Surveillance-tech report: East Hartford¶

Mentions current to 27 September 2026

This report covers meetings processed up to 2026-09-27. Anything newer shows up first in This Week in Surveillance.

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At a glance: East Hartford¶

77 mentions of surveillance technology in 12 East Hartford meetings, 2023–2026

77mentionsacross 12 meetings · read the timeline 2023–2026first to latest mention2023-06-06 → 2026-09-01 5technologies discussedALPR / Flock, Body cameras, Drones, Facial recognition, General surveillance 100%of known meetings transcribed126 of 126 meetings

This report collects every mention of surveillance technology found in East Hartford's recorded public meetings -- automatically transcribed, then keyword-scanned. Each mention below links straight to the moment in the source video, so anything here can be checked against the recording itself.

Start with Timeline to read the discussion in order, or Findings by topic to jump to one technology.

Mentions are found by keyword and are not individually verified. A mention means the words were spoken at a public meeting -- not that the town uses, bought, or approved the technology. Read the quote and watch the clip before drawing a conclusion.

Contents¶

Mentions by topic: first seen / most recent
Timeline
Findings by topic
Agenda/minutes mentions (unreviewed -- live keyword scan, no human review queue yet)
How this report was built
Coverage status
Registered meeting bodies
Agenda/minutes coverage
Research log
Gaps and caveats
Get the full transcripts

Mentions by topic: first seen / most recent¶

Topic	Mentions	Meetings	First seen	Most recent
ALPR / Flock	11	4	2025-04-23	2026-09-01
Body cameras	6	1	2025-06-03	2025-06-03
Drones	51	8	2023-06-06	2026-04-21
Facial recognition	4	2	2025-04-23	2025-09-02
General surveillance	5	3	2025-03-18	2025-10-08

Timeline¶

12 meetings surfaced a finding (12 dated, spanning 2023-06-06 to 2026-09-01; 0 of unknown date, listed last). Newest first.

Since 2026-08-28 (through 2026-09-27, when this report was generated):

2026-09-01 -- Town Council¶

Town Council (topics: alpr)

alpr_flock Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 32:22 ▸ > ...Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, just to, uh, clarify. So, for folks who may be watching, automated license plate readers are very different from red light cameras or speed cameras. Uh, and I think the, the issue here is less of a privacy and constitutional rights issue, though some people will make that argument. You know, for me, as I look at it, uh, to John's point,...

Earlier meetings (11)

2026-04-21 -- Town Council

Town Council (topics: drone)

drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 28:37 ▸ > ...Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of council, for having us. I have Lieutenant Cortez and DeNora Castillo with me. As mentioned, we would like to use a JAG grant to purchase one drone. It would be a Skydio X10, which is a federally approved model. A majority of police departments in the Hartford area have been using drones to improve their policing capabilities, and it's shown to be a valuable, cos...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 28:42 ▸ > ...I have Lieutenant Cortez and DeNora Castillo with me. As mentioned, we would like to use a JAG grant to purchase one drone. It would be a Skydio X10, which is a federally approved model. A majority of police departments in the Hartford area have been using drones to improve their policing capabilities, and it's shown to be a valuable, cost-effective tool. It enhances the ability to serve and prote...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 30:47 ▸ > ...So, I'll just answer it. At least for now, our police department is here seeking your approval to actually apply for the grant to fund the drone. I believe, per the ordinance, we still need to go back to you to actually purchase the equipment itself. So, right now, this is just about applying for the grant, and then we'll come back to you guys for the actual equipment....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 31:33 ▸ > ...I would only say that what sort of timeline are we looking at, one. And then, number two, just to note, there are, you know, certain pieces in the ordinance that would require, you know, some time. I don't want it to come and then you guys, you know, are, like, trying to scramble to get the different pieces that we would kind of need to feel comfortable improving it as far as, you know, usage poli...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 33:05 ▸ > ...Further discussion, Matt? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I realize it doesn't affect what we're doing tonight as much, but just curious, are your thoughts to someday eventually get another drone? Is this just step one, and if it goes well, then you'd like to see a fleet, so to speak? And how many would you ultimately like to see?...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 33:31 ▸ > ...Lieutenant Cortez, I've been spearheading this program for about a few years now. Like they said, we're trying to modernize the police department. Just about everyone around us, every police agency has a drone program and has multiple operators. This is just step one. We would like to get an exterior drone and utilize this grant, and, you know, hopefully it's positive results, and we'd like to mov...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 33:39 ▸ > ...Just about everyone around us, every police agency has a drone program and has multiple operators. This is just step one. We would like to get an exterior drone and utilize this grant, and, you know, hopefully it's positive results, and we'd like to move forward in the future and get more operators and get more drones. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 33:56 ▸ > ...Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just really quick, as far as this drone itself, the unit, is this something that's going to be staged and held at the police station, or is this something that's more mobile to be in the cruisers and drive around and release someplace in town? So with the Scotty OX-10, we'll be able to keep it at the station, and then also we can keep it in our cruisers. So it woul...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 35:32 ▸ > ...Sorry for the second time. I just wanted to ask. I know there's no local match required, but the cost of the drone is not going to exceed the size of the grant, or if it does, how much more are we talking about? No, so it's underneath the grant. Okay....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 38:18 ▸ > ...West Hartford as of 2022. Enfield as an example, just a smaller community, 25. Middletown police is using a drone and then Manchester as well. But there's just not exact specifics,...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 39:00 ▸ > ...and was reported missing to the police department. And you guys probably remember this. He eventually was found using a drone and using the drone's heat signature feature. And we found him actually in the woods,...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 39:04 ▸ > ...And you guys probably remember this. He eventually was found using a drone and using the drone's heat signature feature. And we found him actually in the woods, wandering along the riverbanks on the East Hartford-Glassenbury line....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 39:18 ▸ > ...The issue is we did have to call in and wait for another police department agency to bring that drone to us so that we could get in the air to use that heat signature to find him. So obviously if the police department here in East Hartford...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 39:25 ▸ > ...to use that heat signature to find him. So obviously if the police department here in East Hartford did have their own drone, we could have found the kid that much faster. So I think, you know, being able to find that kid...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 39:38 ▸ > ...essentially pays for itself. So just wanted to offer that real life example of where we've already seen the drone be incredibly effective in helping the police do their job. - Okay....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 40:28 ▸ > ...It's a responder, but it'll be responding with an officer. - With an officer. - With an officer. - We're not going to send the drone out first to check everything out before we actually are dispatching. It's an augmentation....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 41:54 ▸ > ...- Does that mean we're gonna train officers already on the force or we're gonna hire new people who will be drone operators? - So, every office, so officers would have to apply to become a pilot essentially with a part 107 through an FAA....

2025-10-08 -- Planning & Zoning Commission

Planning & Zoning (topics: surveillance_general)

surveillance_general Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 48:12 ▸ > ...And obviously that came up in the discussion. We -- the talking points that I picked up were a water going to that 24-inch culvert. And I know myself and my client have reached out to the neighbors there who -- to own it, to ask that we could CCTV it to see if it's blocked in any way. There's only debris through there to try and figure out. It's a large pipe....
surveillance_general Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:03:36 ▸ > ...attorneys, details are on the application. Again, as with myself, we have sent recorded letters out to some of the neighbors there around that culvert just to ask for information and to CCTV it to see if there's any issues with it that might causing backup on the site. So we're trying and I mean, as as a kid, it was a 24 inch would be more than adequate for the water...

