The Vigo Ledger

Transcript — Terre Haute City Council, 2026-06-11

Machine transcription of the recording of the Terre Haute City Council meeting on 2026-06-11, aligned to the video timeline. This is not the official record — the clerk's minutes are, and this is unreviewed automatic speech recognition that mis-hears names and numbers. Check anything that matters against the recording.

Each line is stamped with its position in the recording, both as a clock time and as [t=SECONDS]. Those are the same seconds the archive's source links use: open the recording and add &t=<seconds> to jump to any line.

Transcript

  • 0:00:00 [t=0] Speaker 6: Councilperson Zhul Sake,cember 7, 2020. The first item on the agenda is a moment of silence and pledge allegiance to the flag. This evening, the pledge will be led by Councilperson Cheryl Loudermilk. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you
  • 0:00:30 [t=30] Speaker 6: indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
  • 0:00:42 [t=42] Speaker 8: Chair, will you please call the roll?
  • 0:00:46 [t=46] Speaker 10: Councilperson Azar. Present. Councilperson Boland. Present. Councilperson Chalos. Here. Councilperson DeMond. Here. Councilperson Dingle. Present. Councilperson Hinton. Present. Councilperson Loudermilk. Present. Councilperson Nation. Councilperson Thompson. Here. Eight are present. One is absent.
  • 0:01:04 [t=64] Speaker 0: Thank you. At this time, we reserve up to 30 minutes of public comment on items not on the agenda. Tonight, we have nobody on the sign-up sheet, but is there anyone from the public who would like to comment on a non-agenda item? At this time, we'll close public comment. Next, we have a presentation from Mayor Sackler.
  • 0:01:24 [t=84] Speaker 17: Good evening, Council President, members of the Terre Haute City Council.
  • 0:01:31 [t=91] Speaker 18: Before we transition over to the public safety team, I wanted to quickly offer some of the mayoral updates. So it's that storm season that's really starting to hit Terre Haute and, frankly, the Wabash Valley. Please do continue to communicate any intersections or crossings that are struggling with inlet cleanings. I know Ed Stewart and wastewater has been aggressive, but when you have like 7,000 inlets and two Vector trucks, the map doesn't quite map. So we did make some structural changes to the 25th and Locust stormwater station. We added more pumps there.
  • 0:02:06 [t=126] Speaker 18: It's been needed for a few years now. We went in and did an inspection after we found a man in a kayak on the 25th Street River. So we noticed that, and we decided to go in and do an inspection because if someone's kayaking in the streets, we probably have a little bit of a problem. The second thing, there's a flyer on all of your desks for the Neighborhood Investment Fund grant program. Please do communicate that to your districts. It has been shared online. We're looking forward to that grant program. No, Councilman Chalos, if you call me five times, it does not help the application itself,
  • 0:02:40 [t=160] Speaker 18: but that might be a way to try in the future for something else.
  • 0:02:44 [t=164] Speaker 19: Say it and I have a chance.
  • 0:02:46 [t=166] Speaker 18: Oh, my God. But other than that, I did want to invite up Chief Barrett. So as you all know, the city, the county has had flock cameras for several years now. The city did apply for some federal funding focused around schools and main intersections in and along the exits to and from Interstate 70 as well as 41. we did receive that federal funding, which allowed us to modernize the technology of the Tarot Police Department, which really is a fancy way of saying we are finally getting on the same page that the Sheriff Department, the state police, and a number of agencies were already doing,
  • 0:03:23 [t=203] Speaker 18: and that's integrating camera technology to our public right-of-ways and our public streets. So next I'll have Chief Barrett come up here and discuss the program. We do have some members of the FLOC team here, as well as a former city council member for the city of Cleveland,
  • 0:03:37 [t=217] Speaker 17: to talk about the program, the technology, some of the pros, and answer any of the questions you may have as a council. With that, I'll transition to Chief Barrett.
  • 0:03:49 [t=229] Speaker 21: Thank you, Mayor. Kevin Barrett, Chief of Police. Good evening, everybody. So I prepared a statement to make sure I highlight the factors that affect us in our community. I want to make sure I don't miss anything before we turn it over to Flock. So under Mayor Sackman's administration, modernizing the police department's use of technology has been a key priority for us. With the support of the city council, we have made significant progress towards that goal over the past two and a half years.
  • 0:04:16 [t=256] Speaker 21: Flock safety is one of the examples that we are leveraging in technology to enhance public safety, support our officers, and improve investigative capabilities. Flock safety is widely utilized by law enforcement agencies across the country. Today, more than 6,000 agencies nationwide and over 300 agencies throughout the state of Indiana use flock. Closer to home, as the mayor mentioned, the Bob County Sheriff's Department has utilized flocks since 2022, and they currently operate 19 cameras throughout the county.
  • 0:04:48 [t=288] Speaker 21: Our use of flock reflects a growing trend among law enforcement agencies that are using technology to solve crimes and to improve overall public safety. Since 24, Terra Police Department has deployed 30 fly cameras throughout the city as a part of our public safety and crime reduction efforts. When we implemented this technology, we had two primary objectives. Establishing coverage at key access points into and out of the city and enhancing safety around our schools.
  • 0:05:16 [t=316] Speaker 21: As the program evolves, we are strategically expanding coverage around city parks, neighborhood business districts, and other locations where children and families gather. These additional placements provide another layer of safety while helping officers and investigators respond more effectively to incidents as they occur. Flock cameras are not used for traffic enforcement, issuing citations, or monitoring individuals.
