Weber County man arrested after allegedly placing signage identifying license plate readers

OGDEN — A Weber County man has been arrested for apparently placing signs identifying the location of license plate readers around the county, prompting backlash from his backers who say the locations of such devices should be public.

David Belnap of West Haven was booked into the Weber County jail on Sunday for investigation of altering, defacing, knocking down or removing a traffic-monitoring device, according to online jail records as of Monday morning. His backers say he placed multiple signs around the county.

"Information regarding surveillance technology such as location and use of cameras should be freely available to the public. Mr. Belnap, by placing signs, ones that do not obstruct the use of the camera, was providing information which should already be accessible to the public," Peggy Kluthe of Indivisible Ogden said in a statement decrying his detention.

The arrest comes amid heated debate around Utah and beyond about automatic license plate readers, which track license plate numbers of cars passing their location. Law enforcement tout the devices as a useful tool in tracking criminal suspects and missing people while critics view them as an invasion of privacy.

Pictures provided to KSL of some of the signs Belnap allegedly posted on poles holding plate readers read, "Flock is watching you," feature a picture of an eye and show the Indivisible Ogden website address below that, indivisibleogden.org.

Flock Safety is a major manufacturer of license plate readers and the Ogden Police Department has 41 Flock devices placed around the city.

Weber County Sheriff Ryan Arbon said sheriff's deputies arrested Belnap in Marriott-Slaterville after receiving a report from a local resident of a man with a ladder around one of the devices.

"He was climbing and doing ... an activity or he was hanging something on the Flock device," Arbon said. When confronted by deputies, Belnap "discussed it and he admitted to it."

Belnap was released from jail Monday morning, according to Arbon. The charge he potentially faces is a misdemeanor, he said, though as of early Monday afternoon, Belnap had not yet been formally charged with anything in connection with the incident, according to court records.

In her statement, Kluthe said no official registry of plate reader camera locations exists and that critics of the devices have been "struggling to get information agency by agency." She said a demonstration was expected at 4 p.m. on Monday near the entrance to the Weber County Sheriff's Office complex, off busy 12th Street in Ogden, as a show of solidarity for Belnap.

"We demand that the sheriff department not arrest people who simply want to clearly mark when civil rights are being endangered by privatized surveillance," Kluthe said.

Arbon, for his part, said the location of plate readers is public information. Ogden police provided the rough locations of the readers in the city last January in a presentation to the Ogden City Council.

"It's not hidden," Arbon said. "You can Google and go to the websites and they'll tell you where the signs or the Flock cameras are."

Belnap has also been involved in demonstrations outside an Ogden Immigration and Customs Enforcement location, and part of a local contingent that has protested the federal crackdown on illegal immigration as heavy-handed.

Kluthe also called on the public to reach out to state leaders "to ask for clear policy governing (plate reader) companies and agencies." Indivisible Ogden is hosting a public meeting about license plate readers on Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pleasant Valley Branch Library in Washington Terrace.

Other local activists learned Weber County Sheriff's Office deputies had approached Belnap while he was placing signs and arrived at the scene of the interaction "to find Mr. Belnap's car being towed and Mr. Belnap arrested."

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