2025-09-02 -- Town Council

Town Council (topics: alpr, drone, facial_recognition)

drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 22:35 ▸ > ...The noise camera state law, the noise is more than 85 decimals for 25 feet from the car. And this is just to list some of the citations that are mentioned. Like I said, it's for drone speed cameras, lights and plate readers, surveillance cameras, and it's for 15 locations on the surveillance cameras. And this is just to put it in place if and when it does come....
alpr_flock Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 26:01 ▸ > ...I believe we should be more explicit than state law in how we spend any funds generated, and we'll continue to argue for that so that there is more transparency in how these funds are eventually spent. But I know we'll get there. The technology itself is also fundamentally different than things like cameras, drones, and automated license plate readers. There's a big difference between a speed came...
alpr_flock Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 26:20 ▸ > ...The technology itself is also fundamentally different than things like cameras, drones, and automated license plate readers. There's a big difference between a speed camera, which only gets activated if someone is going 50 and a 35, for example, versus surveillance cameras and license plate readers that are constantly monitoring people who are going about their day. For the second group of items, ...
alpr_flock Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 26:26 ▸ > ...There's a big difference between a speed camera, which only gets activated if someone is going 50 and a 35, for example, versus surveillance cameras and license plate readers that are constantly monitoring people who are going about their day. For the second group of items, automated license plate readers, drones, and surveillance cameras, we go further. Critically, automated license plate readers...
facial_recognition Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 27:18 ▸ > ...We try to keep our data limited to each EHPD as much as possible. And I use our intentionally here because this impacts all of us. We also take the lead and ban the use of facial recognition technology, something that has been proliferating in municipalities around the country. This is a big deal that will protect residents long into the future. There are public oversight and independent audit and...

2025-08-19 -- Town Council

Town Council (topics: alpr, drone)

drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:58 ▸ > ...And then finally we have drones and the police department doesn't have any drones at this point in time but drones are being used as a way in which you can go and respond to say a missing person and they can use a drone to go over like a wooded area or something searching for that individual. They can use drones for access responses to accidents and in theory to avoid having to engage in a police ...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 4:45 ▸ > ...It establishes that there is limits to when they can use it has to be used. Like for example the drones can only be used if they're got a legitimate local law enforcement activity. There is a limit on where the data that gets recorded by the drone and who can see that data and then requires that that data be deleted so that it can't be gathered and then available to lots of people for a long perio...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 52:44 ▸ > ...a missing person. We have time to really go to the station, grab all the equipment, drive out to the location and put the drone up in the air. Okay. Um, the data, are you going to keep aggregate numbers, but not the specifics?...
alpr_flock Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 59:41 ▸ > ...Um, and, and, and, and to look for, um, an allocation of money. Okay. Um, I would just like to make a point in regards to, um, I do have some experience with law enforcement, um, with LPRs and flock. Um, I think a lot of us were worried about privacy, which obviously is a huge concern limiting the access and, um, data accessibility. Um, but we have to think like a lot of criminals have access to t...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:01:17 ▸ > ...Um, and I am curious as well with the drones. Um, do we have a, an idea of who would be trained? Um, who would be able to operate that drone if they'd even be accessible, like at all times of the day? I know currently the fire department does have a drone accessible. Would it be possible in order to reduce potential costs to kind of share that between both departments?...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:01:24 ▸ > ...Um, do we have a, an idea of who would be trained? Um, who would be able to operate that drone if they'd even be accessible, like at all times of the day? I know currently the fire department does have a drone accessible. Would it be possible in order to reduce potential costs to kind of share that between both departments? Yes....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:01:42 ▸ > ...Yes. Uh, this actually does anticipate, um, that not only police and fire, but also, um, um, are like inspections and permits department could use the drone to check on the, uh, like a permitted with the, with the property owners approval, you know, you, you, you put on a roof, right. And they want to check to make sure that it complies....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:01:58 ▸ > ...with the, with the property owners approval, you know, you, you, you put on a roof, right. And they want to check to make sure that it complies. They could use the drone for that. Um, in terms of, you know, the process and who would use it again, if we were to then go purchase them for use by the police department....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:02:29 ▸ > ...who would be able to use them and who would be trained on them. Because, um, you do have to be trained on, you know, you have to know how to use them. Um, we want to make sure that, um, the drone is being used only, uh, for legitimate police, you know, stuff that that's not using them to surveil anybody for no reason. Um, and, um, you know, and, and also, um, use them in a way that minimizes,...

2025-08-05 -- Town Council

Town Council (topics: drone)

drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 53:25 ▸ > ...It's just, you know, uh, and so there has to be, I think a real plan. We are going to get to the whole police technology ordinance, which is designed to give the police more, uh, tools. Uh, and some of them, you know, and I just mentioned, um, when you, when you do a drone, you have a drone, then you don't have to chase them with a car, but you can in fact chase them and find out where they're goi...

2025-06-03 -- Town Council

Town Council (topics: body_camera)

body_camera Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:06:47 ▸ > ...Um, but it's unfortunate the way that it paid, it played out. So, uh, Hawk is also going, uh, Chief Hawkins is also going to conduct an administrative review as well, just to make sure that we cover all bases. Um, you guys, as you've mentioned, councilmen have seen the body cam footage, which I think tells the story of what happened exactly. Um, and so I don't have a timeframe in which that, um, r...
body_camera Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:07:26 ▸ > ...So, um, there's some discussions to be had at how we're going to release this or if we're going to release it. Like I said, it's, we're not trying to prove that we didn't do something here. Um, we had released the body cam footage because, uh, many of you probably saw a lot of the comments on social media, um, as people had kind of, uh, grasped and digested what had happened. Um, claiming that our...
body_camera Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:10:24 ▸ > ...So, um, but yeah, I don't have the answer between how they treat an accident versus a suicide. I can get you that in that accident, uh, that answer. But like I said, the body cam footage is important, um, to be able to tell the story and at least visually show what had occurred on that, that morning. Thank you. Yeah....
body_camera Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:10:58 ▸ > ...Yeah, absolutely. No, transparency is key. Like I said, we were not required to release body cam footage. We weren't required to do anything, but we wanted to make sure that it was out there so that people understood what happened and write a different narrative doesn't snowball. Unfortunately....
body_camera Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:11:26 ▸ > ...I just wanted to follow up on that. Um, and kind of point out and reiterate how this is a two way street on making sure that we have the open communication and that we are transparent. I appreciate the fact that we have the body cam footage to share these days because it does remove the doubt. Um, but I want the community to also keep in mind, look at this from the police's perspective. They went ...
body_camera Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:15:10 ▸ > ...That, you know what, the next generation is not going to be so bad. Right. Um, but you know, to, to your point, um, many, many, many more people, uh, saw the body cam video than see the top 20. Um, and, and that's the challenge we all have. Um, and to the, uh, you know, the other point that was made, um, you know, with regard to social media, it's just astounding to me....