  • 0:05:42 [t=342] Speaker 21: Their purpose is to provide officers and investigators with vehicle information, such as license plate numbers, vehicle descriptions, travel patterns, that will help us locate missing and or endangered persons and identify criminal suspects and behavior. The system enhances our investigative capabilities by helping investigators develop leads more quickly and efficiently. Now, transparency and accountability are essential components of this program. Our policies governing the use of PLOC cameras are publicly available through our transparency portal on the Terrup Police Department website.
  • 0:06:17 [t=377] Speaker 21: Data is automatically purged after 30 days unless it is preserved as part of a criminal investigation. Access to PLOC data is restricted and subject to review and oversight, and it is used only for legitimate law enforcement purposes in accordance with departmental policy and applicable laws. Again, every search conducted within the system is logged and subject to review, ensuring accountability and oversight regarding its use.
  • 0:06:43 [t=403] Speaker 21: Over the past few years, FLOC has become an important investigative tool, helping officers solve crimes, recover stolen vehicles, locate wanted individuals, find endangered persons, and generate critical leads that may not otherwise be available. Simply put, Flock technology helps us solve crimes faster, improve public and officer safety, and provide valuable investigative information while maintaining accountability, transparency, and respectful individual privacy.
  • 0:07:13 [t=433] Speaker 21: So I want to thank you for your continued support of the Terrell Police Department and our efforts to responsibly utilize technology to better serve our community and increase officer safety. So that was just a quick statement that I prepared because I wanted to touch on certain points that I felt that were important for you guys to hear from us as a department. And at this time, I'm going to invite our flock partners up to go through their presentation on what the software, the hardware actually do for us as a community.
  • 0:07:44 [t=464] Speaker 21: And after that, we'll have Lieutenant Sears step up, our public information officer, and talk about or speak about some success stories. And I think the mayor will close us out and we'll go for questions on that point. Thank you.
  • 0:07:58 [t=478] Speaker 30: Thank you very much, Chief. And to the city council, thank you so much for having us here today. My name is Kerry McCormick, and I'm on the public affairs team at FLOC. As the mayor noted, prior to my time at FLOC, I served 10 years as a member of Cleveland City Council as a ward councilman. So very much familiar with the work that you do, appreciate the public service that you do, and understand that you make hard decisions and you need good information in order to make those decisions. So we really appreciate the ability to be here with us today.
  • 0:08:27 [t=507] Speaker 30: But before I jump into the presentation, and it will be brief, I promise you, I want my colleague here who is the point of contact locally here to just say hello as well.
  • 0:08:37 [t=517] Speaker 32: Thank you, Kerry. Thank you, Council. My name is Andrew Blanchett. I have been the territory manager managing all of Indiana for the past three years, So I've had the opportunity to work with almost every police department, sheriff's office, city and county across the state, helping increase public safety. So I'm always available to answer questions as is Carrie. So thank you.
  • 0:08:59 [t=539] Speaker 35: Thank you so much. And I got the clicker.
  • 0:09:01 [t=541] Speaker 36: Thank you, Claire, by the way, for your help here.
  • 0:09:04 [t=544] Speaker 30: Again, I appreciate the time this evening, as well as the mayor and the chief for having us here today. So just to give you a quick snapshot of who we are. So Flock Safety, we are an American company. We were founded in Atlanta, Georgia, where we are still headquartered until today. We operate in about 49 states across the country, and so we've got folks that work for us that are across all 49 of those states. Myself, don't throw things at me, please. I am a resident of Ohio, but we've got folks that are across the country.
  • 0:09:39 [t=579] Speaker 30: We work with approximately 6,000 law enforcement agencies from very small towns to big cities, county sheriffs, state police, things of that nature. And we're proud to be a tool and a component to allow those officers, those law enforcement officers to keep our neighborhoods safe, which of course leads to happier residents and thriving communities. So just a couple numbers to snapshot of who we are. Again, overall, we've got about 12,000 total customers. Again, about 6,000 of those are law enforcement. We also have private customers and businesses,
  • 0:10:16 [t=616] Speaker 30: which we'll talk a little bit more in about a minute, how they differ from our law enforcement customers. But again, with those 6,000 agencies across the country, we're part of about 10% of solving crimes across the country every single day. So we're proud of that. We see ourselves as a collaborative technology So we do not replace police officers But we are a tool in their tool belt To allow them to do their jobs more efficiently Accurately and effectively Which is a critical component in law enforcement today So today I'm going to highlight One of our most popular tools
  • 0:10:55 [t=655] Speaker 30: That are out there in the community And deployed here locally as well That are called license plate readers and I'll give you the quick snapshot of what they are and how they operate. So a license plate reader is a fixed camera that is in the public right-of-way focused on a public road. The camera itself takes the photo of a back of a vehicle, so capturing the back of the vehicle and the license plate.
  • 0:11:21 [t=681] Speaker 40: So if you could picture it, if you were standing on the side of the road with your iPhone and you took a picture of the back of a vehicle, that is what the license plate readers capture. And the reason why they're important is because they provide precise information to your police department only on vehicles associated with crime or missing people. And so they operate in essentially two different ways. There's a proactive alert and there's a retroactive search.
  • 0:11:48 [t=708] Speaker 30: So on your screen here, you'll see an example of what a proactive alert looks like.
