Minneapolis City Council Member Steve Fletcher remembers his pre-Super Bowl tour of the police command center, when the video feed was so crisp that cameras could zoom in on the front door of his downtown apartment building.
Now, two months after the Super Bowl festivities, the surveillance technology added for the occasion remains, and Fletcher wants more public discussion about what some of his constituents worry will be a permanent intrusion on their privacy.
"I don't like to see things come in that feel like they were temporary and they just stick around," Fletcher said. "That feels like we skipped a part of the process where we have a public discussion about the technology we're using to keep ourselves safe."
The new technology includes 17 cameras installed downtown by Verizon at no cost to the city — which join the 300 police cameras already recording throughout Minneapolis. There's also a product called "FieldWatch," which allows police officers to stream their cellphone video to the command center, and a system that allows police to get a 3-D view of the interior of a building, such as U.S. Bank Stadium, and track officers' locations.
Police say they're not sure if they will buy the cameras from Verizon once the contract expires this summer, but they plan to incorporate the rest into daily policing.
Minneapolis police Cmdr. Scott Gerlicher emphasized the boon to public safety this technology has already created.
Gerlicher said police went through every proper channel to receive approval from the Minneapolis City Council last year — before Fletcher was elected — with no condition that the contracts would end with the Super Bowl.
"I just want to make that perfectly clear," he said. "We're not circumventing any process or doing anything back door. This is all completely above board."