2025-04-23 -- Town Council

Town Council (topics: alpr, drone, facial_recognition, surveillance_general)

alpr_flock Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 7:01 ▸ > ...Technology today is important in law enforcement. It helps us with our investigations. Utilization of different technology, whether it be the camera systems we have out there, whether it be speed light cameras, red light cameras, or the flat cameras, which are the license plate reader cameras. It's just another tool in our toolbox just to assist us in our investigations. We can do them quicker....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 7:41 ▸ > ...He actually had to reach out to other agencies to bring in drones so we can go into the woods because he was lost in a wooded area. He was probably lost for up to about six hours. I mean, we were in the woods looking for him, but the drone and a bloodhound was ultimately what found that child, you know, autistic kid. I think, and that's why I think some of the technology that we use is very import...
alpr_flock Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 15:11 ▸ > ...That's all we take from that. So we don't have someone that's, and it would be with this photo sensor. If we use the flock camera, literally only used for investigations, nothing more. I think that's very important for everyone to understand. Um, questions on noise and just sort of in general, I guess....
alpr_flock Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 32:15 ▸ > ...So one example that I cite is in Westchester County, New York. New York has a law in place that prohibits the sharing of information with ICE. And the county has automated license plate readers. So you would think under the law that the information's not being shared with the company, but because the license plates that are being captured go into a national database,...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 35:12 ▸ > ...So I'm going to keep an open mind. You know, I come from, I'm going to be honest, a more libertarian kind of privacy oriented background when it comes to this kind of stuff. But I recognize that technology is essential and if we use it in the right way, for example, the drone helping someone who is lost or autistic or, you know, elderly, that it can be a positive for both the police department and...
alpr_flock Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:22:51 ▸ > ...We had LPRs. LPRs were in our cruisers in the past, but that technology was old. So what we want to do now and the camera systems that we already have, we want to put the LPRs, which is flock inside those cameras. There's a software that can go in our existing cameras. Yeah....
facial_recognition Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:26:33 ▸ > ...The bigger problem that I see with surveillance cameras. So where we need to, I think have a very different ordinance is because that's full time, just, you know, live video feed. You can input any number of parameters from facial recognition, license plate, or like chief mentioned in January. I want to know every red Honda civic that rolled through that intersection in the past month. So how we r...
surveillance_general Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:27:16 ▸ > ...We now have a still shot versus I just want to know every white male that walked on the Burnside Main Street intersection and cross the crosswalk over the past month. You know, that's very different parameters that we're putting in and therefore very different control measures that we need to have in place. I'm actually a lot more comfortable with the still shot stuff than the surveillance camera ...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:28:00 ▸ > ...You're not really talking about having drones up 24/7 just recording live footage. You're talking about certain instances. So say you've got a drone flying over a neighborhood looking for the autistic boy that was lost in the woods. But you happen to pick up other areas around and now we use facial recognition and say, hey, we didn't even know that this person was over in this neighborhood. We hap...
facial_recognition Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:28:05 ▸ > ...You're talking about certain instances. So say you've got a drone flying over a neighborhood looking for the autistic boy that was lost in the woods. But you happen to pick up other areas around and now we use facial recognition and say, hey, we didn't even know that this person was over in this neighborhood. We happen to pick it up on the drone footage. So it's not exactly like the surveillance, ...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:28:14 ▸ > ...So say you've got a drone flying over a neighborhood looking for the autistic boy that was lost in the woods. But you happen to pick up other areas around and now we use facial recognition and say, hey, we didn't even know that this person was over in this neighborhood. We happen to pick it up on the drone footage. So it's not exactly like the surveillance, but it's also not like the red light cam...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:30:03 ▸ > ...You know, that kind of thing. I think we need to do that. And to your point, especially on the drone side, and we haven't got there yet, all this other data is being collected in, you know, one single area. And I know we had the conversation when we first talked about surveillance cameras as to the cameras can't be, you know, they have to be pointing down to on the road. They can't be on private, ...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:32:44 ▸ > ...And just if I can go back one more minute, just to comment on something Mr. Chair said. When we're talking about drones, we're talking incident-based. We're not just out there flying a drone. The only time we're going to be using that drone is if there's a missing person, if my SWAT's got to do a call out. You know what?...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:32:46 ▸ > ...When we're talking about drones, we're talking incident-based. We're not just out there flying a drone. The only time we're going to be using that drone is if there's a missing person, if my SWAT's got to do a call out. You know what? We want to see what's in that house, that whole entire area, before we get out there....
surveillance_general Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:33:15 ▸ > ...That's definitely possible. And if we do, if something is recorded, obviously, that's going to be tagged as evidence, like your typical camera, whether it's my body camera, whether it's my dash camera, or it's my surveillance camera on the streets, tagged in the same way, same manner, then everything else gets deleted. We'll be right back....
alpr_flock Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:36:26 ▸ > ...So we go to our, a lot of our local businesses and residents when, when we have an incident. And you know, we get a lot of information from them too. There's a lot of people who even have flock and they're on businesses here in town, which kind of helps us. Are there questions on the surveillance? If not, you want to talk about the next item was just simply the, in our handout after the surveillan...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:40:08 ▸ > ...Or it's somebody that, you know, is mistakenly identified for a crime that they really weren't committing, or there's just a simple misunderstanding. So this thing that gets fired off of the front of a police cruiser or by a gun or anything else, I just do not like. I would rather that we had a drone to deploy or something like that than shooting things at people's cars that we may or may not hit....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:44:15 ▸ > ...Yeah, when you're talking about those types of incidents, those are instant. Happen right away. So, by the time you deploy a drone, car's long gone. And the question is, is that how -- how many instances do we have of that kind of thing? And, again, I don't know....
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:46:10 ▸ > ...I just -- again, you know, there's so few of them around. And if we have these situations, and timing is, again, you know, critical sometimes. And like you said before, I mean, getting a drone up and running to follow it, maybe, you know, time-wise. But having an officer get to that point that has this equipment with them, you know, vice versa, what happens? Well, see, I think it just creates a sa...
alpr_flock Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:58:51 ▸ > ...Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess the last couple of things. So, you know, for automated license plate readers, not to belabor the point, but I think I probably have the most significant concerns with that. Just because of the potential ability to put together, you know, a more comprehensive picture of where people have been. And I still have questions about the data....
facial_recognition Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:59:38 ▸ > ...But again, the devil's in the details in terms of the use cases. And I think for drones, especially having a well-defined sense of what technology is mounted on the drones and what kind of software can be used with the drones is important. So, you know, there's a difference between, you know, a regular camera, which has, you know, incredible capabilities today versus cameras that can use infrared ...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:00:27 ▸ > ...So the use cases for drones, I think, is, is something that really needs to be hammered out. Because I do agree that it's something that could make you safer. But at the same time, one of my concerns is depending on how often the drone is getting used and its altitude and all of that stuff, you know, that could have an impact on the community who may not be as tuned in as we are to what the uses o...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:01:20 ▸ > ...If I could just make one comment. So I understand what you're saying, the privacy issues and where it's going to be flown from. We are not looking, I just want to make it clear to this board, we are not looking at the first responder drones at this point. We're just looking for a drone, kind of like East River Drive, you know, when we had the missing kid, drone leaves from that location and it's j...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:01:49 ▸ > ...We're just looking for a drone, kind of like East River Drive, you know, when we had the missing kid, drone leaves from that location and it's just on an aerial in that area, not leaving from the station, not leaving from town hall, specific to that area where the incident is. That's very, that's very helpful. So essentially, then, let's say there is an incident missing person, you know, a person ...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:02:23 ▸ > ...Yeah, it seemed like that there was less of a need when 90 something percent of our responder calls are, you know, medical alert. So anyway, go ahead, Travis. Just since we're on the drone side of things, and I think that the need's becoming more apparent that we need something. I'm thinking of it as a use as a shared resource. So one of the things that wider presentation that we had that was nice...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:02:49 ▸ > ...I'm thinking of it as a use as a shared resource. So one of the things that wider presentation that we had that was nice was the fire department being able to use it to be able to check out a fire while they're on route to figure out what equipment they need or bringing in additional resources, additional mutual assistance. If we get one drone, is there a way that we could make it for the public s...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:03:19 ▸ > ...So how do we make it universal? And, you know, take it to the next level. The building department has something that they could use a drone for for the inspections. It would be nice to have that shared resource, not quite as urgent because it's not the public safety issue. But again, if we get one for the town, I want to make sure that it serves as much of a purpose as we can, then we can justify ...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:05:48 ▸ > ...Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And since we're touching on the fact of drones, I just want to show one concern that I do have with them. The drone factors that -- whether it's being deployed from headquarters or from a cruiser, my only one concern I guess would want to just flag just for noting as we go down the road, if we do take this as an option, is that the -- I don't know why I can't spit it out r...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:06:09 ▸ > ...The drone factors that -- whether it's being deployed from headquarters or from a cruiser, my only one concern I guess would want to just flag just for noting as we go down the road, if we do take this as an option, is that the -- I don't know why I can't spit it out right now. The evolution of the drone. Thank you. There's some limit of privacy that I think that everyone generally has....