  • 0:11:53 [t=713] Speaker 40: So what a proactive alert is, is if there is a license plate already in the system because it is tied to a crime or a missing person. So let's say an Amber Alert goes out, for example, when a child is abducted and the vehicle associated with that abduction is uploaded into the system. or a silver alert, which is another common instance, and that is going to be a senior citizen that may have cognitive issues, goes missing, family members call law enforcement, that description of the vehicle license plate is uploaded into the system,
  • 0:12:29 [t=749] Speaker 30: and then, of course, crime. So when crimes happen, you may have a local camera or a witness who gets the vehicle information as a part of a police report,
  • 0:12:40 [t=760] Speaker 40: police upload that into the system. If that's already in the system because it's connected to a crime or missing person, and that vehicle drives by one of the cameras, it's going to send an alert that looks like that to your police department that says, hey, the camera at 1st and Main Street of that child that's missing, the vehicle that was associated with that missing child, or the vehicle associated with that homicide or robbery just passed one of the cameras at 1st and Main Street.
  • 0:13:08 [t=788] Speaker 40: With under 60 seconds, that alert is going directly to the officer's phones as well as to your police stations. So what that does is that it allows your police to respond immediately to the one specific vehicle that is associated with that incident, knowing exactly where it is. And so your officers can get to the scene. What we always emphasize through the training models and best practices is that when your officers arrive at that scene and they locate that vehicle, they use their human abilities to double check.
  • 0:13:42 [t=822] Speaker 30: Yep, that's that blue Chevy ABC123 that we're looking for, initiate the traffic stop.
  • 0:13:49 [t=829] Speaker 40: After that, they would initiate that traffic stop as they would with or without our technology. So the technology really hones down to the specific vehicle associated with that crime or missing person, allowing your officers to save resources and time specifically related to those vehicles. The other way it's used is a retroactive search of the system over a 30-day period. So let's say a week or two goes by and we have new information about that missing child or that crime that's committed and information comes out with vehicle information on that incident,
  • 0:14:26 [t=866] Speaker 40: but it's two weeks later after the fact. Your officers can go into the system and say, okay, we now know that the blue Chevy, Indiana ABC123, is connected to that crime or missing person. Did that specific vehicle pass any of our cameras? So they can run that search on the system. A couple important things to know on that. So yes, it's going to give a result back to say, yup, that vehicle did drive by this camera at this time. While your officers are searching in that database, they have to do several really important things. The first thing is they all have unique ID logins.
  • 0:15:06 [t=906] Speaker 40: So they're going to log into the system so that they know that it's Officer Carey that is searching that system. The officer then has to, from a mandatory drop-down menu,
  • 0:15:17 [t=917] Speaker 30: select a specific crime or missing person related reason why they are searching that system. And all of that information is logged into perpetuity.
  • 0:15:31 [t=931] Speaker 40: So your chief, your community will know exactly how your system is being used and by whom. So while the photos themselves are deleted after 30 days, the record of how the system has been used stays into perpetuity. The 30-day mark that we'll talk about tonight is really a best practice that balances privacy and public safety. So it says, hey, this 30-day mark is enough time for your officers to be able to find this information useful, to be able to look back. But it also puts a finite period so that that data doesn't exist forever.
  • 0:16:10 [t=970] Speaker 40: So that 30-day is kind of a happy medium between privacy and public safety. So alerts on vehicles that are already in the system, retroactive search with privacy safeguards in place for vehicles over the last 30 days. Importantly, sometimes we'll get a question, hey, what if they get information on day 31?
  • 0:16:31 [t=991] Speaker 30: The answer is that that data is hard deleted and inaccessible, so they won't be able to retrieve that. The exception here is if they are investigating something and they get a photo, they can download it to a local server to preserve it as a part of that investigation.
  • 0:16:48 [t=1008] Speaker 40: Again, that action also logged into the activity log to be able to see what has happened. This just gives you kind of a snapshot of what the cameras capture. So they're going to capture the back of the vehicle and the plate itself. So again, if you were taking that picture with your iPhone, you're going to get vehicle make, body type, color, is there a bike rack on it, things of that nature.
  • 0:17:12 [t=1032] Speaker 30: And it's also going to catch the license plate. The reason that the other components are important as a part of this is because sometimes, whether it's a criminal fleeing or otherwise, people will switch license plates, they'll take the plate off.
  • 0:17:25 [t=1045] Speaker 40: or, and this is common with hit and runs unfortunately,
  • 0:17:30 [t=1050] Speaker 30: someone will say it was a blue Chevy and it was ABC but I couldn't read the other three or four numbers. This allows your officers to go in and to search those characteristics to identify potential vehicles. What it does not capture critically are anything beyond that. So it does not capture anything that is personally identifiable. no facial recognition, does not know who's in the car, does not know anything about the inhabitants of the car,
  • 0:17:59 [t=1079] Speaker 40: and the cameras are not connected to the DMV. So it does not pull the information off that license plate. Officers have to utilize their existing systems to pull that license plate information.
  • 0:18:14 [t=1094] Speaker 30: This is just a slide to say it works well at night. We know that whether it's a missing person or someone that's committed a crime,
  • 0:18:21 [t=1101] Speaker 40: They don't always travel during the day, so the cameras have night vision capability to run those capabilities at night. So the tool can be extremely helpful in pinpointing specific vehicles related to crime and missing people, but we, of course, as Americans, all also value our privacy tremendously in this country, which is why Flock prioritizes privacy within its tools. All of these elements are standard. It's not an a la carte. These are built into the technology from the very beginning.
  • 0:18:56 [t=1136] Speaker 40: So the first component here, and this is contractually binding, is that 100% of the data, so when I say data, this is the product of the camera. So it's the picture, time stamp, geolocation, where's that camera. Those photos are 100% owned by our customers and are never sold. So you may think of a social media site or someone that collects information on your shopping habits and sells that information. That does not happen within our system. It's not sold and it's 100% owned by our customers.
