MORGANTOWN – Just as it has nationally, the use of automated surveillance – particularly automated license plate reader cameras – has become a point of contention in Monongalia County of late.
In November, acting on a request from Sheriff Todd Forbes, the Monongalia County Commission approved up to $180,000 in directly allocated opioid settlement money over three years to install as many as 20 Flock Safety ALPRs in various locations across the county.
While the decision went largely unchallenged for months, the last two commission meetings have included speakers asking the county to reverse its decision.
“We used to make fun of China and the UK for having mass surveillance networks. Now we’ve become just like them. I can’t think of a more terrible 250th birthday present to give to the citizens of Monongalia County than to govern in a style more and more like the nanny police states we used to strive to avoid,” Cheat Lake resident Logan Wheatcraft said during the commission’s July 8 meeting.
But Monongalia County is not the only local government entity to employ automated license plate reader cameras.
Officials with the town of Granville confirmed the town has two Motorola ALPR cameras, both of which are located in the University Towne Centre.
Morgantown Communications Director Brad Riffee said the city has one, located at the corner of High and Wall streets.
Further, the city has 49 security cameras downtown through a 2023 contract with Verkada.
The city paid $77,000 for the cameras, $7,500 for installation, and $65,000 for network support.
The security cameras do not read license plates and do not have facial recognition capabilities, according to Riffee.
“The city of Morgantown’s IT manager is responsible for managing all access, which is limited to authorized users in accordance with city policy. Video recordings are stored in encrypted cloud storage for 30 days, and data is not automatically shared with third parties,” Riffee said. “Camera footage is reviewed on an incident-specific basis and may be used to support investigations, monitor road and weather conditions, or assist law enforcement when appropriate.”
Shauna Johnson, WVU executive director of strategic communications, said the university has 1,804 security cameras dispersed across its Morgantown Campus.
Those camera feeds are funneled back to a dispatch center within the WVU Police Department headquarters, where a roughly 20×10-foot display can show as many as 64 of the 2,300-plus camera angles available at any given time.
Asked if any of the cameras have ALPR or facial recognition capabilities, Johnson said they do not.
According to Westover Police Chief Scott Carl, the city has no fixed cameras, be they LPRs or standard security cameras, and has no plans to buy any cameras in the near future.
Star City Police Chief Glen Staley said the same, but noted the dash-mounted Motorola cameras in the department’s vehicles do have a limited type of LPR capability.
“We run LPR in all of our cars. It is not like Flock. It doesn’t do AI and all of that stuff. All it does is read plates and checks it against the [National Crime Information Center] database to see if they are wanted, stolen, or on a hot list,” he said. “But currently, we don’t have any other cameras around town. Usually if we need to get video, we can go to the businesses, because practically every business in town has cameras on the outside of their buildings.”
