(Radio Iowa) – Sioux City is looking to add to the license plate reading cameras police are already using. The city council approved allowing Police chief Rex Meuller to seek a grant to fund 21 more cameras.
“This is something that we value as an intelligence tool and for apprehension of the criminals, nothing more. So we’re just trying to be more effective. And when somebody presents a technology that can make us more effective, we want to try to utilize it for the benefit of the citizens,” he says.

It will cost around 77-thousand dollars to purchase the new cameras, and Sioux City would then have a total of 33 cameras. Mayor Bob Scott oppose adding the additional cameras, citing privacy concerns and the ongoing cost of running them.

“This is another one of these deals where we get a grant and then we got to come up with the money. I found out Sergeant Bluff, the businesses pay for it. They get sponsors for it. We’ll never do that, it’ll be on the taxpayers,” Scott says. “I’m just not into putting any more taxpayer dollars into technology right now.”

Chief Mueller says they are seeking private sponsor to pay for the ongoing future cost of using the cameras. The annual recurring cost would be 63-thousand dollars. The A-C-L-U of Iowa has raised concerns recently after Clear Lake and Corallville each added the license plate reading cameras. The A-C-L-U says their concern is the cameras would be used to let local government “track and spy on the very people they are supposed to represent.”