'We are going to be spied on'

COEUR d’ALENE — Four board members of the Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization said Wednesday they oppose a regional traffic management center.

They encouraged people to voice their objections at the KMPO meeting scheduled July 13, when the board is expected to consider killing the project.

“It’s going to be a federal program, a new bureaucracy that we won’t have any control over,” said Jeff Tyler of the Post Falls Highway District.

Kootenai County Commissioner Bruce Mattare said such government programs start with good intentions, then morph into a weapon against the people.

He said there should be no illusions about the center and how the data it collects will be used.

“We live in an era of deceit and betrayal,” he said.

About 200 people attended the nearly two-hour meeting at The Altar Church regarding the traffic management center, referred to by some as a “spy hub.”

Dan Gookin, city of Coeur d’Alene and Sandra White, city of Hayden, were the other two KMPO members to attend.

The federally required KMPO has been working toward the development of a regional traffic management center for several years and awarded a $400,000 contract to Iteris, a California-based company, to develop a plan for it.

The center would basically have the capability to observe the transportation network in real-time via video cameras placed at key arterials, with a goal to identify issues affecting traffic and allow for coordinated interagency response.

Mattare said the area’s growth was a reason cited for the traffic management center.

“It’s the people, the density, that’s driving this,” he said.

But many fear the information would be nothing more than a federal government surveillance system to monitor activities and whereabouts of people — and collect data that can be used against them.

“I think that’s driving the fears of why we’re here tonight,” White said.

She said it was important to stop the project before it goes any further, adding she didn't trust the process.

“From what I’ve seen, I don’t see transparency,” White said.

Gookin called the traffic management center an expansion of government.

“I don’t think it’s going to work, at least not the way they say it’s going to work,” he said.

Tyler said it was first pitched as a way to observe traffic in real-time and dispatch a response team to any mishaps. It was said the overall goal of the traffic management center was to improve safety and traffic flow.

He didn't buy it.

“I guess maybe I’m a little biased, that I don’t trust our federal government,” he said.

White shared a similar comment.

“I believe it can turn into a nanny state where they’re overlooking and watching what we’re doing,” she said.

The KMPO board is scheduled to meet at 1:30 p.m. July 13 at the Post Falls City Council chambers. Gookin said a proposal to kill the traffic management center is on the agenda, but it’s not known how the other board members will vote.

Tyler said the traffic management center “was just the beginning and needs to be stopped."

"Once we open this door it will never close and the federal government will have full control,” he said.

Rep. Tony Wisniewski of Post Falls also offered a warning about the traffic management center.

“We are going to be spied on and that data will be stored," he said.

Other KMPO board members are Lynn Borders, city of Post Falls; Jim Kackman, Coeur d'Alene Tribe; Graham Christensen, East Side Highway District; Damon Allen, Idaho Transportation Department; and Corinne Johnson, Worley Highway District; Vic Holmes, city of Rathdrum, and Rod Twete, Lakes Highway District.

Holmes had to attend a Rathdrum City Council meeting Wednesday. Other board members reportedly had previous engagements or did not respond to the invitation.

Tyler said people "have more power than we do" to influence the other board members and need to attend the July 13 meeting and call or email them.

“We need all of you to contact the folks that aren’t here and let them know how you feel about this so we can stop this,” he said.

Mattare agreed.

“I think, in the end, it’s going to come down to people like yourselves,” he said.