2025-03-18 -- Town Council

Town Council (topics: surveillance_general)

surveillance_general Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:09:26 ▸ > ...If the sink's not draining, the toilet's not draining in the middle of the night, we'll go out there, we'll investigate, make sure it's not the sewer. Well, if identify it's the home, we'll bring a contractor in to hopefully address it. Um, if we do get it, uh, we do address it, we'll CCTV the lateral, see if there's any structural issues. Um, we identify a structural issue. Uh, one, we'll figure ...

2025-02-18 -- Town Council

Town Council (topics: drone)

drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:00:23 ▸ > ...pretty sizable. You're going to notice it, whether it's a tech, especially if it's on the roof of your car. Um, I just don't know that we get the return on investment for something like this versus having a few of those handhelds and maybe putting this money towards a drone program or something where we could, you know, Hey, there was a car reported stolen from Burnside. We're looking for this car...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:00:32 ▸ > ...a few of those handhelds and maybe putting this money towards a drone program or something where we could, you know, Hey, there was a car reported stolen from Burnside. We're looking for this car and we send a drone up. I just think that there could be better uses for the money than some new technology that, like I said, in individual cases, the handheld case where instead of doing the stop sticks...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:06:22 ▸ > ...terms of, uh, technology that assists the police department, uh, comes with questions. Uh, and, um, I think, uh, in terms of, um, the data, for example, and in my ideal world, the data for whether it's, you know, gathered through a drone, through this, through, uh, your, your cameras, um, would all be treated in the same fashion with the same regulations, uh, which we don't have quite yet. Um, but...

2024-05-07 -- Town Council

Town Council (topics: drone)

drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:32:52 ▸ > ...Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to just touch on the one point that I know was brought up about revisiting the drone and camera policy. I know we were talking about it and in the middle of the transition of the new mayor, I know it was obviously not dropped, but just kind of delayed. I just wanted to circle back on having these discussions and seeing what we can do to talk with the poli...
drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:33:38 ▸ > ...We can. It's just hard through the teams and the speakers, that's all. Just trying to revisit the discussion with the police and obviously your administration on the drone and camera policies. Okay. I know during the transition of Mike and your terms, we kind of had to put it aside for a little bit, but I just wanted to circle back on it since we're talking about it now....

2023-06-06 -- Town Council

Town Council (topics: drone)

drone Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:41:35 ▸ > ...Yep. Uh, yeah. Gary Roy, uh, Matthew Drone. Um, first of all, I liked that the, um, it's been used a lot tonight, but pumping the brakes on the project of the sports bubble. Uh, I do like that cause I've had a lot of concerns about that....

Findings by topic¶

ai_data_fusion¶

(no findings)

alpr¶

[2026-09-01] Town Council -- Town Council

...Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, just to, uh, clarify. So, for folks who may be watching, automated license plate readers are very different from red light cameras or speed cameras. Uh, and I think the, the issue here is less of a privacy and constitutional rights issue, though some people will make that argument. You know, for me, as I look at it, uh, to John's point,... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 32:22 ▸ (term: alpr_flock, unreviewed)
[2025-09-02] Town Council -- Town Council

...I believe we should be more explicit than state law in how we spend any funds generated, and we'll continue to argue for that so that there is more transparency in how these funds are eventually spent. But I know we'll get there. The technology itself is also fundamentally different than things like cameras, drones, and automated license plate readers. There's a big difference between a speed camera, which only gets activated if someone is going 50 and a 35, for example, versus surveillance cameras and license plate readers that are constantly monitoring people who are going about their day. F... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 26:01 ▸ (term: alpr_flock, unreviewed)
[2025-09-02] Town Council -- Town Council

...The technology itself is also fundamentally different than things like cameras, drones, and automated license plate readers. There's a big difference between a speed camera, which only gets activated if someone is going 50 and a 35, for example, versus surveillance cameras and license plate readers that are constantly monitoring people who are going about their day. For the second group of items, automated license plate readers, drones, and surveillance cameras, we go further. Critically, automated license plate readers and any new cameras must be approved in a separate vote by the council. Th... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 26:20 ▸ (term: alpr_flock, unreviewed)
[2025-09-02] Town Council -- Town Council

...There's a big difference between a speed camera, which only gets activated if someone is going 50 and a 35, for example, versus surveillance cameras and license plate readers that are constantly monitoring people who are going about their day. For the second group of items, automated license plate readers, drones, and surveillance cameras, we go further. Critically, automated license plate readers and any new cameras must be approved in a separate vote by the council. This gives the public and the council the opportunity to scrutinize these technologies independently. Surveillance cameras are ... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 26:26 ▸ (term: alpr_flock, unreviewed)
[2025-08-19] Town Council -- Town Council

...Um, and, and, and, and to look for, um, an allocation of money. Okay. Um, I would just like to make a point in regards to, um, I do have some experience with law enforcement, um, with LPRs and flock. Um, I think a lot of us were worried about privacy, which obviously is a huge concern limiting the access and, um, data accessibility. Um, but we have to think like a lot of criminals have access to these technologies that our own law enforcement currently does not.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 59:41 ▸ (term: alpr_flock, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...Technology today is important in law enforcement. It helps us with our investigations. Utilization of different technology, whether it be the camera systems we have out there, whether it be speed light cameras, red light cameras, or the flat cameras, which are the license plate reader cameras. It's just another tool in our toolbox just to assist us in our investigations. We can do them quicker.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 7:01 ▸ (term: alpr_flock, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...That's all we take from that. So we don't have someone that's, and it would be with this photo sensor. If we use the flock camera, literally only used for investigations, nothing more. I think that's very important for everyone to understand. Um, questions on noise and just sort of in general, I guess.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 15:11 ▸ (term: alpr_flock, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...So one example that I cite is in Westchester County, New York. New York has a law in place that prohibits the sharing of information with ICE. And the county has automated license plate readers. So you would think under the law that the information's not being shared with the company, but because the license plates that are being captured go into a national database,... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 32:15 ▸ (term: alpr_flock, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...We had LPRs. LPRs were in our cruisers in the past, but that technology was old. So what we want to do now and the camera systems that we already have, we want to put the LPRs, which is flock inside those cameras. There's a software that can go in our existing cameras. Yeah.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:22:51 ▸ (term: alpr_flock, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...So we go to our, a lot of our local businesses and residents when, when we have an incident. And you know, we get a lot of information from them too. There's a lot of people who even have flock and they're on businesses here in town, which kind of helps us. Are there questions on the surveillance? If not, you want to talk about the next item was just simply the, in our handout after the surveillance cameras,... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:36:26 ▸ (term: alpr_flock, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess the last couple of things. So, you know, for automated license plate readers, not to belabor the point, but I think I probably have the most significant concerns with that. Just because of the potential ability to put together, you know, a more comprehensive picture of where people have been. And I still have questions about the data.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:58:51 ▸ (term: alpr_flock, unreviewed)

biometrics_other¶

(no findings)

body_camera¶

[2025-06-03] Town Council -- Town Council

...So, um, there's some discussions to be had at how we're going to release this or if we're going to release it. Like I said, it's, we're not trying to prove that we didn't do something here. Um, we had released the body cam footage because, uh, many of you probably saw a lot of the comments on social media, um, as people had kind of, uh, grasped and digested what had happened. Um, claiming that our police department had some involvement, um, in this teen's death and that obviously per the video is not accurate or not true at all. So we wanted to make sure that the video was released, um, for tr... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:07:26 ▸ (term: body_camera, unreviewed)
[2025-06-03] Town Council -- Town Council

