Evansville Board of Public Safety Meeting - September 9, 2026
Evansville Board of Public Safety Meeting - September 9, 2026
The Board of Public Safety met on September 9, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. for its 17th scheduled meeting of the year. The meeting covered ratification of emailed consensus votes, public comment on surveillance cameras, approval of handicap parking spaces, departmental reports including a tabled river patrol agreement and opening of EMS consumables bids, approval of multiple special event permits, and consent items such as road closures, a precious metal dealer, and a second hand merchant.
Consent Calendar
- Ratified consensus vote items approved by email, including multiple dumpster permits and an event request extension (Tiki on Main Jeep Night extended to September 14).
- Approved all four road closures requested by Deig Bros Construction for precast drainage structure installations in September and October.
- Approved precious metal dealer Road Show Concepts LLC (Jordan Sadoff, Oak Brook, IL) for September 15–19, 2026. Board requested future applications include the physical location of the activity.
- Approved second hand merchant ecoATM LLC (Matthew Furlong) at 730 S Green River Road.
- Approved claims and minutes from the August 26, 2026 meeting.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Barton Heath (1744 Brent Drive, Newburgh, IN) and Alex Geckner (7301 Kramer Road, Evansville), representing DFLOC Evansville, spoke in opposition to the Flock automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras. They argued the cameras constitute warrantless surveillance, collect data that may be sold, and grant police excessive power over citizens. They stated that data requests to the city are often denied and that the system's full capabilities are unknown. They requested the board deny funding, remove existing cameras, and not renew contracts.
- Board members and Captain John McQuay responded, clarifying that Evansville’s Flock system is limited to license plate reading, that the city contract places strict limits on data use and retention, and that the system does not record sound or track individuals. They cited examples of the system helping recover stolen vehicles and invited the speakers to provide specific evidence of local misuse. The board emphasized the system's safety benefits and transparency of the contract.
Discussion Items
- Old Business – Handicap Parking:
- 724 E Powell: Approved. Resident’s driveway is too narrow for a wheelchair van; the wheelchair lift requires front-of-house access.
- 39 W Columbia Street: Approved. Resident parks behind the building but the apartment entrance is on Columbia Street; limited mobility makes the walk difficult. The handicap space will be placed on Baker Avenue, relocating an existing 30-minute parking sign.
- Department Reports:
- Police Department: Captain McQuay requested approval of an interlocal cooperation agreement for a joint river patrol with the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Department. The item was tabled for further review.
- Fire Department: Deputy Chief Kim Garrett requested and was granted permission to open bids for EMS consumables. Bids were read aloud from multiple vendors (e.g., Deaconess Hospital Inc. $838,113.03, Henry Shine Inc. $2,361.90, Bound Tree Medical LLC $2,477.13, etc.). The purchasing department noted that vendors were not required to quote all items, complicating comparison. The board took the bids under advisement for further review.
- Special Events (presented by Curtis for Sgt. Winsett): All nine event requests were approved as a block. Events include:
- Old National Events Plaza – Kidz Matter Conference Party (Locust St closure, Oct 5, 7am–10pm)
- Harrison Instrumental Band Boosters – Harrison Marching Band Invitational (N. Cullen Ave closure, Sept 26, 6am–6pm)
- Greater Lincolnshire Neighborhood Association – Lincolnshire Front Porch Festival (multiple streets, Oct 4, 1pm–7pm)
- Greater Lincolnshire Neighborhood Association – GLNA Block Party (Oct 3, 5pm–10pm)
- Evansville Rescue Mission – Drumstick Dash (route closure, Nov 7, 8am–9:30am)
- Jacobsville Area Community Corporation – Trunk or Treat (N. Main St, Oct 30, 3pm–9pm)
- Catie Catanese – Catanese Real Estate Car Show (Carpenter St, Oct 25, 9am–7pm)
- Hadi Shrine – Fall Ceremonial Parade (route, Nov 14, 3pm–5pm)
- Amvets Post 84 – Second Annual Car Show (Broadway, Sept 26, 10am–5pm)
Key Outcomes
- Ratified email consensus votes.
- Approved two handicap parking spaces (724 E Powell and 39 W Columbia).
- Tabled the joint river patrol interlocal agreement.
- Opened EMS consumables bids and took them under advisement for future award.
- Approved all nine special event permits.
- Approved road closures, precious metal dealer permit, second hand merchant permit, claims, and minutes.
- Next meeting announced: Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at 1:00 p.m., Civic Center Room 301.
Meeting Transcript
You can tell them something I'll work on. And then you can tell me, hey, we're going to go with this guy. All right. We are ready to begin the City of Evansville Port of Public Safety meeting. It is our 17th scheduled meeting of the year. But before we get into the board's business, would everybody stand and say a pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. Okay, first up, we have uh on our agenda is the ratifying of some consensus votes that we did by email. They are listed under A and B. Several of them had to do with dumpsters and an event event request as well. And so I'm going to move, we make a motion to ratify those. I will second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Same sign opposed. It is ratified and approved. Okay, I believe we have some gentlemen that want to make public comment to the board. We're going to go first. You you most certainly can. Could you please state your names and your addresses for the record, please? My name is Barton Heath, 1744 Brent Drive, Newburgh, Indiana. Alex Keckner, 7301 Kramer Road, Evansville. I'm sorry, what was your last name again? Gechner. Can you spell that for me? G-O-E-C-K-N-E-R. Thank you. The uh the reason we're here is we're with DFLOC Evansville, and uh we'd like to request that uh you uh deny funding and remove the Flock and ALPR cameras. We'd like them removed. Uh we want the safety board to cancel and not renew their contracts with any other agency either. We have been convicted of no crime and object to being surveilled. Uh in my case, I started out in uh Ivy Tech many years ago in uh 1987. I was in electronics. And uh during a tour through the uh robotics lab, our instructor stopped and pointed out some uh hardware that they were using, some electronics. And he told us that uh uh that had just been released from the Navy. It was a classified uh classified item. And uh we asked him if he had worked on that in his time in the Navy, because he had just recently gotten out. And he said, no, that was on uh submarines in the 1940s. So 40 years and they're just releasing this, and it wasn't for the public good, it was for the business of robotics for the uh for the industries. Uh so I immediately asked him, well, what do they have now? And he said, Well, they'll tell you when they want you to know. So all of these cameras are currently out there and it's a private business. We don't know what they know. Uh we can't find out anything about what these cameras do or what their capabilities are. And if we could, it could be classified, you know, we wouldn't be allowed to know. And I think as the public goes, you can't separate your public from your private. It's either it's either publicly owned and operated or it's not. And if it were private, it wouldn't be allowed in the public space. So uh then I ran into a guy in one of my works assignments, and he was in uh computer classes, and he was uh talking about data collection.
openpublica.com