VBT approves license plate recognition project

Van Buren Township Public Safety Director Greg Laurain told the township board at its regular meeting via zoom on Nov. 16 that his department has been talking about license plate recognition technology for two years.
Flock Safety technology is a game-changer, he said of the company chosen to receive the $75,000 contract. He said what Flock can provide for law enforcement at reasonable cost will allow his department to solve crimes faster and to get others involved.
“We have major crimes that happen in Van Buren Township,” he said, noting the Flock package has network sharing with other departments that helps track suspects down and make arrests.
VBT Deputy Supervisor Dan Selman said at the May 18 township board meeting approval was given for license plate reading technology. The request for proposals went out in September and there were five prospective bidders. He said the lowest quote is not always the best and after considerable evaluation by the review team and in consultation with Director Laurain and Police Chief Jason Wright, Flock clearly separated itself from the pack.
Deputy Selman said reference checks on Flock found them “impeccable in their service. And it was even more than we expected.” He said it empowers the police department to be very proactive.
Selman said the township is not purchasing the equipment and there is no extra cost for installation. The program has access to other Flock cameras in other communities.
The plan is for 30 cameras at strategic locations and the cost is $2,500 per camera per year for a total of $75,000.
At an upcoming meeting, the Van Buren Township Downtown Development Authority will consider a request for reimbursement to the township for license plate recognition cameras used in the DDA District.
Ryan Elswick of Flock Safety was present to explain the project. He said there is no infrastructure and the technology works off solar panels and connects to the internet. The camera is four pounds and smaller than a football. They are flexible on installation and if there isn’t a light pole, utility pole or traffic pole to use, they can put up their own pole. On light poles and traffic poles they can be connected to the power in the pole.
Elwick said the camera records temporary plates, no plate, covered plates, bumper stickers and other items on the back of the vehicle and takes two lanes per camera. Any time a stolen car enters the township police are alerted and vehicles connected with Amber Alerts are relayed to police laptops immediately. He said there are 500 or more cameras in the Michigan area.
Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara said this is an upcropping from the Egypt Covington case three years ago where there were fuzzy pictures of vehicles. He said the township couldn’t afford cameras at the time.
Supervisor McNamara said Riverview has sealed its borders with 30 to 40 cameras and VBT will be the first in Western Wayne County to get the cameras.
“We finally found a solution that fits,” McNamara said. “… we’re not going to allow it (crime) to creep into our neighborhoods. It’s a no-brainer. With the price it’s a double no-brainer.”
Trustee Sherry Frazier said she sees the benefit, but she’s not in favor of Big Brother watching you. An invasion of privacy.
McNamara said this is not facial recognition technology.
Elswick said the cameras can’t determine race or the number of occupants in a vehicle. It is pointed at the back of the vehicle and is automatically deleted after 30 days out of the cloud. He said it can’t be used to enforce speeding or running red lights. It’s for people wanted for serious crimes only.
Trustee Reggie Miller said the township should have a policy in place when the technology gets here so it can’t be abused.
McNamara said they have a couple of months and the township has time to put a policy in place. Elswick said his company has copies of policies in place that he could share.
McNamara said the township could loan cameras to homeowners associations who are experiencing problems, but Trustee Miller said that would take away from what the township is doing. She asked if the township would have enough cameras to share.
“We have two or three extra cameras,” McNamara said.
“Then we’re looking at faces and I’m against that,” Miller said.
Trustee Don Boynton said they were talking about the outside of the vehicle and now they’re looking at a person.
“We can set it all up in our policy,” McNamara said.
Elswick said the cameras do not capture people. They produce still photos of vehicles and people are not an option.
Trustee Martin said, “Let’s let them do the vehicles and stop talking about it.”
“I’m tired of yahoos coming into our township and causing trouble,” McNamara said.
The board voted unanimously to approve the agreement with Flock Safety, with Trustee Frazier voting, “reluctantly, yes.”
The $75,000 cost of the project was approved coming out of general fund balance.