...So, um, but yeah, I don't have the answer between how they treat an accident versus a suicide. I can get you that in that accident, uh, that answer. But like I said, the body cam footage is important, um, to be able to tell the story and at least visually show what had occurred on that, that morning. Thank you. Yeah.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:10:24 ▸ (term: body_camera, unreviewed)
[2025-06-03] Town Council -- Town Council

...Um, but it's unfortunate the way that it paid, it played out. So, uh, Hawk is also going, uh, Chief Hawkins is also going to conduct an administrative review as well, just to make sure that we cover all bases. Um, you guys, as you've mentioned, councilmen have seen the body cam footage, which I think tells the story of what happened exactly. Um, and so I don't have a timeframe in which that, um, report is going to be released. Um, I, uh, I'm not sure how we'll release it to the public, um, or how we're going to administer it.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:06:47 ▸ (term: body_camera, unreviewed)
[2025-06-03] Town Council -- Town Council

...Yeah, absolutely. No, transparency is key. Like I said, we were not required to release body cam footage. We weren't required to do anything, but we wanted to make sure that it was out there so that people understood what happened and write a different narrative doesn't snowball. Unfortunately.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:10:58 ▸ (term: body_camera, unreviewed)
[2025-06-03] Town Council -- Town Council

...I just wanted to follow up on that. Um, and kind of point out and reiterate how this is a two way street on making sure that we have the open communication and that we are transparent. I appreciate the fact that we have the body cam footage to share these days because it does remove the doubt. Um, but I want the community to also keep in mind, look at this from the police's perspective. They went to what they thought was a dine and dash wound up dealing with a stolen unregistered firearm and somebody fleeing, hearing a gunshot, knowing what they were walking into just to find out that they the... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:11:26 ▸ (term: body_camera, unreviewed)
[2025-06-03] Town Council -- Town Council

...That, you know what, the next generation is not going to be so bad. Right. Um, but you know, to, to your point, um, many, many, many more people, uh, saw the body cam video than see the top 20. Um, and, and that's the challenge we all have. Um, and to the, uh, you know, the other point that was made, um, you know, with regard to social media, it's just astounding to me.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:15:10 ▸ (term: body_camera, unreviewed)

cad¶

(no findings)

cell_site_sim¶

(no findings)

data_broker¶

(no findings)

doorbell_partnership¶

(no findings)

drone¶

[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...Just about everyone around us, every police agency has a drone program and has multiple operators. This is just step one. We would like to get an exterior drone and utilize this grant, and, you know, hopefully it's positive results, and we'd like to move forward in the future and get more operators and get more drones. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 33:39 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...Lieutenant Cortez, I've been spearheading this program for about a few years now. Like they said, we're trying to modernize the police department. Just about everyone around us, every police agency has a drone program and has multiple operators. This is just step one. We would like to get an exterior drone and utilize this grant, and, you know, hopefully it's positive results, and we'd like to move forward in the future and get more operators and get more drones.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 33:31 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of council, for having us. I have Lieutenant Cortez and DeNora Castillo with me. As mentioned, we would like to use a JAG grant to purchase one drone. It would be a Skydio X10, which is a federally approved model. A majority of police departments in the Hartford area have been using drones to improve their policing capabilities, and it's shown to be a valuable, cost-effective tool.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 28:37 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...to use that heat signature to find him. So obviously if the police department here in East Hartford did have their own drone, we could have found the kid that much faster. So I think, you know, being able to find that kid... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 39:25 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...I have Lieutenant Cortez and DeNora Castillo with me. As mentioned, we would like to use a JAG grant to purchase one drone. It would be a Skydio X10, which is a federally approved model. A majority of police departments in the Hartford area have been using drones to improve their policing capabilities, and it's shown to be a valuable, cost-effective tool. It enhances the ability to serve and protect the community, and as mentioned in the resolution, help with emergency response, motor vehicle accidents, missing persons, and large-scale community events.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 28:42 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...The issue is we did have to call in and wait for another police department agency to bring that drone to us so that we could get in the air to use that heat signature to find him. So obviously if the police department here in East Hartford... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 39:18 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...So, I'll just answer it. At least for now, our police department is here seeking your approval to actually apply for the grant to fund the drone. I believe, per the ordinance, we still need to go back to you to actually purchase the equipment itself. So, right now, this is just about applying for the grant, and then we'll come back to you guys for the actual equipment.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 30:47 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...And you guys probably remember this. He eventually was found using a drone and using the drone's heat signature feature. And we found him actually in the woods, wandering along the riverbanks on the East Hartford-Glassenbury line.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 39:04 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...and was reported missing to the police department. And you guys probably remember this. He eventually was found using a drone and using the drone's heat signature feature. And we found him actually in the woods,... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 39:00 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...I would only say that what sort of timeline are we looking at, one. And then, number two, just to note, there are, you know, certain pieces in the ordinance that would require, you know, some time. I don't want it to come and then you guys, you know, are, like, trying to scramble to get the different pieces that we would kind of need to feel comfortable improving it as far as, you know, usage policy and how you would safeguard the data and when you guys would use it and updating your own policies to include how you guys are going to kind of manage this drone. So, I just want to make sure that ... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 31:33 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...West Hartford as of 2022. Enfield as an example, just a smaller community, 25. Middletown police is using a drone and then Manchester as well. But there's just not exact specifics,... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 38:18 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...- Does that mean we're gonna train officers already on the force or we're gonna hire new people who will be drone operators? - So, every office, so officers would have to apply to become a pilot essentially with a part 107 through an FAA.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 41:54 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...Sorry for the second time. I just wanted to ask. I know there's no local match required, but the cost of the drone is not going to exceed the size of the grant, or if it does, how much more are we talking about? No, so it's underneath the grant. Okay.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 35:32 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...essentially pays for itself. So just wanted to offer that real life example of where we've already seen the drone be incredibly effective in helping the police do their job. - Okay.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 39:38 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...Further discussion, Matt? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I realize it doesn't affect what we're doing tonight as much, but just curious, are your thoughts to someday eventually get another drone? Is this just step one, and if it goes well, then you'd like to see a fleet, so to speak? And how many would you ultimately like to see?... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 33:05 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just really quick, as far as this drone itself, the unit, is this something that's going to be staged and held at the police station, or is this something that's more mobile to be in the cruisers and drive around and release someplace in town? So with the Scotty OX-10, we'll be able to keep it at the station, and then also we can keep it in our cruisers. So it would really be dependent on who's working that day, who's licensed, you know, supervisor.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 33:56 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2026-04-21] Town Council -- Town Council

...It's a responder, but it'll be responding with an officer. - With an officer. - With an officer. - We're not going to send the drone out first to check everything out before we actually are dispatching. It's an augmentation.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 40:28 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-09-02] Town Council -- Town Council

...The noise camera state law, the noise is more than 85 decimals for 25 feet from the car. And this is just to list some of the citations that are mentioned. Like I said, it's for drone speed cameras, lights and plate readers, surveillance cameras, and it's for 15 locations on the surveillance cameras. And this is just to put it in place if and when it does come.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 22:35 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-08-19] Town Council -- Town Council

