Trending
The Webster County Sheriff's Office is investigating after an outdoor camera meant to monitor construction progress was vandalized and shot out twice.
According to Webster County Engineer Jamie Johll, the county's Secondary Roads Department placed a Verkada camera at the roundabout project at Nelson Avenue and 170th Street near the Fort Dodge Regional Airport to monitor construction progress, as well as to get insights into traffic issues.
The camera stopped working last month, and when county workers went to investigate, they found that the camera had been shot with a large caliber bullet. The camera was again vandalized last Friday morning and is inoperable.
According to Johll, the Verkada camera, which is commonly used by schools and other entities in Iowa and nationwide, has been repeatedly added to websites which flag controversial Flock monitoring cameras. However, according to Johll, this camera is not the same as Flock.
"These cameras and countless other brands have the ability to do license plate recognition, but it is disabled in our software," said Johll. "These are not Flock cameras. No data from Webster County or any Verkada cameras is shared with Flock."
According to Johll, anyone can add cameras to online Flock maps, whether or not the camera actually is a Flock camera or is sharing information with the company. Unknown people continue to add this construction camera to those websites despite it not being a Flock camera.
"I have removed ours from websites, but for some reason it keeps getting added back," said Johll.
The incidents of vandalism remain under investigation by the Webster County Sheriff's Office.
"Currently the Webster County Sheriff's Office does not use any kind of Flock cameras or license plate readers," said Webster County Sheriff Luke Fleener. "We understand the concerns our citizens have about these types of surveillance systems, and will be transparent if the day ever comes that we decide to use this technology. There is no excuse for damaging other people's property and those responsible can be prosecuted for any violations of Iowa law."