Bangor is fielding multiple complaints about automatic license plate reading cameras in the city, even though officials deny there are any.
The city has had numerous complaints about its alleged use of automatic license plate reading cameras and had an uptick in the last week, City Manager Carollynn Lear said during a city council workshop on Monday.
No automatic license plate readers are operated by the city, Lear said.
The controversial cameras can record and log the license plate of vehicles that drive by and alert police departments if a vehicle connected to an active investigation passes by. Flock is one of a handful of companies that make those cameras and people commonly use the name to refer to all brands of those cameras.
The complaints about possible cameras in Bangor come as more Mainers are pushing back against the technology being used in their communities over concerns that they infringe on civil rights. They appear to be driven in part by people referencing an online crowdsourced database called DeFlock, which lists nine automatic license plate reading cameras in Bangor.
A reporter for the Bangor Daily News visited all the locations of such cameras in Bangor listed on DeFlock and did not find any.
At least two listings are on private property and appear to be security cameras. Maine is one of just a few states that bans the operation of automatic license plate readers on private property.
Most of the cameras in the city are Miovision cameras, Lear said Monday. They are traffic control cameras that detect when a vehicle is approaching for efficient signal operations.
Those cameras do not take any video or store images, Lear said.
The city manager’s office first received a complaint in April, spokesperson David Warren said. A second came in July and three have been lodged in August.
“The concerns relayed to the city seem to coincide with the increased attention we’re seeing nationally on these cameras,” Warren said.
License plate reading cameras are installed in towns across the state. Police have installed at least six cameras across Hancock County, including in Bar Harbor, Bucksport and Ellsworth.
The Bangor City Council discussed passing a resolve or a similar action to show that it doesn’t support using the cameras. City staff will draft a legislative policy directive about how the city will not purchase automatic license plate reader technology.
If Bangor moves forward with banning or limiting the use of the cameras, it would join a growing bipartisan trend of municipalities and residents pushing back against the technology. A campaign in Auburn gathered more than 1,800 signatures to ban the cameras, which the city installed last year without public input, the Maine Morning Star reported.
South Portland installed Flock cameras but faced public backlash before disabling and removing them in June.
A Maine lawmaker introduced a bill to ban the cameras this spring, but it will not be taken up until the next legislative session in January.