Parking garages across Iowa City will start using automated license plate cameras after the Iowa City City Council changed a rule that had banned the technology. The change has raised privacy concerns for some but praise from others for the cameras’ ability to improve city parking.

Three parking garages in Iowa City — Chauncey Swan, Harrison Street and Capitol Street — have automated license plate readers that were installed in January 2024, Iowa City City Manager Geoff Fruin said.

The cameras in the three ramps cost $114,469 and were never activated because of a city ordinance passed in 2013, Fruin said.

In 2013, red light and speed cameras were popularized across the country, and Iowa City residents moved to petition against implementing that technology. The council approved a ban on automated license plate recognition devices.

The cameras in the parking garages today cannot issue traffic tickets, and they are not operated by law enforcement, Fruin said. However, the ordinance from 2013 technically prohibited these cameras because they use automated recognition technology.

“We should have, at the time of purchase, updated this ordinance,” Fruin said. “Now we’re circling back to that when we’re ready to activate the cameras.”

On Aug. 20, the city council passed an amendment to the ordinance in a split 4-3 vote clarifying that some automated cameras, including the ones in the parking garages, are exempt from the rule. Red light and speed cameras are still prohibited.

Fruin said they will activate the parking garage cameras within a week of the amendment’s passing.

What are the benefits?

Mark Rummel, associate director of transportation services, spoke to the city council on Aug. 6 and said the cameras will allow traffic to move faster in the parking garages, particularly in those that are gated. Of the three garages, the Capitol Street parking ramp is the only one that uses a gate.

He said there are other benefits, such as if someone loses their parking ticket, they will not be charged the $20 lost ticket fee because the cameras can track how long the car was in the garage. The cameras can also associate license plates with registered permits.

“We are really just trying to provide as much parking as we can for everyone in need,” Rummel said to the council. “This data really helps us with that.”

Rummel told the council the cameras will save the department between one and two hours a day in labor. Additionally, the cameras will help parking enforcement — something that has grown more expensive this year.

As of July 1, rates in Iowa City parking ramps increased from $1 to $2. Fines for expired parking meters have also increased. The rates to park in traffic garages have remained consistent.

According to the city’s website, the increased rates are intended to help cover more than $10 million worth of projects for the city’s parking ramps.

What are the concerns?

Iowa City City Councilors Laura Bergus, Andrew Dunn, and Mazahir Salih opposed the amendment and expressed concern at previous city council meetings that the amendment was too broad and could open avenues for misuse.

Bergus said at the Aug. 6 meeting that she wants more specific language to allow the use of the cameras but not exempt the entire transportation engineering department.

“I think we can be very narrow for that exemption so that the prohibition doesn’t apply to those particular uses rather than the entirety of a department,” Bergus said.

Two weeks later at the Aug. 20 meeting, Dunn proposed to reword the amendment so not every camera the traffic department uses is exempt from prohibition.

Dunn’s proposal to reword the amendment was passed unanimously. However, Dunn, Bergus, and Salih still voted against the amendment as a whole.

Can police use the cameras?

Now that the amendment is passed, it is clarified in city code that Iowa City police can pull video from the cameras to aid in specific investigations, but the police already did this before the amendment.

At the Aug. 6 city council meeting, Fruin said the department has used camera footage to help aid investigations for years.

“We are recognizing that for the past 10 or more years — probably more than 10 years — police have used the traffic cameras for investigative purposes,” Fruin said to the council.

Eric Goers, Iowa City’s city attorney, told the council that the language from the 2013 ordinance was vague and did not explicitly state whether police could or could not pull footage from the cameras.

Now, the new amendment clarifies the vague language so that police can pull footage. Police are still prohibited from using data obtained from the automated cameras, and they need specific reasons, like a criminal investigation, to use the footage.

While police cannot pull data nor operate the cameras, there is an ongoing discussion among the city council about implementing automated license plate cameras for law enforcement. These types of cameras are primarily distributed by the company Flock Safety.

According to the company’s website, Flock cameras can track the license plates of cars, identify features of a vehicle, determine if a warrant is associated with a car, and issue a notification to dispatchers to deploy a police unit. They can also detect cars that match an Amber or Silver Alert.

The Flock cameras cannot capture images of individual people, issue ticket violations and, according to Flock, they delete data collected after 30 days.

RELATED: IC City Council splits vote on license plate recognition ordinance

Dustin Liston, the Iowa City Police Department police chief, said in the last city budget, the department requested $40,000 for Flock cameras, which was denied pending further city discussion.

“I think they’re very valuable for public safety, but that is a conversation that needs to be had with elected officials and with the community, so everyone knows what we’re talking about and what they’re going to be used for,” Liston said.

These cameras are currently on a list of pending work session topics for the city council to discuss.

The North Liberty City Council unanimously approved the installation of 12 Flock cameras with money for their annual budget. Nick Bergus, North Liberty’s community relations director, said the cameras cost $40,000 with an additional $35,000 each year that goes to Flock. The cameras were installed in early August.

Bergus said the cameras were placed in areas where people enter North Liberty to improve public safety.

He said the cameras are not activated yet, and they won’t be until specific guidelines are established for utilizing the cameras. Bergus said the police are currently drafting a policy for the cameras’ use that will need approval before they start receiving alerts.

In 2023, the University of Iowa installed its own Flock cameras. According to the UI Campus Safety’s website, 28 cameras are currently installed across campus.

According to Flock Safety, the cameras have assisted university police in solving violent crime, including assault. The company claims to have cameras in over 5,000 cities with hundreds of crimes solved with the help of the technology.