Intercity Transit will soon install AI-powered smart camera sensors at eight intersections in Lacey to collect traffic safety data.
Lacey City Council authorized the city manager on Tuesday, April 7 to enter into an interlocal agreement with Intercity Transit as part of the ongoing regional Smart Corridors project.
Intercity Transit recently received a $2 million federal Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to install up to 10 smart sensors around the Lacey Transit Center and South Puget Sound Community College, with the intent of using them to identify where traffic conflicts occur and the nature and severity of those conflicts.
The City of Lacey has committed a maximum of $40,000 for support services, installation coordination and permitting.
The AI platform in the sensors will create an integrated management dashboard that the City of Lacey, Intercity Transit and the Washington state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) will use to better manage traffic issues in the area.
Intercity Transit’s goal with the project is to ultimately reduce traffic conflicts and improve transit reliability and performance, according to grant documents.
Six of the eight cameras will go into Lacey-owned intersections, while the other two will go in at Washington state Department of Transportation right-of-ways.
The identified intersections are:
City of Lacey staff initially presented the project proposal to the Lacey City Council in January, but were asked to address councilors’ concerns about privacy safeguards and potential misuse of recorded video.
“Our community right now, you see a camera out in public, the vast majority of the public is going to think that's either a traffic camera or a Flock camera,” Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder said Tuesday. “The vast majority of people are going to see this and they're going to be concerned about it, just considering what we're seeing out there in the United States right now.”
Public concern about federal immigration enforcement’s use of data collected by automated license plate readers, primarily from the company Flock, has been mounting over the last year.
In response, the Washington state Legislature passed a bill this session implementing guardrails for the use of automated license plate readers. Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the bill into law on March 30.
The new regulations have a limited impact on the sensors that Intercity Transit will install.
“These are not Flock cameras, and they will not record any personal information,” Martin Hoppe, Lacey’s engineering and transportation manager, told the Lacey City Council on Tuesday.
The smart sensors do not include facial recognition or automated license plate reader technology, and they do not stream live video.
The sensors do record 15-second video clips of traffic conflicts, specifically near misses, collisions and safety violations.
The videos will be retained for 10 days before being automatically deleted.
“The rationale for this timeframe is that staff may not become aware of an incident requiring review for several days. Additionally, if notification occurs near a weekend or holiday, the files would still be available for review,” Hoppe states in a staff report presented to the Lacey City Council in its April 7 meeting packet.
The retention period is notably shorter than the 21-day period required now under state law.
“We’re still very comfortable with 10 days,” Hoppe said Tuesday.
InterCity Transit will be responsible for all video-related public records requests. The City of Lacey doesn’t plan to store any of its own data from the videos “unless determined necessary by the city,” according to Hoppe’s staff report.
The data itself will be password protected, with access limited to “a few individuals” at Intercity Transit, WSDOT, the City of Lacey and the consultant team.
The data will also not be used for traffic enforcement, except to identify possible spots for the Lacey Police Department to place patrol cars.
“We don’t use cameras to make additional violations or anything like that,” said Lacey Deputy Police Chief Roberty Hollis, noting that officers have to personally witness moving violations to enforce them. “We’ll talk with Martin, he’ll provide us with the information, let us know ‘Hey, we’re seeing a lot of people running red lights at this intersection,’ and we’ll adjust our resources accordingly,” Hollis said.
The sensors will be installed sometime before Nov. 14.
“It’s a demonstration project that will last through November,” Hoppe said.
The City of Lacey, in coordination with InterCity Transit, plans to put out additional informational material about the sensors and the pilot project before they go online.