...Um, and I am curious as well with the drones. Um, do we have a, an idea of who would be trained? Um, who would be able to operate that drone if they'd even be accessible, like at all times of the day? I know currently the fire department does have a drone accessible. Would it be possible in order to reduce potential costs to kind of share that between both departments?... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:01:17 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-08-19] Town Council -- Town Council

...who would be able to use them and who would be trained on them. Because, um, you do have to be trained on, you know, you have to know how to use them. Um, we want to make sure that, um, the drone is being used only, uh, for legitimate police, you know, stuff that that's not using them to surveil anybody for no reason. Um, and, um, you know, and, and also, um, use them in a way that minimizes,... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:02:29 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-08-19] Town Council -- Town Council

...And then finally we have drones and the police department doesn't have any drones at this point in time but drones are being used as a way in which you can go and respond to say a missing person and they can use a drone to go over like a wooded area or something searching for that individual. They can use drones for access responses to accidents and in theory to avoid having to engage in a police car chase, things of that nature.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:58 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-08-19] Town Council -- Town Council

...Yes. Uh, this actually does anticipate, um, that not only police and fire, but also, um, um, are like inspections and permits department could use the drone to check on the, uh, like a permitted with the, with the property owners approval, you know, you, you, you put on a roof, right. And they want to check to make sure that it complies.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:01:42 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-08-19] Town Council -- Town Council

...It establishes that there is limits to when they can use it has to be used. Like for example the drones can only be used if they're got a legitimate local law enforcement activity. There is a limit on where the data that gets recorded by the drone and who can see that data and then requires that that data be deleted so that it can't be gathered and then available to lots of people for a long period of time. So under the surveillance cameras, we now currently have them in 15 locations in the town.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 4:45 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-08-19] Town Council -- Town Council

...Um, do we have a, an idea of who would be trained? Um, who would be able to operate that drone if they'd even be accessible, like at all times of the day? I know currently the fire department does have a drone accessible. Would it be possible in order to reduce potential costs to kind of share that between both departments? Yes.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:01:24 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-08-19] Town Council -- Town Council

...with the, with the property owners approval, you know, you, you, you put on a roof, right. And they want to check to make sure that it complies. They could use the drone for that. Um, in terms of, you know, the process and who would use it again, if we were to then go purchase them for use by the police department.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:01:58 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-08-19] Town Council -- Town Council

...a missing person. We have time to really go to the station, grab all the equipment, drive out to the location and put the drone up in the air. Okay. Um, the data, are you going to keep aggregate numbers, but not the specifics?... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 52:44 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-08-05] Town Council -- Town Council

...It's just, you know, uh, and so there has to be, I think a real plan. We are going to get to the whole police technology ordinance, which is designed to give the police more, uh, tools. Uh, and some of them, you know, and I just mentioned, um, when you, when you do a drone, you have a drone, then you don't have to chase them with a car, but you can in fact chase them and find out where they're going and where they live. Right.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 53:25 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...We're just looking for a drone, kind of like East River Drive, you know, when we had the missing kid, drone leaves from that location and it's just on an aerial in that area, not leaving from the station, not leaving from town hall, specific to that area where the incident is. That's very, that's very helpful. So essentially, then, let's say there is an incident missing person, you know, a person who's already trained, instead of, instead of it lifting off from the station, they're bringing the drone with them and then they're using it in that limited area. Okay. Yeah, because I think there wa... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:01:49 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And since we're touching on the fact of drones, I just want to show one concern that I do have with them. The drone factors that -- whether it's being deployed from headquarters or from a cruiser, my only one concern I guess would want to just flag just for noting as we go down the road, if we do take this as an option, is that the -- I don't know why I can't spit it out right now. The evolution of the drone.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:05:48 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...When we're talking about drones, we're talking incident-based. We're not just out there flying a drone. The only time we're going to be using that drone is if there's a missing person, if my SWAT's got to do a call out. You know what? We want to see what's in that house, that whole entire area, before we get out there.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:32:46 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...He actually had to reach out to other agencies to bring in drones so we can go into the woods because he was lost in a wooded area. He was probably lost for up to about six hours. I mean, we were in the woods looking for him, but the drone and a bloodhound was ultimately what found that child, you know, autistic kid. I think, and that's why I think some of the technology that we use is very important. I had another incident a couple weeks ago where a guy was doing 100-plus down the highway.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 7:41 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...I just -- again, you know, there's so few of them around. And if we have these situations, and timing is, again, you know, critical sometimes. And like you said before, I mean, getting a drone up and running to follow it, maybe, you know, time-wise. But having an officer get to that point that has this equipment with them, you know, vice versa, what happens? Well, see, I think it just creates a safer environment for everyone.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:46:10 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...So I'm going to keep an open mind. You know, I come from, I'm going to be honest, a more libertarian kind of privacy oriented background when it comes to this kind of stuff. But I recognize that technology is essential and if we use it in the right way, for example, the drone helping someone who is lost or autistic or, you know, elderly, that it can be a positive for both the police department and the community at large. And I agree with you, you know, use it in the right way, strictly, when I say strictly for investigations, that's it.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 35:12 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...You're not really talking about having drones up 24/7 just recording live footage. You're talking about certain instances. So say you've got a drone flying over a neighborhood looking for the autistic boy that was lost in the woods. But you happen to pick up other areas around and now we use facial recognition and say, hey, we didn't even know that this person was over in this neighborhood. We happen to pick it up on the drone footage.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:28:00 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...So the use cases for drones, I think, is, is something that really needs to be hammered out. Because I do agree that it's something that could make you safer. But at the same time, one of my concerns is depending on how often the drone is getting used and its altitude and all of that stuff, you know, that could have an impact on the community who may not be as tuned in as we are to what the uses of these things are. So I just want to make those final couple of points overall, I think I'm so glad that we're having the conversation and that we're having this dialogue and talking about the techno... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:00:27 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...If I could just make one comment. So I understand what you're saying, the privacy issues and where it's going to be flown from. We are not looking, I just want to make it clear to this board, we are not looking at the first responder drones at this point. We're just looking for a drone, kind of like East River Drive, you know, when we had the missing kid, drone leaves from that location and it's just on an aerial in that area, not leaving from the station, not leaving from town hall, specific to that area where the incident is. That's very, that's very helpful. So essentially, then, let's say ... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:01:20 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...So say you've got a drone flying over a neighborhood looking for the autistic boy that was lost in the woods. But you happen to pick up other areas around and now we use facial recognition and say, hey, we didn't even know that this person was over in this neighborhood. We happen to pick it up on the drone footage. So it's not exactly like the surveillance, but it's also not like the red light cameras. I think we need three very different categories that we're placing this in.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:28:14 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...The drone factors that -- whether it's being deployed from headquarters or from a cruiser, my only one concern I guess would want to just flag just for noting as we go down the road, if we do take this as an option, is that the -- I don't know why I can't spit it out right now. The evolution of the drone. Thank you. There's some limit of privacy that I think that everyone generally has.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:06:09 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...Yeah, when you're talking about those types of incidents, those are instant. Happen right away. So, by the time you deploy a drone, car's long gone. And the question is, is that how -- how many instances do we have of that kind of thing? And, again, I don't know.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:44:15 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...Yeah, it seemed like that there was less of a need when 90 something percent of our responder calls are, you know, medical alert. So anyway, go ahead, Travis. Just since we're on the drone side of things, and I think that the need's becoming more apparent that we need something. I'm thinking of it as a use as a shared resource. So one of the things that wider presentation that we had that was nice was the fire department being able to use it to be able to check out a fire while they're on route to figure out what equipment they need or bringing in additional resources, additional mutual assist... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:02:23 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...I'm thinking of it as a use as a shared resource. So one of the things that wider presentation that we had that was nice was the fire department being able to use it to be able to check out a fire while they're on route to figure out what equipment they need or bringing in additional resources, additional mutual assistance. If we get one drone, is there a way that we could make it for the public safety complex? The one thing I did like about the first responder system was if we had one that left from public safety, fire department could dispatch it or police could dispatch it. Whereas if we ha... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:02:49 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...And just if I can go back one more minute, just to comment on something Mr. Chair said. When we're talking about drones, we're talking incident-based. We're not just out there flying a drone. The only time we're going to be using that drone is if there's a missing person, if my SWAT's got to do a call out. You know what?... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:32:44 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...You know, that kind of thing. I think we need to do that. And to your point, especially on the drone side, and we haven't got there yet, all this other data is being collected in, you know, one single area. And I know we had the conversation when we first talked about surveillance cameras as to the cameras can't be, you know, they have to be pointing down to on the road. They can't be on private, you know, taking up images on private property.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:30:03 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...So how do we make it universal? And, you know, take it to the next level. The building department has something that they could use a drone for for the inspections. It would be nice to have that shared resource, not quite as urgent because it's not the public safety issue. But again, if we get one for the town, I want to make sure that it serves as much of a purpose as we can, then we can justify getting more.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:03:19 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...Or it's somebody that, you know, is mistakenly identified for a crime that they really weren't committing, or there's just a simple misunderstanding. So this thing that gets fired off of the front of a police cruiser or by a gun or anything else, I just do not like. I would rather that we had a drone to deploy or something like that than shooting things at people's cars that we may or may not hit. And just because -- So this is considered, and just not to cut you off, but this is considered non-lethal?... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:40:08 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-02-18] Town Council -- Town Council

