Prosecutor and police back 'exigent circumstances' standard, committee adds documentation rule

Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin told the Disaster Recovery, International Affairs and Planning Committee that the proposed ordinance should allow criminal‑investigative uses of ALPR and facial recognition tools under a flexible "exigent circumstances" exception rather than a narrower "imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury" phrase.

Martin recommended that any exigent use be accompanied by documentation completed within 24 hours so the use could be audited and tied to constitutional case law on warrant exceptions. "The documentation required by subsection b together with a description of the circumstances constituting... exigent circumstances, must be completed within 24 hours after its use," Martin said during committee discussion.

MPD representatives told the committee they supported that framing, saying it "cleans it up a lot for us." Committee members and corporation counsel worked through rewording in subsections e/f/g to require receiving agencies to agree in writing to limit dissemination and to document exigent disclosures "as soon as possible." The edits were adopted by motion and folded into the ordinance package the committee forwarded on first reading.