Michigan City's Council tables utility fund, Flock camera expansion

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. -- On Tuesday, The Michigan City's Council meeting was packed with residents voicing concerns about city spending.

Council President Tracie Tillman presented a resolution to use a deposit made by Google’s data center at the Project Maize site to start a utility fund that would help prevent shut offs for low-income residents.

She said this idea was inspired by the rising costs of NIPSCO this last winter.

Of the $6.5 million paid by the data center, one million would be used by Michigan City Economic Development Corporation. The rest would be divided into that utility fund, as well as the budgets for police and fire.

Residents expressed that they felt the council was moving too fast with money received from the data center.

The council tabled this resolution to their next meeting.

The council also heard an ordinance on using $300,000 from the cities raining day fund to purchase additional cameras units from Flock Security, as well as the purchase of a drone.

Flock technology has been scrutinized for privacy concerns, many of which were echoed by residents in the meeting.

Assistant Chief of Police Kyle Shiparski assured that data from the cameras was only accessed when an investigation is triggered, is deleted after 30 days and would not be shared outside of the Michigan City Police Department.

Hearing resident concerns about the lack of statewide regulations for this technology, the council tabled this matter indefinitely.