  • 0:19:31 [t=1171] Speaker 30: Those private customers, so we'd be thinking about retail stores, mom and pop shops, malls, things of that nature, have no access to government and law enforcement databases.
  • 0:19:44 [t=1184] Speaker 40: So just because they're our customer, they have no access to local, state, or federal AMRA alerts, crime databases. Only sworn law enforcement officers do.
  • 0:19:58 [t=1198] Speaker 30: So while the private customers can give the police information, they do not have any access to those law enforcement databases. As we discussed a little bit earlier, that that data is deleted after 30 days. Exception here is certain states require more or less
  • 0:20:15 [t=1215] Speaker 40: And of course we and our customers comply with that state law But for states that do not, Indiana, Ohio, many others The 30 days is a best practice As we discussed also, the LPR data collects public information So the state issued license plate on a public right of way And does not collect any personal information and does not utilize facial recognition. One of the great benefits of the system is that you can use the system
  • 0:20:46 [t=1246] Speaker 30: to collaborate with law enforcement around you. So we know that whether it's a missing person or crime, they don't just slam the brakes on when they hit your community's border. And so the great thing is that your local law enforcement can share information as they would with or without our technology. Law enforcement collaborates all the time. but importantly those decisions are made by your local law enforcement. So they'll make the decisions, yep, we want to share with these folks or we don't want to share with them or here's a radius of who we want to share with.
  • 0:21:20 [t=1280] Speaker 30: So those are in their control. Cybersecurity is also extremely important. It's an extremely important component for our company and quite frankly for everyone nowadays. And so I'll just touch on a couple components of cybersecurity for our company. First and foremost, because we are dealing with law enforcement information,
  • 0:21:43 [t=1303] Speaker 40: we are required to be FBI CJIS certified, as well as certified by the National Defense Authorization Act. So those are certifications that are not only good to have, we are required to have them given the information that is integrated into our system. But in addition to that, we also work on various third-party independent audits. So in front of you, our SOC 2 and ISO audits, those are internationally recognized independent audits of our system and stress tests for our cybersecurity. We run those on an annual basis to ensure that if there are any vulnerabilities
  • 0:22:21 [t=1341] Speaker 40: within our system, they are identified and corrected. In addition, we also brought on Bishop Fox, which again is a leader in cybersecurity. And their job as an independent firm is to constantly try to stress test our systems to identify any vulnerabilities. When those vulnerabilities are identified, we alert our customers and publish them on our website.
  • 0:22:44 [t=1364] Speaker 30: I always tell folks, you ever get someone here from a technology company that says we're perfect and there's never going to be an issue, do not buy their product because they're lying to you.
  • 0:22:52 [t=1372] Speaker 40: What's important is that there is tremendous upfront efforts and independent certifications to keep their system safe, and when vulnerabilities are identified, they're corrected immediately, and there's a transparent response. So transparency is also a critical component, and I know that you all have a transparency portal here locally, which is great. And I'll just kind of talk through a couple of those components here tonight. As we discussed, all those searches are documented into a log into perpetuity.
  • 0:23:26 [t=1406] Speaker 40: So from the very first time the search was run on your system to today, that information is documented. Which officer? What are they looking for? What happened with that search?
  • 0:23:36 [t=1416] Speaker 30: All that is documented so your chief and city leadership can ensure that the system is being used as it should. In addition to that, as we discussed, they're required to select an offense type.
  • 0:23:48 [t=1428] Speaker 40: So they have to tell you why they're doing it that's based in a public safety category. And in addition to that, we recommend that folks do regular audits of their system. And we've also just launched audit assistance, which for the agencies that have used it, they've really liked it. And what that does is it just flags irregular patterns. So let's say Lieutenant Kerry, I just promoted myself, normally searches twice a day. and then on Wednesday I searched 30 times. It's going to send a note to the chief to say, hey, Lieutenant Kerry just searched 30 times.
  • 0:24:25 [t=1465] Speaker 40: He's normally searching about twice a day. Now maybe that's because I've got a really in-depth investigation I'm working on and there's nothing going on there, but it just flags the chief to say, hey, take a second look at this situation, see what's going on. So a really helpful tool that was added to our auditing.
  • 0:24:41 [t=1481] Speaker 30: In addition to that, we also have other components that our agencies can select to implement or not. Exception there is when there is state law that requires it, and when there is state law that requires it, it's built into the system.
  • 0:24:56 [t=1496] Speaker 40: Here locally, with a lot of these, there is no state law that requires these things. So, for example, search filters, your agency can turn on filters to block certain searches.
  • 0:25:05 [t=1505] Speaker 30: The audit logs we've already talked about, the federal limitations is another important thing to note. So within our searches, if you do a statewide sharing or national sharing, essentially you opting into a sharing relationship with anyone in your state that jumps in that pool together, there are no federal agencies in either the state or national sharing networks.
  • 0:25:32 [t=1532] Speaker 40: So for any individuals that are interested, any agencies that are interested in doing a sharing relationship with a federal agency, they would have to proactively, over a three-step process, engage in that sharing relationship. I'll skip this. This is one of our engineers talking. She's great, but I told the clerk I'd be within 10 minutes-ish. and she seems like she runs a tight ship here so I'm going to stick to that just some headlines here real life news stories of how our technology has impacted people a quick case study here real study out of Georgia from 2020
  • 0:26:14 [t=1574] Speaker 30: she really highlights how the technology is used 12.33pm an Amber Alert is issued after mom calls the police because her child was abducted
  • 0:26:22 [t=1582] Speaker 40: 1.01pm the vehicle associated with the abduction is run through the FLOC system. 2.30 p.m., the vehicle's located. What that means is because that vehicle was already uploaded into the system as a hot list, when it passed a camera, it pinged the PD to say, hey, that Amber Alert just passed this camera. Five o'clock, officers physically locate the vehicle and make a felony stop. 6 p.m., the child is reunited with their mother.
