Report: Iowa City Could Be Among First in Nation to Ban This Surveillance Tactic

Iowa City could be among the first in the nation to ban drones, traffic cameras and license plate readers, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reports. 

The call for a ban was spurred by a petition that generated 1,000s of signature. The Iowa City Council voted unanimously on the ban ordinance on Tuesday, and say they will again when the ordinance comes up for a final reading in two weeks, the newspaper reports.

However, they say they still favor using some of these devices in the future, but will wait for a review on red light cameras from state lawmakers, according to the paper. The ordinance could be repealed in two years. 

“I’m going to have to support it — ‘have to’ is the key word there — because our state has chosen not to move forward with the technology. … I’ll be the first one to bring back red-light cameras as soon as we can,” council member Terry Dickens said at the meeting according to the newspaper.