The town of Glenrock has had Flock cameras at its entrances for about two years, the police chief said Thursday.
Glenrock Police Chief Colter Felton said the media hasn't reported on the license plate reader cameras and the community didn't express outrage over them, and they've been mounted for about two years.
Cowboy State Daily contacted Felton about the cameras after a public-records request revealed that Felton, on Glenrock's behalf, secured a Wyoming Department of Transportation permit to mount readers on highway rights of way.
Though Felton had little drama to report, the town's state-level legislative representative, Rep. Kevin Campbell, told Cowboy State Daily he disapproves of the system and sees the practice as an irreversible spiral toward fewer rights and more surveillance.
Campbell's Republican primary election opponent Edis Allen declined to comment on Glenrock's system specifically because he hasn't seen it, but said he also disapproves of the surveillance systems generally.
The Records Request
Cowboy State Daily submitted a public-records request last month to obtain all Wyoming Department of Transportation permits granted to entities for mounting license plate reader cameras along highways.
The agency’s records return showed the already-known camera presence in Cheyenne and Jackson, and at the entrances to the Wind River Indian Reservation in Fremont County.
It also showed that the town of Glenrock, through Felton, secured a permit to mount Flock license plate reader cameras on highway rights of way north of the Rolling Hills area.
Felton said in a Thursday phone interview that his agency has cameras at every entrance to town.
No controversy erupted at a town council meeting on the matter in 2024, said Felton.
“We put out information about it and talked about it in council meetings,” he recalled. “We really didn’t get a ton of, I guess, people showing up to talk about it, or with any sort of issue.”
One person came to a meeting held in Rolling Hills and “had some discussion,” the chief added.
Glenrock’s Legislator, And His Opponent, Dislike This Tech
But on Friday, Campbell told Cowboy State Daily he first learned of the cameras’ existence about a year ago, and isn’t in favor.
“Anytime we give something up we never get anything back; that’s my biggest concern with them,” said Campbell. “In today’s world we’ve already given up so much. Everywhere you go nowadays you’re on camera. Ring cameras, security cameras … I just hate to see our nation going that way.”
Campbell said he understands the systems are useful. For example, Wyoming still has cattle rustlers, along with other crimes involving getaway vehicles.
He said he’s unsure if he might do anything about the cameras if reelected to the Legislature this year, but added, “If anybody has any questions or comments, or if there’s concerns out there, I’d be willing to listen.”
In his own Friday interview, Allen said he hadn't seen the cameras.
But of the surveillance technology buildout in general, Allen said he disapproves.
“Our friends Britain are chopping those things down, and I think they’re kind of invasive,” said Allen. “Any camera that just watches the public, I think, is a bad idea. That’s something you shouldn’t have in a free society; we should be able to move freely without being tracked.”
Senator Says He’s Looking Into It
Cheyenne residents clashed publicly this year over the city’s license plate reader system. So too have the residents of Jackson, in Wyoming’s richest region.
And on June 18, when Cowboy State Daily broke the news that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had contracted camera placements with the Wind River Intertribal Council representing both the state’s American Indian tribes, controversy unfolded.
Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, called the nation’s camera buildout “somewhat ‘1984’-ish” and “a big step in our surveillance society.”
In a June 22 interview on Cowboy State Daily’s Morning Show With Jake, he promised to “look at” the issue as a state legislator. He voiced approval of the Institute for Justice's proposed legislation to require Fourth Amendment guardrails on the systems.
Misinformation
Felton said he doesn’t know why Glenrock has produced less controversy than elsewhere. But he has a theory.
“I like to believe it’s due to the trust they have for us, in law enforcement,” he said. “But I can’t speak on others’ behalf.”
On the other hand, Felton theorized that much of the outrage nationally traces to misinformation about the cameras.
They capture images of license plates and alerts law enforcement if a plate is flagged in conjunction with a criminal or crisis incident, Felton said. Officers then can investigate the plate number and continue the investigation from there, he added.
A definition by the International Association of Chiefs of Police says the cameras might capture the likenesses of vehicle occupants as well.
Felton said that hasn’t been his experience. He invited Cowboy State Daily to watch the system in action and, with the outlet’s deadline not allowing for that, he sent a photograph the system shot of a police vehicle, which shows the license plate number but doesn’t show occupants.
“I have nothing to hide,” said Felton. “I will tell you our cameras are strategically placed, so we’ll know simply if a vehicle comes out or into Glenrock. I couldn’t tell you anything about what a person does in the vehicle.”
The main focus is public safety, he said, including any potential bank robberies, kidnappings, “those types of things.”
About These Permits
Upon learning that agencies need to secure a WYDOT permit to mount cameras on highway rights-of-way, Cowboy State Daily asked WYDOT for copies of all those permits.
The permit records don’t cover the cameras that don’t sit on highway rights of way, which might include many within towns.
The Wind River Intertribal Council consists of six executive-branch governors from the Northern Arapaho Tribe and six from the Eastern Shoshone Tribe. It signs off on intertribal resolutions affecting both tribes, which share the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming.
The Intertribal Council and the DEA together secured permits to mount Neology P500 “Iris” series cameras at the entrances to the reservation in the spring and summer of 2025, the documents show.
One mount sits just south of the Shoshone Rose Casino & Hotel on Highway 287. Another is on Gas Hills Road north of Riverton, near where it forks from Highway 789. And another set are on both the east and west side of that highway, also just north of Riverton and just south of the tribal-run Wind River Hotel and Casino.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