  • 0:26:50 [t=1610] Speaker 30: So hard police work done here, great law enforcement work, but you can see how the tool assisted them in quickly and accurately identifying where that vehicle was.
  • 0:27:00 [t=1620] Speaker 40: Indiana, we've had over 215 law enforcement agencies that utilize FLOC. You can see a few here. And I'm not going to read these all, but these are just all examples of within the state of real-life stories.
  • 0:27:15 [t=1635] Speaker 30: These are all news stories. They're not ours, of where our technology has been used.
  • 0:27:19 [t=1639] Speaker 40: So again, here this is a driver who struck a child, shooting suspects, a toddler who was kidnapped, and then this is also a story about how in South Bend they were able to clear cases, backlog cases, using the technology as well.
  • 0:27:37 [t=1657] Speaker 30: We're really proud of our supporters and that partner with us, so here's a few of them. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, our firm supporter of us because of that work
  • 0:27:47 [t=1667] Speaker 40: to get trafficked and missing children home to their families. We are proud to have the support of folks like the historic Oakland NAACP who has identified the technology as a way to reduce bias with objective evidence, as well as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
  • 0:28:04 [t=1684] Speaker 30: They are particularly interested in those hit and runs involving a drunk driver that unfortunately far too many in our country are killed or injured because of drunk drivers. And here is a quote from that local NAACP chapter that we are proud to partner with.
  • 0:28:19 [t=1699] Speaker 48: How'd I do, clerk? All right. I think I'm bringing the mayor or chief back up. Twelve minutes. No, I'm kidding. No, I'm kidding.
  • 0:28:29 [t=1709] Speaker 53: So just to kind of close this out,
  • 0:28:32 [t=1712] Speaker 18: Lieutenant Sears is going to go over some specific Terre Haute examples. One thing to note is we currently do not opt into statewide sharing. So we, and this is nothing against state police or any other police agency, We just operate a, you know, they can follow the same rules as the other federal agencies, just because that way it's like one easy, simple system for us to use and maintain. With that, I'm going to have Justin just name three quick examples. We have a lot more, and I want to end with this.
  • 0:29:04 [t=1744] Speaker 18: Next week at the City Update, we are going to go over some of the crime data showing how 2025 was an improvement from 2024. And there's overall cases, there's murders, there's robberies that went down. Something I like to point out is that the clearance rate went up in all the categories we looked at. That, to me, is what matters more than the overall increase or decrease in cases. The clearance rate increasing shows that when there is a crime, we are finding a better way to solve some of these.
  • 0:29:34 [t=1774] Speaker 18: And that increase means a lot, and it really shows the work that Chief Reigns, Chief Sparks, and the entire crew is doing under Kevin Barrett's leadership. So with that, I'll have Justin come up, and then we'll kind of wrap this up.
  • 0:29:46 [t=1786] Speaker 57: Thank you, Mayor. President Dinkle, members of the council, thank you for your time this evening. I'm Lieutenant Justin Sears with the Terro Police Department, public information officer.
  • 0:29:54 [t=1794] Speaker 59: I got the honor tonight to explain a little bit about the perspective of how our patrolmen are using this,
  • 0:30:00 [t=1800] Speaker 57: our detectives are using this, and then I have some. I'm prepared to read for about 10 or 15 minutes, but we'll only do a couple as far as our own personal success stories. So first and foremost, FLOC does not replace police work. It does not make arrests. It does not interview witnesses. It does not write reports, and it does not solve crimes by itself. What it does is provide officers with the information, often in real time, that helps us generate leads, locate suspects, recover stolen property, find missing persons, and focus our resources where they're needed.
  • 0:30:31 [t=1831] Speaker 57: Having spent many years both as a patrol officer and a detective, I can personally appreciate the impact that this technology has on modern policing. Earlier in my career, many of these investigations relied solely on witness statements, partial descriptions, and countless hours of canvassing neighborhoods and reviewing surveillance footages. Cases that can now be developed in hours often took days or weeks and sometimes simply didn't have enough information to move forward at all. Flock technology does not replace the work of our officers and our detectives, but it
  • 0:31:00 [t=1860] Speaker 57: gives them a tool that I wish had been available throughout my early career. It provides actionable information that helps officers make better decisions, respond more quickly, and focus investigative efforts where they are most likely to succeed. I'm grateful that today's officers and detectives have access to technology that allows them to serve our community more effectively, while still relying on the same police work investigative skills and professional judgment that have always been the foundation of successful law enforcement. So as we move forward, I'm going to pick a couple here.
  • 0:31:28 [t=1888] Speaker 59: I have prepared at least two or three for all of your different districts. So it's successful across the city. And any time after this or any time in the future, if you want to talk to myself or anybody in the administration, they can go over these success stories or explain different things about FLOC to you.
  • 0:31:48 [t=1908] Speaker 57: A Terro Police Department detective was assisting another agency in locating a missing endangered adult who had left a nearby town in a Ram 1500. Using flock LPR technology and a license plate provided by the family, the detective quickly identified the vehicle's location and relayed the information to the investigating agency. Officers located the individual stranded in a ditch on a remote dead end during nighttime hours. The subject was transported to a local hospital and was unharmed.
  • 0:32:15 [t=1935] Speaker 59: Flock technology provided critical information that directly contributed to the safe recovery of this person. That's one of about six different missing persons or silver alerts that I have prepared to read today.