In other business at the two-hour-and-eight-minute meeting, the board:
• Approved the collective bargaining agreement with the Police Officers Labor Council for patrol and dispatch from Jan. 21, 2022 through Dec. 31, 2025. The present contract expired at the end of 2021. POLC president Adam Byrd thanked the board on the vaccination agreement and said the union as well as the board had a hard discussion and got to middle ground and came to a decision. The board had three closed-door sessions during contract negotiations;
• Approved a final settlement with Blue Country Walk LLC, T&M Asphalt Paving, SR Jacobson Development Corporation, Van Buren Township and County Walk II Condominium Association and Country Walk IV Condominium Association as described by Supervisor McNamara who said the township was “tossing in” $25,000 to settle, with Trustees Martin and Miller voting no and Trustee Boynton recusing himself because he lives in Country Walk. McNamara said there was a memo of understanding to complete the roads and some of the companies involved are not there anymore. They had to determine what roads were done and which were not done and they came to an agreement. He said basically everyone was getting sued. Trustee Martin said he was going to vote no because he’s tired of developers dragging their feet in developing and then getting others to pay. McNamara said the bond wasn’t there and they had to cut a deal with a new group and cut a deal with the homeowners’ association. Clerk Wright said he wants to get it over with, although he feels as passionately about this as Trustee Martin about developers not finishing, going away, and telling the township what they can’t do. Trustee Miller said she’d vote no because, “I don’t think we should pay one dime. Enough is enough.” She said to have them go away and get it off the books is not enough of a reason for her to vote in favor of this;
• Discussed having work/study during 2022 and agreed to scheduling them at 5 p.m. on the same Tuesday as the 6 p.m. regular meeting and cancel them if not needed. This will be presented formally to the board for a vote;
• Approved the supervisor’s reappointments of Jeff Jahr and Brian Cullin to the Planning Commission with terms to expire Oct. 1, 2024;
• Approved the supervisor’s reappointments of Ron Merritt II and Benjamin Ross to the Environmental Commission with terms to expire Oct. 1, 2024;
• Approved establishing Edgemont Elementary School, 125 S. Edgemont St., Belleville, as a polling place for precinct #8, since Haggerty School, the former polling place, is completely closing in the fall of 2022 and cutting off all utilities. Clerk Leon Wright said after the first of the year all voters will get new voter ID cards mailed to them and some may vote at new precincts. Under the law a maximum of 3,000 voters can be at one precinct and two precincts have exceeded this and so precincts are being adjusted. Also, the new state districts are being redrawn by the State Redistricting Commission;
• Approved the first reading of the rezoning of 42061 Ecorse Rd. from C-1 (general business) to M-1 (light industrial) to make way for a new electric substation for DTE;
• Approved a water tap agreement with the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority (YCUA) for 7029 Rawsonville Rd., owned by Jason and Whitney Pinter, since the VBT line is much farther away than the nearby YCUA line;
• Approved an exemption from the requirement for tapping into a sewer line for a parcel at 43801 I-94 South Service Drive because the sewer line is more than 1,100 feet from the proposed house on Belleville Lake. The request was signed by Joseph Scarrow and Melissa Kufel. Wayne County has already approved a septic field for the location;
• Approved a employment agreement with Joel Sabin as GIS technician for the Water and Sewer Department at a salary of $70,000. Sabin had resigned to work from home on another job because he thought the one-hour drive from his home in Jackson to VBT to work was too long. After working from home, he decided the drive wasn’t so bad, after all, and he wanted to come back;
• Heard Trustee Martin ask drivers to stop for school buses. He said there is a rash of people doing this and, “If you’re doing it, stop it. You’re going to run some poor kid over.” Later in the meeting he asked for turn signals at the Tyler / Belleville Road intersections because traffic is not yielding and there are lots of “near-misses.” He said near-misses are not recorded in traffic studies. McNamara said it is the second most-dangerous intersection in the township. Wright said they should tell Wayne County Commissioner Al Haidous their concerns and he can take this forward;
• Heard Wright say the last two weeks in VBT there have been 179 new COVID cases and 32 new cases in the City of Belleville. He said unvaccinated people are still giving it to vaccinated people. He said there is a public servant in the hospital right now battling COVID. He said people have to get vaccinated. Trustee Martin said Michigan is a hot-bed for COVID and he wished to repeat the words said by Wright;
• Heard McNamara announce the board of trustees gave him approval to extend leaf pickup for two weeks, until Dec. 10. Clerk Wright said the township offices will be closed Nov. 25 and 26 for Thanksgiving; and
• Heard John Delaney speak at the beginning of the meeting and the end of the meeting about the importance of work shop so constituents can “know how the sausage is being made” by listening to the discussions preceding formal votes. Delaney also quoted studies that agreed “jabs” cause positive COVID results and, he said, two million tests were recalled last month because they were giving false positive results. “I listen to the news and I haven’t heard that,” Clerk Wright said.
Closed-door session
The board held a closed-door session via zoom at 4 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 15, to discuss negotiations and strategy in the Police Officers Labor Council collective bargaining agreement. The board also discussed an attorney-client privileged communication during the closed-door session.