...a few of those handhelds and maybe putting this money towards a drone program or something where we could, you know, Hey, there was a car reported stolen from Burnside. We're looking for this car and we send a drone up. I just think that there could be better uses for the money than some new technology that, like I said, in individual cases, the handheld case where instead of doing the stop sticks, I could see it being very useful, but just putting it on three... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:00:32 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-02-18] Town Council -- Town Council

...pretty sizable. You're going to notice it, whether it's a tech, especially if it's on the roof of your car. Um, I just don't know that we get the return on investment for something like this versus having a few of those handhelds and maybe putting this money towards a drone program or something where we could, you know, Hey, there was a car reported stolen from Burnside. We're looking for this car and we send a drone up. I just think that there could be better uses for the money than... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:00:23 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2025-02-18] Town Council -- Town Council

...terms of, uh, technology that assists the police department, uh, comes with questions. Uh, and, um, I think, uh, in terms of, um, the data, for example, and in my ideal world, the data for whether it's, you know, gathered through a drone, through this, through, uh, your, your cameras, um, would all be treated in the same fashion with the same regulations, uh, which we don't have quite yet. Um, but I, we're going to work our way towards that. Um, the other piece is, um, while this was... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 2:06:22 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2024-05-07] Town Council -- Town Council

...Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to just touch on the one point that I know was brought up about revisiting the drone and camera policy. I know we were talking about it and in the middle of the transition of the new mayor, I know it was obviously not dropped, but just kind of delayed. I just wanted to circle back on having these discussions and seeing what we can do to talk with the police and others to see how that can maybe be used in the town.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:32:52 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2024-05-07] Town Council -- Town Council

...We can. It's just hard through the teams and the speakers, that's all. Just trying to revisit the discussion with the police and obviously your administration on the drone and camera policies. Okay. I know during the transition of Mike and your terms, we kind of had to put it aside for a little bit, but I just wanted to circle back on it since we're talking about it now.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:33:38 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)
[2023-06-06] Town Council -- Town Council

...Yep. Uh, yeah. Gary Roy, uh, Matthew Drone. Um, first of all, I liked that the, um, it's been used a lot tonight, but pumping the brakes on the project of the sports bubble. Uh, I do like that cause I've had a lot of concerns about that.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:41:35 ▸ (term: drone, unreviewed)

facial_recognition¶

[2025-09-02] Town Council -- Town Council

...We try to keep our data limited to each EHPD as much as possible. And I use our intentionally here because this impacts all of us. We also take the lead and ban the use of facial recognition technology, something that has been proliferating in municipalities around the country. This is a big deal that will protect residents long into the future. There are public oversight and independent audit and procedures put in place as well.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 27:18 ▸ (term: facial_recognition, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...The bigger problem that I see with surveillance cameras. So where we need to, I think have a very different ordinance is because that's full time, just, you know, live video feed. You can input any number of parameters from facial recognition, license plate, or like chief mentioned in January. I want to know every red Honda civic that rolled through that intersection in the past month. So how we regulate that data because it's not an infraction related event that necessarily triggers the search you're going to be able to do.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:26:33 ▸ (term: facial_recognition, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...You're talking about certain instances. So say you've got a drone flying over a neighborhood looking for the autistic boy that was lost in the woods. But you happen to pick up other areas around and now we use facial recognition and say, hey, we didn't even know that this person was over in this neighborhood. We happen to pick it up on the drone footage. So it's not exactly like the surveillance, but it's also not like the red light cameras.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:28:05 ▸ (term: facial_recognition, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...But again, the devil's in the details in terms of the use cases. And I think for drones, especially having a well-defined sense of what technology is mounted on the drones and what kind of software can be used with the drones is important. So, you know, there's a difference between, you know, a regular camera, which has, you know, incredible capabilities today versus cameras that can use infrared imaging or facial, I mean, facial recognition technology. I think we're kind of all in the same place with that, but, or, you know, drones that could, that could see over a wider area and then figurin... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:59:38 ▸ (term: facial_recognition, unreviewed)

gunshot_detection¶

(no findings)

mobile_forensics¶

(no findings)

osint_social_monitor¶

(no findings)

predictive_policing¶

(no findings)

purchasing_broker¶

(no findings)

rtcc¶

(no findings)

surveillance_general¶

[2025-10-08] Planning & Zoning Commission -- Planning & Zoning

...attorneys, details are on the application. Again, as with myself, we have sent recorded letters out to some of the neighbors there around that culvert just to ask for information and to CCTV it to see if there's any issues with it that might causing backup on the site. So we're trying and I mean, as as a kid, it was a 24 inch would be more than adequate for the water... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:03:36 ▸ (term: surveillance_general, unreviewed)
[2025-10-08] Planning & Zoning Commission -- Planning & Zoning

...And obviously that came up in the discussion. We -- the talking points that I picked up were a water going to that 24-inch culvert. And I know myself and my client have reached out to the neighbors there who -- to own it, to ask that we could CCTV it to see if it's blocked in any way. There's only debris through there to try and figure out. It's a large pipe.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 48:12 ▸ (term: surveillance_general, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...That's definitely possible. And if we do, if something is recorded, obviously, that's going to be tagged as evidence, like your typical camera, whether it's my body camera, whether it's my dash camera, or it's my surveillance camera on the streets, tagged in the same way, same manner, then everything else gets deleted. We'll be right back.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:33:15 ▸ (term: surveillance_general, unreviewed)
[2025-04-23] Town Council -- Town Council