  • 0:32:26 [t=1946] Speaker 57: Multi-jurisdictional ATM burglary, ring identified and disrupted by little old Terre Haute. This was a nationwide ring that was going from Texas to the East Coast that was hitting every city that they could on the way by breaking into ATMs. Detectives investigated a series of ATM break-ins within Terre Haute, utilized surveillance footage in combination with Flock LPR data to identify suspect vehicles. Further investigation revealed the same vehicles were linked to similar incidents across multiple jurisdictions.
  • 0:32:56 [t=1976] Speaker 57: jurisdictions, including out-of-state locations, using flock technology, detectives track vehicle movement patterns, coordinated with partner agencies to support a multi-jurisdictional investigation. It doesn't really do justice what we did. We coordinated with four or five different police departments after we gained the information from St. Louis to Arkansas with multiple vehicles to take all those people into custody. I'll read this last one because this is an important one.
  • 0:33:24 [t=2004] Speaker 57: This is basically where we started or recognized that we needed to add to what Beigle County already had as a flock system. Detectives investigated an armed bank robbery at Hometown Savings Bank where a suspect displayed a handgun, demanded cash, and fled in a white Ford hatchback, which was taken from video footage that we got from the library. Detectives searched flock cameras nearby and identified the suspect vehicle entering Terre Haute before the robbery. The plate captured flock and investigators, and it eventually led us to a place in Illinois.
  • 0:33:58 [t=2038] Speaker 59: After we located that vehicle, we were able to track it down to multiple vehicles or rental vehicles, and we started our detectives. We were doing a great job of reaching out and figuring out that this wasn't a one-time thing.
  • 0:34:09 [t=2049] Speaker 57: This also solved a bank robbery in New Albany, and it also made us realize if we had our current system of flock cameras right now, it wouldn't have taken more than a week. we probably would have had somebody in Vermilion County waiting for them.
  • 0:34:24 [t=2064] Speaker 59: That's exactly what would have happened. So with our current system, we would have had that license plate up and gone and police officers waiting in Vermilion County, and our officers going northbound to pursue them as well. Instead, it took a week to two weeks. So if you have any more, I've got dozens. If there are any questions, I'll bring Chief Barrett, the mayor, back up. We appreciate your guys' time. Thank you.
  • 0:34:47 [t=2087] Speaker 66: Thank you. Council, do we have any questions?
  • 0:34:49 [t=2089] Speaker 71: Chief, how many cameras do we currently have in Terre Haute?
  • 0:35:00 [t=2100] Speaker 72: Thirty.
  • 0:35:02 [t=2102] Speaker 71: And are all those on major roadways?
  • 0:35:05 [t=2105] Speaker 72: Yes.
  • 0:35:06 [t=2106] Speaker 71: Okay. I saw online an accusation that one of the flop cameras was pointed towards someone's home. I take it that is not the case.
  • 0:35:16 [t=2116] Speaker 74: That is not the case. No. No.
  • 0:35:19 [t=2119] Speaker 68: And I had some questions in regards to the storage.
  • 0:35:28 [t=2128] Speaker 78: How is the data stored for those 30 days?
  • 0:35:31 [t=2131] Speaker 42: Absolutely. So the data is stored on the AWS GovCloud server, which is one of those secure servers that you can get to.
  • 0:35:38 [t=2138] Speaker 30: It is in a segregated portion for each customer. So you all would have your own section of storage. and then so that's the storage and then again you decide if you want to share the access with other agencies.
  • 0:35:55 [t=2155] Speaker 71: And we heard that there's a three-step process for other agencies to get to that information. Could you explain how that works?
  • 0:36:03 [t=2163] Speaker 33: Yeah, absolutely.
  • 0:36:04 [t=2164] Speaker 40: So just because that was referring to the federal access, so first and foremost you'd have to make yourself discoverable to a federal agency.
  • 0:36:11 [t=2171] Speaker 30: So you have a filter that allows you to not be discoverable at all.
  • 0:36:16 [t=2176] Speaker 40: The second component was that either you or a federal agency, so let's use the example of the Postal Service, that's a frequent collaborator because of postal theft, for example. Did it have to be a request to essentially go into a friendship for lack of a better term of a sharing relationship? And then from there, both of you would have to say yes. So let's say you set yourself as discoverable. the Postal Service reaches out to you all and says, we'd like to share, we're having issues in your community,
  • 0:36:46 [t=2206] Speaker 40: you could absolutely still say, nope, we're good, or yes, we'd like to share with you to address these issues. The other component of that, too, is you can always turn those off. So let's say your police department, you were having a rash of, I'll just, in Cleveland, people were stealing the master keys and stealing mail. I don't know if you all have experienced this here, but you could say, you know, we'll share with you, and then if you solve that case, you could always turn it off then too.
  • 0:37:14 [t=2234] Speaker 80: And that's the case with all sharing relationships.
  • 0:37:18 [t=2238] Speaker 71: And I guess I'd go back to Chief Barrett. I know there's been some concern about potential sharing with agencies like ICE. Is that something that THPD intends to do? We're turned off. Okay. And is THPD's plan to stay turned off as a shared?
  • 0:37:36 [t=2256] Speaker 92: Yeah, it'd be a case-by-case situation. If they have a serious violent felon that's running around our community
  • 0:37:41 [t=2261] Speaker 94: and we can cooperate with each other to find that person, that's when we'll do that.
  • 0:37:48 [t=2268] Speaker 98: And then, so after that 30 days, you said it's a hard delete. I'm not very tech savvy, so you can explain what that is.
