could potentially generate sequential matches from the video as the person moved around the city.

“So Public Safety would have a digital bread-crumb trail,” Storm said.

In addition to the fixed cameras, cameras are now in all police squad cars, too, and new software has been installed to allow the squad cams to automatically read license plates.

“We don’t have it turned on now,” Clifton said of the plate-readers. “… I wanted you all to be aware before we activate this technology.”

Coupled with as many as 20 sophisticated cameras to be installed in parking ramp entrances/exits and other key areas, the plate-readers would allow police officers to more easily spot vehicles associated with crimes, abductions and missing persons.

Mankato’s augmented surveillance would also involve joining the Flock Technologies nationwide law enforcement network. Flock would install cameras along roads that serve as entrances to the city, something already in place in cities elsewhere in Minnesota and beyond including Edina, Maple Grove, St. Paul, Wayzata and Omaha.

“It’s not looking at people, it’s looking at vehicles,” Clifton said, suggesting the system could be used for preventing crime, recognizing where crime is coming from and identifying missing persons.

With its unique river-town geography, Mankato has numerous entrance points and Flock Technologies is predicting that about 30-35 cameras would ultimately be needed across the city, Clifton said. He is suggesting starting with 12 key roadways, which would cost the city $25,000 to $30,000 a year under Flock’s subscription-like program.

Finally, Clifton would like the city to purchase or lease a mobile surveillance trailer. The increasingly common trailers have a telescoping arm that can hoist high-definition cameras 30 or 40 feet in the air to transmit live video to law enforcement officers. Public Safety tested a borrowed surveillance trailer for last year’s Minnesota State University homecoming and the Mankato Marathon.

The high-visibility trailers can deter crime at large community events, target an area where a crime spree such as vehicle break-ins is occurring or provide a test-run when a permanent fixed camera is being considered at a location, he said. The trailer is expected to cost about $45,000.

The broader $130,000 proposal to enhance Mankato’s surveillance system, which would be financed with funds from the city’s IT capital budget and from special one-time Public Safety Aid provided by the Legislature, could be fully implemented by the fourth quarter of this year, Clifton and Storm said.

With elected officials indicating support, a formal plan will be developed and brought to a regular council meeting in the weeks ahead.

Council member Michael McLaughlin said he would like the plan to include a draft of the privacy-protection policy that will accompany the intensified surveillance, and Council President Mike Laven said he wants the policy to be crafted with similar public input as the one created when body-worn cameras were implemented in Mankato.

“I would hope it would mirror that pretty closely,” Laven said.

McLaughlin also suggested a vigorous public information campaign that includes the assurances that Clifton provided to the council about privacy protections to be put in place. Those include independent audits of how the technology is being used, descriptions of the ramifications if city employees misuse the video or other data, and an explanation of when search warrants will be required to use the systems to gather evidence against an individual suspect.

Because, McLaughlin predicted, there will be concerns expressed when people learn of the plans: “That’s the stuff that’s going to show up right away, the Big Brother aspect.”