With Bierman donation, Sheriff’s Office to implement new roadway camera system

LINCOLN COUNTY – A donation from the Bierman Family Foundation will allow the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office to implement a new camera system on county roadways.

During its meeting at the Lincoln County Service Center in Merrill on Tuesday, Oct. 21, the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution accepting a donation from the Bierman Family Foundation to implement Flock License Plate Readers (LPRs).

The $183,900.00 donation from the Foundation will cover the implementation of the camera system, as well as associated subscription fees for a ten-year period.

According to Flock’s website, the company’s LPRs are cameras that use machine learning to analyze captured footage to identify details about vehicles, including a vehicle’s license plate number and plate state, as well as a vehicle’s make, body type, color and other identifiers.

During discussion prior to the vote on the resolution, Lincoln County Sheriff Ken Schneider said the Sheriff’s Office participated in a six-month trial use of the Flock LPR system. He explained that six small, solar-powered cameras were set up on county roadways. The cameras are able identify and flag vehicles that are part of ongoing investigations, such as missing persons, Silver Alerts for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia and Amber Alerts for missing children.

The system flags sought vehicles and notifies law enforcement.

During the trial period, according to the resolution drafted by Chief Deputy Tyler Iverson, the Sheriff’s Office was able to “locate and resolve four missing persons complaints, identify and locate three persons associated with theft complaints, (assist) in the investigation of two homicide/attempted homicide cases and identify and locate a person who engaged in a high-speed pursuit with one of our deputies, allowing our deputy to terminate a pursuit early, therefore minimizing the risk to our deputy and the community.”

Flock LPR systems have been deployed nationwide and are currently being utilized in many counties and municipalities throughout Wisconsin, including several in the Lincoln County area, the resolution said.

Schneider said the camera systems work together, explaining that if law enforcement in one county is searching for a vehicle, and that vehicle is later captured on a camera in another county, law enforcement in the county that is searching for the vehicle will be notified.

Prior to the vote, several Supervisors voiced concerns regarding privacy, potential legal challenges to information collected by the system and data storage.

The resolution was ultimately passed with a 16-3 voice vote.

Voting in favor were District 1 Supervisor William Bialecki, District 5 Supervisor Andrew Zelinski, District 6 Supervisor Norbert Ashbeck, District 7 Supervisor Donald Dunphy, District 8 Supervisor Laurie Thiel, District 9 Supervisor Christine Vorpagel, District 10 Supervisor and Board Chair Jesse Boyd, District 14 Supervisor Marguerite Lyskawa, District 15 Supervisor Marty Lemke, District 16 Supervisor Dana Miller, District 17 Supervisor James Meunier, District 18 Supervisor Ken Wickham, District 19 Supervisor Joseph Dorava, District 20 Supervisor Angela Cummings, District 21 Supervisor Eugene Simon and District 22 Supervisor Greg Hartwig.

Voting against were District 3 Supervisor Elizabeth McCrank, District 11 Supervisor Randy Detert and District 12 Supervisor and Board Vice-Chair Julie DePasse.