  • 0:37:56 [t=2276] Speaker 33: Absolutely. So the data, and by the way, I also have a business degree, so I'm not a cybersecurity expert either, just as a full transparency.
  • 0:38:05 [t=2285] Speaker 40: It is hard deleted and unrecoverable from the server. So essentially, and that is all audited. Those are external audits, the SOC 2 ISO. They also audit that process to ensure that it is working as it should.
  • 0:38:18 [t=2298] Speaker 30: So it is completely unrecoverable. So it's not like you delete something on your iPhone and you can go to recently deleted file. It's completely wiped from the server.
  • 0:38:29 [t=2309] Speaker 103: And that's automated, like the system does it on its own? That's correct. It doesn't have to be told to do it?
  • 0:38:34 [t=2314] Speaker 40: So in 31 days, if your chief says,
  • 0:38:36 [t=2316] Speaker 30: hey, Carrie, 31 days ago we had an issue, can you pull this? And it's sorry, Chief, we cannot. It's gone.
  • 0:38:44 [t=2324] Speaker 105: And there were, you mentioned you have business customers as well as private customers.
  • 0:38:50 [t=2330] Speaker 107: Can law enforcement access that data?
  • 0:38:54 [t=2334] Speaker 77: If those businesses grant access, yes.
  • 0:38:57 [t=2337] Speaker 40: So let's say you had a mall, I'm going to make this up, forgive me, but you had a mall that was a customer, they're having a rash of break-ins,
  • 0:39:04 [t=2344] Speaker 30: and the mall wanted to give access to your law enforcement, yes, cannot go the other way, though.
  • 0:39:10 [t=2350] Speaker 112: Okay.
  • 0:39:11 [t=2351] Speaker 30: So the mall could not get access to your local law enforcement information.
  • 0:39:15 [t=2355] Speaker 71: And would they have to go through that same three-step process, making themselves be accessible and then request? That's correct.
  • 0:39:23 [t=2363] Speaker 114: They'd have to go into that sharing relationship.
  • 0:39:26 [t=2366] Speaker 71: I think you answered my questions. And just as a personal aside, I've had several criminal cases that have involved use of FLOC. I've seen the success that it can have in solving some of these crimes. But I also want to say that I've also had it provide exculpatory evidence in cases. So I think it works both ways. As attorneys, I think body cam footage was one of the greatest things that happened. We'd always prefer to have hard evidence, video, photographs. So I think this provides a good tool for law enforcement.
  • 0:40:13 [t=2413] Speaker 40: Yeah, Council Member, and shame on me I should have brought that up. That's exactly right.
  • 0:40:17 [t=2417] Speaker 30: So it's not just about catching criminals. It also, within courts and evidence, can free people. That shouldn't be there.
  • 0:40:26 [t=2426] Speaker 120: I yield.
  • 0:40:29 [t=2429] Speaker 123: Any other questions? Just one. You said you have 30? Yes. Do you anticipate the need for more?
  • 0:40:36 [t=2436] Speaker 21: Yes. How many? We're working with Flock right now to identify spaces that we need them. Going back to my statement, when I was talking about local business districts, other parks, things like that, that we're interested in.
  • 0:40:52 [t=2452] Speaker 127: And that's how you decide where they're going to go? Yes. You base it on? Correct.
  • 0:40:56 [t=2456] Speaker 129: All right. Thank you. I yield.
  • 0:40:59 [t=2459] Speaker 132: Council President Bollin.
  • 0:41:01 [t=2461] Speaker 134: Well, first of all, Chief Barrett, thanks for letting us know that the transparency portal makes access to anyone who wants to look what the policy is. Yes, you're welcome. I appreciate that, and I think some people in the public should go take a look at it.
  • 0:41:17 [t=2477] Speaker 136: And so my questions are just with regards to policy. I can go look it up as well, but I'll just ask a couple questions with regards to policy. So Councilwoman Thompson kind of touched on the ICE part of it. So our policy also prevents searches related to immigration,
  • 0:41:34 [t=2494] Speaker 138: and I think what the slide said was reproductive care at the request of the community. Reproductive care.
  • 0:41:42 [t=2502] Speaker 140: Can you talk a little bit about that, and is our policy in line with that?
  • 0:41:47 [t=2507] Speaker 42: Yes, I can speak on our side. So those two specific filters are there, A, because customers wanted them,
  • 0:41:53 [t=2513] Speaker 40: but also certain state laws require them. And so essentially it would be any search
  • 0:41:59 [t=2519] Speaker 42: related to reproductive health care.
  • 0:42:03 [t=2523] Speaker 48: And if the filter was on, it would block any of those searches.
  • 0:42:07 [t=2527] Speaker 143: And we have an audit process in our policy
  • 0:42:11 [t=2531] Speaker 136: independent of the multiple agencies that perform the external audits?
  • 0:42:16 [t=2536] Speaker 146: Yeah, there's two audits going on. Plock's doing one internally, and then we do our own.
  • 0:42:20 [t=2540] Speaker 136: And our policy also talked about who we can share that data with. Correct.
  • 0:42:27 [t=2547] Speaker 151: Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome.
  • 0:42:35 [t=2555] Speaker 28: Thank you all.
  • 0:42:36 [t=2556] Speaker 154: Thank you.
  • 0:42:37 [t=2557] Speaker 28: I appreciate the time. If I could just leave you with cards.
  • 0:42:39 [t=2559] Speaker 30: If you wake up tonight and you have another question, please don't hesitate to reach out. Clerk, give me a card. You know what? You might give me a card. I wake up at 3 every morning. I'll give you a call. I'll give you a call.