...We now have a still shot versus I just want to know every white male that walked on the Burnside Main Street intersection and cross the crosswalk over the past month. You know, that's very different parameters that we're putting in and therefore very different control measures that we need to have in place. I'm actually a lot more comfortable with the still shot stuff than the surveillance camera aspect of it. And there's portions of that that we don't even know what not to allow it to do. They can take, if we have footage from 10 years ago, you want to overlay it with the new software.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:27:16 ▸ (term: surveillance_general, unreviewed)
[2025-03-18] Town Council -- Town Council

...If the sink's not draining, the toilet's not draining in the middle of the night, we'll go out there, we'll investigate, make sure it's not the sewer. Well, if identify it's the home, we'll bring a contractor in to hopefully address it. Um, if we do get it, uh, we do address it, we'll CCTV the lateral, see if there's any structural issues. Um, we identify a structural issue. Uh, one, we'll figure out the best method for replacement or rehabilitation.... Watch on Viebit ▸ jump to 1:09:26 ▸ (term: surveillance_general, unreviewed)

undercover_tools¶

(no findings)

vehicle_forensics¶

(no findings)

video_analytics¶

(no findings)

Agenda/minutes mentions (unreviewed -- live keyword scan, no human review queue yet)¶

ai_data_fusion¶

(no mentions)

alpr¶

(no mentions)

biometrics_other¶

(no mentions)

body_camera¶

(no mentions)

cad¶

(no mentions)

cell_site_sim¶

(no mentions)

data_broker¶

(no mentions)

doorbell_partnership¶

(no mentions)

drone¶

(no mentions)

facial_recognition¶

(no mentions)

gunshot_detection¶

(no mentions)

mobile_forensics¶

(no mentions)

osint_social_monitor¶

(no mentions)

predictive_policing¶

(no mentions)

purchasing_broker¶

(no mentions)

rtcc¶

(no mentions)

surveillance_general¶

(no mentions)

undercover_tools¶

(no mentions)

vehicle_forensics¶

(no mentions)

video_analytics¶

(no mentions)

How this report was built¶

Everything below describes the corpus and its limits, rather than what was found in it.

Coverage status¶

Channels registered: 1
Active meeting bodies: 5
Videos registered: 126 (fetched: 126, no captions: 0)
Date range covered: 2021-03-10 to 2026-09-01 (all 126 videos dated)

Channels¶

display_name	channel_id	handle
East Hartford Community Television (Viebit)	ehct_viebit

Tab crawl history¶

channel_id	tab	last_crawled_at	video_count
ehct_viebit	viebit_vod	2026-09-04 12:05:26.403228	126

Registered meeting bodies¶

body_name	category	active	video_count
Town Budget	budget_finance	True	0
Town Council	council	True	85
Board of Education	education	True	7
Planning & Zoning Commission	other	True	27
Zoning Board of Appeals	other	True	6

Zero videos registered for: Town Budget

Agenda/minutes coverage¶

No agenda source registered for this town yet.

Agenda sources¶

(none)

Research log¶

logged_at	field_name	new_value	source	by
2026-09-04 09:24:02.210333	channel_found	ehct_viebit -- "East Hartford Community Television" on Viebit (LEIGHTRONIX), tenant `ehct`, 126 meeting videos spanning 2021-03-10 to 2026-09-01. Found only after establishing that the town's YouTube footprint is a dead public-access channel (4 videos, last 2022), a PR channel (123 videos, 2 of them meetings), and the school district -- i.e. a YouTube-only crawl correctly finds nothing and would have marked this town blocked.	Viebit /vb/public/vod catalog API + easthartfordct.gov Town Council recorded-meetings pages, 2026-09-03	claude
2026-09-04 09:24:02.210333	deprioritization_was_wrong	Ranked 146/169 because a seed script tiers has_flock='no' towns last. But an earlier ALPR-contract survey recorded that the town "passed a police-technology ordinance enabling future ALPR installation, but as of reporting had no active contract or cameras yet" (2026-07-27) -- an ALPR-enabling ordinance debate is exactly what this corpus is for. Separately, East Hartford PD is a confirmed Axon evidence.com tenant (`easthartfordpd`, municipal, unambiguous) in the 2026-09-01 v2 sweep, and is NOT among the 12 CT tenants exposing a public ALPR transparency portal: Flock-negative, Axon-positive, the Bristol/West Hartford shape.	ALPR-contract survey records + the Axon tenant sweep, 2026-09-03	claude
2026-09-04 09:24:02.210333	meeting_date_provenance	The tenant names files after the meeting (TC_260901.mp4 = 2026-09-01), so filenames carry the MEETING date: 119/126 parse, 115 of those agreeing with the API's created_date within one day. created_date is the UPLOAD date -- it lags the meeting by a median 1 day on Coventry and by up to 1097 days on re-uploads here -- so it is only ever a fallback, recorded as date_provenance='viebit_api' versus 'viebit_filename'.	Comparison of parsed filename dates against API created_date across the full 126-video catalog, 2026-09-03	claude
2026-09-04 09:24:02.210333	no_captions_on_platform	Viebit serves no captions at all: every watch page reports "textTracks":[], there is no caption endpoint, and yt-dlp's generic extractor cannot handle the watch page. This town's transcripts are therefore produced by local ASR (faster-whisper small.en int8), recorded per-transcript in transcripts.asr_engine. Benchmarked on the ingest host (6-core CPU, no GPU) at 0.13x realtime -- 7.7x faster than the meeting -- so the ~220-hour back catalog is roughly 29 CPU-hours, no GPU required.	watch-page player config inspection + faster-whisper benchmark on a real Town Council recording, 2026-09-03	claude
2026-09-04 09:24:02.210333	out_of_state_collision_ruled_out	Viebit subdomains are opaque initialisms on wildcard DNS and collide across states, so `ehct` was confirmed by content: tenant title "East Hartford Community Television" plus a folder list that is unambiguously a CT town's (Town Council, Board of Education, Zoning Board of Appeals, Planning-Zoning-Wetlands, Town Council - Town Budget), corroborated by easthartfordct.gov. Four look-alikes REJECTED the same day: fctv26 = Farmington NH ("Plan NH Stearing Committee"), wctv = Windham NH (Town/School "Deliberative", an NH SB2 construct), middletownchannel20 = Middletown NY (IDA Meetings/Common Council), swtv = Minnesota (Dassel/Delano parades) and NOT South Windsor CT.	Per-tenant /vb/public/folders inspection across a 386-tenant Viebit sweep, 2026-09-03	claude

Gaps and caveats¶

Videos with no captions available (0 shown, max 25)¶

(none)

Tabs never crawled¶

channel	tab
East Hartford Community Television (Viebit)	videos
East Hartford Community Television (Viebit)	streams

Get the full transcripts¶

Download East Hartford's meeting transcripts (.zip)

Every finding in this report is a keyword match against exactly these files. Download them to check a quote in its full context, or to search for something this report's keyword list does not cover.

What's inside: one plain-text .txt file per meeting, named <date>_<video-id>_<meeting-title>.txt, plus a MANIFEST.txt giving the date range and how much of the town's video archive is transcribed.

How to use it

unzip east-hartford-meeting-transcripts.zip -d east-hartford
cd east-hartford

# every meeting that mentions a term, with the surrounding line
grep -rin "license plate" .

# just the meeting dates, from the filenames
grep -ril "flock" . | sort

The filename's leading date is the meeting date, so a hit tells you which meeting to watch. Find that meeting in the Timeline below for a direct, timestamped link to that moment in the video.

These are machine-generated captions, not certified minutes. Expect mis-heard names and technical terms, and quote the video rather than the transcript when accuracy matters.

Generated 2026-09-27T15:17:23 from East Hartford's meeting transcripts and agenda documents. Home addresses spoken during public comment are redacted; see the archive MANIFEST for what that means.

Questions? Feedback?