Franklin County · Idaho
Preston
The county seat and the only sizeable city in Franklin County, about five thousand people in the Cache Valley near the Utah line. The Preston Police Department is the city’s own law enforcement agency, and the Mayor and City Council set its budget. The county courthouse, the county’s dispatch center and most of the county buildings that now carry cameras are here too.
The City Council put security cameras in the city park and at Craner Field between 2021 and 2023, five cloud cameras at a time, paid for by grants. Vandalism of the park restrooms is the reason the minutes give. In 2021 the city also amended the recreation chapter of its comprehensive plan to add implementation of surveillance at its recreation facilities. Cameras in the city parks has the grants and the votes.
Every surveillance device volunteers have mapped in this county stands in Preston: eight license plate readers, in two sets of four covering all four approaches to two junctions about a third of a mile apart. None of the eight records who runs it, and no plate reader appears in any Preston City Council record we have read, which runs to 2023. The Council’s record from 2024 onward is unread.
On record, Preston
- Systems documented
- 2
- Operating now
- 2
- Devices counted at the county level
- —
Devices mapped inside the city are not separated from the county map yet. See the Franklin County map. A system run jointly with an agency outside the city counts here because one of its operators is based in the city.
Agencies
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Preston Police Department
City of Preston
2 systems documented, listed by technology below.
By technology
Preston put security cameras in its city park and at Craner Field on grant money, five cloud cameras at a time, and wrote surveillance at its recreation facilities into the city's comprehensive plan. The Craner Field grant came from the regional public health district.
other
Franklin County put location trackers on the vehicles of five departments, including the Assessor and Building Inspection, and gave the Sheriff's dispatch center the screen. The contract was voted on. The policy governing it was not.
What you can do
Civic action
Show up
The Preston city council decides for city departments like the police, at public meetings any resident can attend and speak at. Other agencies based in Preston, such as a school district, answer to their own elected boards. We have confirmed where these bodies meet and how public comment works at each one.
How to show up in Franklin County →Personal protection
Protect yourself
The technology pages explain what each system records and what reduces your exposure to it.
Technology pages →