  • 0:42:50 [t=2570] Speaker 163: That's pretty good. I'm at 2, 3.30. I get up at 3 no matter what.
  • 0:42:56 [t=2576] Speaker 165: I'm about 3.30. I wake up. Thank you.
  • 0:43:02 [t=2582] Speaker 167: Okay. Corrections to the general from the preceding meeting. There are none. Reports from city officials.
  • 0:43:08 [t=2588] Speaker 171: There are none. Communication from the mayor. We already had that.
  • 0:43:13 [t=2593] Speaker 173: There are none.
  • 0:43:14 [t=2594] Speaker 171: Reports from Board of Public Works and Safety.
  • 0:43:17 [t=2597] Speaker 166: There are none. Reports from standing committees. There are none. Reports from non-standing committees. There are none. Items previously tabled. There are none. Tax payments for confirmation. There are none. Items on second reading. There are none. Items on first reading. You have one.
  • 0:43:28 [t=2608] Speaker 176: General Ordinance 6, 2026. Amending City Code, creating Chapter 2, Article 16, Section 2-250, Will Tax.
  • 0:43:36 [t=2616] Speaker 53: Good evening, Council President Dingle and members of the Terre Haute City Council.
  • 0:43:40 [t=2620] Speaker 18: So we are going to table this until the July 9th meeting. There are two amendments that we have to do. One is under the Indiana Code that was passed under House Enrolled Act 1461 or 1641. Sorry, forget the specific state law, but we have to specify the fund name inside the code. The second is we did find out we are legally able to put multiple years in so we can keep something flat and you don't have to look at this annually, which the plan will be 2027-2028, keeping it flat at 15 and then 2029 a two dollar increase to make it 17 so we're going to clean
  • 0:44:22 [t=2662] Speaker 18: that up and put that in uh this general ordinance and then there's also the sur tax which is the same thing as the wheel tax but for like non-traditional vehicles like trailers which residents are already paying to the county and they have been for several years now the state is essentially forcing us to rename this the city wheel tax. So the governor's intent was to have quote skin in the game for cities. Our county already had one. We're renaming it to the city for city residents to have our skin in the game. The governor's goal was also for city councils
  • 0:44:58 [t=2698] Speaker 18: and mayors to enact this before 2027, which we are following. So we have access to the additional state funding, which the current estimates show $400,000.
  • 0:45:10 [t=2710] Speaker 180: I'll stand by for any questions. If you don't have any, we'll make sure to send the updated ordinance.
  • 0:45:16 [t=2716] Speaker 0: Members of the public who wish to comment on General Ordinance 6-2026. Hearing that, we'll close public comment.
  • 0:45:24 [t=2724] Speaker 185: Mr. President, you should have an amended copy proposed amendment in front of you, and there's no requirement to do anything tonight.
  • 0:45:36 [t=2736] Speaker 188: Any council questions?
  • 0:45:38 [t=2738] Speaker 191: Sure. You have something? No. You ready to communicate anything? I'll ask one.
  • 0:45:44 [t=2744] Speaker 134: So if we don't do this, then we would not be eligible for that additional funding that you're talking about, right?
  • 0:45:50 [t=2750] Speaker 193: Correct, Councilman Boland. We would still be eligible for the community crossing portion, but that amount was reduced
  • 0:45:58 [t=2758] Speaker 18: from $1.5 to $1 million. Basically, the .5 or the 500,000 that cities and counties used to be eligible for was put in a separate bucket, local lane mile distribution. That bucket you are eligible for if you have a, they wrote it as like municipal wheel tax. So that way, if a city or county has one, then you're eligible. And then it took a year for us to break out the double taxation portion. So a lot of this was passed in 2024, and then we spent 2025 changing the law so that way if Council President Dinkle goes in to register his vehicle, he does not pay a city and county will tax.
  • 0:46:40 [t=2800] Speaker 18: Secondly, I do want to add, the governor did suspend the gas tax another month. Based off the numbers, he probably has 30 to 60 days to be able to continue to do it. Based off of the surplus that they have, that they've been receiving off of different fuel taxes in the state general fund, they have communicated to the mayors that this will not affect next year's NDOT and then local road and street funding. They're going to use portions of their surplus to cover that. We are working to get something in writing just in case, because as you learn in this business, things change.
  • 0:47:20 [t=2840] Speaker 180: But that's an update on that specific action.
  • 0:47:22 [t=2842] Speaker 195: Thank you, and thank you for getting in and running.
  • 0:47:26 [t=2846] Speaker 53: But, you know, as Councilwoman Thompson said, every attorney has a different interpretation. So I don't know.
  • 0:47:34 [t=2854] Speaker 0: Any other questions? Absent a motion, this will be heard again on July 9th.
  • 0:47:44 [t=2864] Speaker 199: Are you ready?
  • 0:47:47 [t=2867] Speaker 201: We'll adjourn. I'd just like to take a minute to congratulate the Terro North girls softball team on their semi-state win. Wish them the best of luck at state finals tomorrow. Hope they know that the Terro community is behind them. I've got the opportunity to see a couple of the games. If you haven't, it's a great bunch of girls. bunch of girls. They have great sportsmanship, and they're representing Terre Haute great. Chief Sparks, try to relax. Yes, ma'am. His daughter is one of the phenomenal players, so we wish him luck.
  • 0:48:14 [t=2894] Speaker 167: Thank you. I yield. I move to adjourn. Second. It's been moved by Councilperson Aizar, seconded by Councilperson Thompson, that we adjourn. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, say aye. City Council stands adjourned.