Committee presses police on privacy, audit logs and funding for proposed drone and camera program

Residents and council members pressed the police department and vendor representatives on safeguards, data retention and who would review audit logs if the city adopts the proposed technologies. Captain McCarthy and vendor representatives repeatedly said the proposal would exclude facial recognition and 24/7 surveillance and would include role‑based permissions and detailed audit logs; McCarthy said audit trails and supervisory review are deterrents to misuse.

The department committed to public‑facing transparency measures for drone flights and monthly audits during proof‑of‑concept rollout. “Virtually every flight we fly is gonna be publicly broadcast on our website…you’re gonna be able to see the actual flight path, when it flew, how long it was up there, a case number that’s attributed to it,” McCarthy said. Committee members also asked how long the data would be retained; presenters said serious felony videos typically have 7–10 year retention windows and that Axon’s evidence.com is used by the Dane County district attorney.