Minutes prepared by Chief Shane Collins say Flock owned Holmen’s cameras; a later permit bearing his signature identifies Holmen Police as the facility owner and places a camera in the Town of Holland.
Holmen Police Chief Shane Collins prepared the committee minutes that say Flock owned Holmen’s license plate-reading cameras. Seven weeks later, his signature appeared on a WisDOT permit application identifying the Holmen Police Department as the owner of one of those cameras.
That is not speculation about who wrote the minutes. The final page of the March 5, 2024, Law Enforcement Committee minutes says: “Minutes By Shane Collins” and identifies him as chief of police.
Those same minutes record Collins telling the committee that Flock owned the cameras.
Then came WisDOT Permit No. 001605.
The state application places a camera on WIS 35 in the Town of Holland. Its first box—“Applicant (Utility facility owner) Name and Address”—identifies the Holmen Police Department. A separate box names Flock Safety as an outside “utility authorized representative.” Collins’s name and signature appear on the line labeled “Utility Authorized Representative.”
One camera. Two ownership stories. The same police chief is connected to both records.
That does not establish wrongdoing. It does establish a conflict the Village of Holmen, Flock Safety and WisDOT should explain plainly.
Collins prepared the minutes
The March 5 minutes are not a secondhand summary written by an unidentified clerk. They were prepared by Collins.
During the committee’s discussion of whether to buy eight Flock cameras, the minutes say Collins described the technology, showed examples of cases and presented a map of proposed locations. When a committee member asked who would cover damaged cameras, the minutes record this answer:
“Collins advised the cameras are owned by Flock and they would pay for the damage cameras.”
The next paragraph switches to the first person and says the writer contacted Flock the following day. The document closes with Collins’s name as the person who prepared the minutes.
That matters because the ownership statement cannot be dismissed as a clerk’s loose paraphrase of what Collins said. Collins was the speaker identified in the passage and the author identified at the end of the record.
The minutes also show that the damage question remained unsettled. They say Flock later advised that the Village—or the insurer for a vehicle that struck a pole—could have to cover the cost. That is different from the initial statement that Flock would pay for damaged cameras.
The permit tells a different ownership story
Collins signed the WisDOT application on April 22, 2024. WisDOT received it April 24 and issued Permit No. 001605 on May 1.
The application says:
- Applicant and utility facility owner: Holmen Police Department
- Facility: ALPR camera
- Municipal location: Town of Holland
- Highway: WIS 35
- Outside utility representative: Flock Safety, 1170 Howell Mill Road NW, Suite 210, Atlanta
- Utility authorized representative signature: Shane Collins
- Title: Chief
The plans identify the device as Camera #07 and place it near WIS 35, Blackwelder and Prairie Place. The listed coordinates are 43.99794308, -91.28994008.
Ownership is not a trivial label on this form. The permit says it is not transferable. If ownership of the utility facility changes, the permit terminates and a new owner must obtain a permit to occupy, operate and maintain the facility in WisDOT right-of-way.
So which record accurately describes the arrangement?
Was Flock the owner, as Collins told the committee and recorded in the minutes he prepared? Was Holmen Police the owner, as the permit application bearing his signature states? Or were the word “owner” and the form’s representative fields used incorrectly?
The records reviewed for this article do not answer those questions.
Who did Collins represent when he signed?
The application creates a separate representation question.
Holmen Police is named as the applicant. In the box that asks for a company name and address when the utility’s authorized representative is not employed by the applicant, the form lists Flock Safety. Collins then signs the “Utility Authorized Representative” line using his Holmen title, phone number and email address.
The permit does not prove Collins worked for Flock or was legally authorized to act for the company. It may be a poorly completed form. It may reflect a vendor-directed permit process. WisDOT may have understood Collins to be signing only for Holmen Police.
But the document itself does not make that clear, and the public should not have to guess which party a police chief represented when he signed a state permit.
A Holmen camera in the Town of Holland
The permit also confirms that Holmen’s planned camera network crossed a municipal boundary.
Holmen’s Village Board voted 6-0 on March 14, 2024, to purchase eight cameras for $29,200 in the first year and $24,000 in the second. Collins signed a Flock agreement four days later. The WisDOT application followed in April for a camera site in the Town of Holland.
The regular Holland Town Board minutes posted for March 13, April 10 and May 8 contain no reference to Flock, an automated license plate reader or the WIS 35 camera. That does not prove Town approval was legally required, and it does not prove Holland officials received no notice outside a public meeting. It means no public discussion appears in those three regular-meeting records during the approval and permitting period.
Holland residents deserve a clear account of who selected the site, who controls the camera and its data, and which elected body is accountable for its use.
Questions the records leave open
Holmen, Flock, WisDOT and the Town of Holland should answer these questions:
- Why did minutes prepared by Collins say Flock owned the cameras while the later WisDOT application identified Holmen Police as the owner?
- In what capacity did Collins sign the “Utility Authorized Representative” line?
- Who completed the owner and outside-representative fields on the application?
- Who selected the WIS 35 location, and what notice did the Town of Holland receive?
- Which agency controls searches, sharing, retention and audit review for data captured at this site?
I have not seen records answering those questions. Responses were not requested before this draft was prepared. Before publication, the permit and the conflicting ownership language should be sent to Collins, the Village of Holmen, Flock Safety, WisDOT and the Town of Holland with a reasonable response deadline.
Sources
- WisDOT Permit No. 001605, issued May 1, 2024 (20-page public record supplied for this report; public upload or document link needed before publication).
- Holmen Law Enforcement Committee minutes, March 5, 2024
- Holmen Village Board minutes, March 14, 2024
- Understanding Contracts: Holmen Police Chief and the Flock Agreement
- WisDOT Highway Maintenance Manual 09-15-65
- Town of Holland 2024 agendas and minutes