Earlier this year, a few weeks before Memorial Day, Rehoboth Beach implemented the use of license plate readers with artificial intelligence to identify vehicles based on make, model, color and other details. Following the continued persistence of local residents with decades of experience in cybersecurity, the city has implemented a transparency report that provides the public with more information about what data the city is collecting.
The Cape Gazette first reported that Rehoboth was using AI-powered license plate reading technology at the end of May after noticing the installation of unconspicuous and unclear cameras at the city entrance.
Almost immediately, Lewis resident Phil Hagen expressed concern about how it would use the data it collected.
“The ethics of using this technology in general is a subject of debate, and I think there is certainly a reasonable implementation, configuration and use of the service and its functionality,” Hagen said in an open email to city officials. “However, free access to such data from towns that rely on tourism for most of their economic success represents a major risk for residents and visitors.”
Hagen continues to exchange emails with city officials.
In a mid-July response, mayor Taylour Tedder said he was using several transparency portals to other information in the city from the past to provide the highest possible level of public information.
“I'll look into it personally and see what we can do,” Tedder said in an email to Hagen on July 17th. “It appeals to me, but cities need to look into costs.”
After some time, Hagen researched the subject himself and reported to the city that the transparency report is a free optional feature that can be enabled by Flock's law enforcement clients.
“All accounts hope this is that there is no reason to oppose enabling this feature, given the possibility of widely observed and demonstrated abuse of services in all Flock's law enforcement clients.” “We are confident that the public will welcome clarity regarding the privacy configuration of the implementation of RBPD.”
Hagen's tenacity paid off.
When contacted about why the city hasn't made the transparency reporting option possible, city communications assistant Erin Kolcolan said the police department is in the process of obtaining reports from the herd and is waiting for a reply. Once the report is prepared and sent, it will be published on the city's website, she said in an email on August 20th.
The report's online web portal was released soon and last updated on Sunday, August 24th. The portal provides details about license plates, vehicles, and undetected items (facial recognition, people, gender, race). According to the portal, all data is owned by the Rehoboth Beach Police Department and will not be sold or shared with third parties. Immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement and use based on protected classes are one of the prohibited uses listed in the data. According to the portal, the data is connected to alerts from the National Crime Information Center and Amber Alerts.
Data will be retained for 30 days. There were 215,611 unique vehicles detected in the last 30 days, generating 126 hits from the city's connected alert system.
Mayor Stanmills supported additional transparency.
“City officials and I, together with our employees, are a strong support for transparency,” Mills said. “We stand behind the police chief's decision to utilize a transparency portal that strengthens the department's continued commitment to both public safety and civil liberty protection.”
Even with reports clearly coming soon, the camera remains unidentified and does not appear to be changing anytime soon.
The police department has declined to comment on the choice not to place a sign on the pole on camera, Corcoran said.
