The Rock Island Police Department’s emergency dispatch center is temporarily hiring outside help as it rebuilds to full-time dispatcher capacity.
During Monday night’s city council meeting, the council unanimously approved a contract with Moetivations for PRN dispatcher services totaling $174,898.51. The funding is coming from the department’s budget, as multiple positions remain unfilled.
Third Ward Alderwoman Linda Barnes shared her experience touring the center before casting her vote.
“I think we did a quick walkthrough through the Rock Island 911,” Ald. Barnes said. “So [I] just got an opportunity to see everyone in action at both facilities. And I know this is a short-term solution and that you are looking at long-term solutions also to resolve this issue.”
Currently, the center employs eight full-time dispatchers, which is down from the desired total capacity of 12. There are two positions undergoing hiring, which will take four to five months before they can officially start. The six-month agreement will include two full-time dispatchers and will start this week.
Fresh Films soundstage development variance
The council also approved a variance to Fresh Films as it builds its soundstage development in the city’s downtown.
The film production nonprofit asked to suspend building setbacks and removal of the associate bufferyard as well as no windows on the ground-floor of the street-facing facades; and to eliminate parking lot landscape islands at 2016 and 2001 5th Avenue.
Community and Economic Development Director Miles Brainard responded to questions on how the variance will impact residents who live behind the development.
“We will still apply some of the lighting standards so that they don't have any bright lights shining into their yards,” Brainard said. “Beyond that, though, it should be more or less a blank wall, so there shouldn't be any significant impact.”
According to city documents, the 34,848-square-foot sound stage will be divided into two. They are designed to accommodate film production sets, lighting and sound equipment, as well as other production-related activities. Once the $12-million development is funded, they will break ground and take a year for construction.
Downtown business expansion project receiving TIF dollars
The council is one step closer to finalizing approval of a development agreement for a downtown business expansion.
The council unanimously approved a first reading to reimburse Restco LLC, which operates A and A Muffler and Lube in the 600 block of 17th Street, up to $90,000.
The owner, Steve Simmons, bought four adjacent properties to expand his business, including plans for a motorcycle repair and detail shop. The expansion will create four jobs. The total project cost is estimated at over $438,280. The tax increment financing funding comes from the general downtown TIF balance, which will contribute $40,000 toward the project, with the remaining $50,000 paid out over five years once property taxes have been paid into the TIF.
The second reading will come back at the council’s next meeting, October 12th.
Thousands of access inquiries in police department’s Flock Safety automatic license plate reader camera system
Get the Flock Out Quad Cities website manager and Moline resident David Stoner spoke during public comment at the city council meeting. He noted that his previous inquiry obtaining numbers of the police department’s use of ALPRs was shared by Fifth Ward Alderman Dylan Parker.
“They show in one month, 404 police agencies searched through Rock Island's cameras, and they ran 136,134 searches, while Rock Island's own officers ran 427. That means for every search Rock Island officers ran, outside agencies ran 319,” Stoner said. “If someone reviewed each of those outside searches for just 30 seconds around the clock with no breaks, it would take them 47 days. 47 days to review 31 days of searches. The math doesn't add up. Nobody can meaningfully review those searches. And we keep seeing the consequences.”
Stoner related recent allegations of misuse by a Whiteside Sheriff's Office deputy and other cases from Creve Coeur Police Department and the Naperville Police Department. He asked the council to end the city’s contract and not renew with a similar vendor.
The Moline Police Department announced mid-September it was pausing its ALPR contract with Flock Safety as the department addresses privacy concerns. The Henry County Sheriff’s Office released a statement late August that they will be ending their contract with Flock Safety and removing the cameras over public opposition.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism on September 23, held a hearing on the use of ALPRs.
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is on the committee and he questioned Arizona police Sheriff Ross Teeple of Pinal County about his decision to terminate the county’s contract with Flock Safety.
“I think it's remarkable that Chairman Hawley got them to admit that they now can track a person, because what I received from a Flock representative was I was told our cameras don't take a high enough resolution picture to be able to recognize a person,” Teeple said. “And when they told me that, I'm looking at Flock camera pictures where I could recognize the person on the camera.”
The subcommittee also heard from an ACLU lawyer, legislative counsel for the Institute for Justice, and a Florida woman who was jailed for 13 days when the ALPR misidentified her car with one connected to a vehicle homicide investigation.
Last year, the CEO of Flock Safety, Garrett Langley, made remarks that the national group DeFlock is a “terroristic organization” in an interview with Forbes. He has since apologized for those remarks and says there needs to be a compromise between public safety and privacy in an interview with Fox News in August. Since then, Americans online have been posting his personal residence address in Atlanta causing Google to blur his home [Newsweek]. One user on X, formerly Twitter, posted “compromise apparently doesn’t apply to him.”
According to Get The Flock Out Quad Cities’ website there are 60 ALPR cameras in use between the five cities.
This story was produced by WVIK, Quad Cities NPR. We rely on financial support from our listeners and readers to provide coverage of the issues that matter to the Quad Cities region and beyond. As someone who values the content created by WVIK's news department, please consider making a financial contribution to support our work.
