MISSOULA — A plan to upgrade security cameras at four park facilities in Missoula was put on hold after a long City Council debate about privacy, data security and the technology tied to the system.
What began as a request to replace aging cameras at park facilities became one of the most debated items at the Monday night City Council meeting. The discussion centered less on cameras themselves and more on what new technology those cameras could use and what rules would govern it.
The proposal covered Fort Missoula Regional Park, Splash Montana, the Currents Aquatic Center and Mobash Skate Park. City staff said the upgrade was meant to help investigate vandalism, theft and other incidents.
Some people at the meeting said they wanted more public involvement before the city moved ahead. Council members asked questions for hours and the council heard nearly two dozen public comments before taking action.
One council member pressed for public-facing safeguards.
“Are we giving thought to creating a system where you know, there is citizen oversight or some sort of accountability and transparency measure in place at a citizen level that can interface with government?” Councilor Bob Campbell said.
“Otherwise we’re left with you know, ‘we’re not going to use facial rec, we’re not going to use license plate readers, trust us’ so I think we need.. It’s like, where's the beef in that going forward to ensure that we could have a system in place that the public could feel confident that you know there is oversight and accountability?” he said.
A public commenter said the concern was not about cameras in general but about this specific deal.
“I’m not here to argue against security cameras, I'm here because this specific contract with this company through this vendor is the wrong choice for Missoula,” Nathan Stephens said.
The Parks and Recreation director pushed back on fears raised in the community.
“We’ve heard concerns on social media about our community about mass surveillance and AI technology, want to be clear, this proposal is not that,” Marina Yoshioka said.
In the end, council voted to send the proposal back to committee for more review instead of approving it Monday night.
The upgrades stayed on hold while city staff worked on additional policies covering privacy, data management and oversight. City officials said cameras already existed at several of the facilities and that this proposal focused on upgrading and expanding parts of the current system by installing AI features into the cameras’ software.
Council members said clearer rules on data storage, privacy protections and the use of any AI-related features appeared to be the biggest hurdle before the issue returned to City Council.