Bellevue Marshal | License plate readers

Bellevue has fewer than 2,500 residents and two plate readers. In the month the Marshal reported to the Council in September 2026, his counter read 3,474,281 plates.

A small agency that did the paperwork

Bellevue’s file is better than most. The Marshal wrote to the Council before signing, explaining what the cameras would be for and what they would cost.^[3] He put his written policy in the same packet, so the Council could read the rules before it voted on the money. The policy restricts use to official law enforcement business, requires department approved training before anyone touches the system, states that an alert “is not conclusive confirmation of a match and further investigation is always required before taking enforcement action”, prohibits use for harassment, intimidation, use based solely on a protected class, or personal use, and lists what the system does not detect: “Facial images, people, gender, or race.”^[3]

The resolution authorizes two fixed, pole mounted cameras and caps the cost at $7,300.00 in fiscal 2025 and $6,000.00 in fiscal 2026.^[1] The vote was five to nothing with one member absent.^[2] A vendor representative had presented to the Council, and the minutes record the Marshal saying the Sheriff’s office was willing to put $1,000.00 towards the initial cost.^[2]

He told the Council the year’s money had already been approved in the budget, and that he was bringing the contract to them because he was signing one.^[2]

What the Council learned a year later

In April 2026 the Marshal gave the Council a review. He audits every search every 30 days, with a sergeant, which is more often than the twice a year Idaho Code 49-1432 requires.^[7] He was negotiating with an outside agency to run the statutory semiannual audits. Sharing is limited to Idaho law enforcement agencies. The contract bars the vendor from selling city data. Since the cameras went live they had helped stop two people in mental health crisis, contributed to three warrant arrests and helped clear four cases.^[4]

Asked when the cameras had been installed and whether the Council had been told at the time, he answered that they went live in October and that the system and its vendor transparency portal had been referenced in Council meetings and on the city website. Some council members said they had not been fully aware of the extent of its use.^[4]

The numbers the Marshal prints

Every month the Marshal’s report to the Council ends with a block: calls for service, case reports, citations, arrests, then two more lines, ALPR plate reads and ALPR searches. The rows above the plate reader lines are plainly cumulative across the calendar year, and the plate read line rises the same way, from 404,502 in the January 2026 report to 3,474,281 in the August one. The search line does not: 5, then 629, then 1,139, then 457, then 2.^[5]

The report does not say what period either plate reader line covers, so we are not going to say either. What it does show is a town of 2,500 people whose police agency reports plate reads in the millions.

The argument, and a cancellation we cannot date

In March 2026 a council member told the Council she no longer supported the system, citing cost, reported misuse of such systems nationwide and the increasing camera coverage available through the County, and asked the Council to revisit the decision. The Mayor said she had heard similar concerns from the community.^[6] In May a resident asked the City to terminate the contract.^[6]

In the minutes of 10 August 2026, a resident raises “the fact that the Flock contract was cancelled, yet still in effect until September 2027”, and the Marshal and a council member clarify.^[8] We could not find a decision to cancel in the Bellevue agendas, packets and minutes we swept, which run from 2023 to September 2026. Until we can, this page records the cameras as in service and the Council as still arguing about them.