Plate readers and private patrols

The policy is a public paper. A contract is not a dragnet finding.

This page separates the statute from the contracts. It does not find that every county skipped a required filing, and it does not find that a security company harassed anyone. A council member’s objection is that member’s statement. A company’s report count is the company’s number.

What 46-5-117 and 46-5-118 actually require

Section 46-5-117 says a state or local agency may not use a license plate reader on a public highway, with listed exceptions. One exception is law enforcement, and only if the agency adopts and publicizes a written policy before the reader is operational. The policy has to cover database comparisons, retention, sharing with other agencies, training, supervision, access and security, and access to data from readers the agency does not operate. Once a year the agency audits use and effectiveness and reports that audit to the head of the agency operating the system. A hit by itself is not reasonable suspicion for a stop.

Section 46-5-118 is the clock. Plate data from a reader operated by or on behalf of a law enforcement agency for the law-enforcement uses in 46-5-117(2)(d) may not be kept more than 90 days, unless a sworn preservation request, a state search warrant, or a federal search warrant says otherwise. A preservation request lasts one year and then the data is destroyed under the custodian’s retention policy, unless a new request resets the year. The data is a public record and is still protected from ordinary disclosure, except to the person the plate is registered to. An agency may withhold it if disclosure would compromise an open investigation.

Neither section, as published by the Legislature, tells the agency to file that policy with the county attorney. The audit goes to the head of the agency. A claim that “no county has given the county attorney a copy” is not a finding this desk can make. The statute does not describe that copy.

46-5-117 · 46-5-118

One county policy is already public

The Valley County Sheriff’s Office publishes an automated license plate reader policy. It cites both sections. It says stored data is kept 90 days and then purged unless it is, or reasonably will be, evidence or the subject of a lawful production demand. Outside agencies that want it kept longer must follow 46-5-118. A user log is kept permanently. Non-law-enforcement requests are not processed.

That one public policy is enough to reject a statewide “no county has one” sentence. This desk did not build a 56-county inventory. The Missoula Police policy manual index, as retrieved from the city site, did not show an automatic-license-plate-reader heading in the list that was read. Absence from that index is not proof that no policy exists.

Valley County policy · Missoula police manual index

Private cameras are not the agency policy

On February 20, 2026, the Missoulian reported that businesses, including one at Southgate Mall in Missoula, use Flock license-plate cameras, and that footage from those cameras is often used by local law enforcement. The story does not say the Missoula Police Department operates the cameras. It does not say the 90-day rule in 46-5-118 has been applied to them. That rule covers a system operated by or on behalf of a law enforcement agency. Whether a store camera shared with police is “on behalf of” the agency is not decided here.

Missoulian, February 20, 2026

City contracts, in order

These are Missoula city purchases of private guards. They are not a finding that the guards are off-duty officers, that they work the federal building, or that they harass poor or disabled people. Those claims were not in the records copied here.

Rogers International · 2021–2022

Armed compliance rounds at the authorized campsite

Missoula Current reported on October 21, 2021, that the city and county were moving a contract of about $670,000 with Rogers International, paid with American Rescue Plan money, for security at the Poverello, the Johnson Street winter shelter, a temporary safe outdoor space, and a sanctioned campsite off North Reserve. The Poverello’s director wrote that the shelter had not hired the company and did not control the contract.

The Missoulian, August 15, 2022, reported seven armed Rogers guards in tactical vests and face coverings checking tents at the authorized campsite. The same story said the city contract required casual branded clothes with the company name visible, and conceal-carried firearms. City officials said they did not know why the dress had changed and that they were investigating. The story put the November 2021 contract at $670,000 and the base rate at $30 an hour. In October 2022 the city replaced Rogers with Black Knight Security after the campsite closed.

Missoula Current, October 21, 2021 · Missoulian via the Spokesman-Review, August 15, 2022 · Montana Right Now, October 20, 2022

Black Knight Security · city contract

Parks and shelters, no body cameras in the deal the council passed

NBC Montana reported on October 8, 2024, that the council extended Black Knight for a third year, 9–2, at $670,000 for fiscal year 2025, to oversee parks and public rights-of-way. Council member Daniel Carlino said the city had “created a private policing through a private company.” Council member Kristen Jordan said a private force for “one of our most vulnerable populations,” without police oversight and without security cameras, was problematic. The station reported that the extension lets Black Knight operate without body cameras, that cameras were discussed in committee, and that the issue was dropped. Police Chief Michael Colyer and the city were reported as estimating a sworn-officer version of the same work at $1,633,240, or $2,402,648 with overtime.

On September 25, 2025, NBC Montana reported a new one-year deal worth more than $779,000, up from $670,000, with a 3 percent pay increase. The billing rate for park and shelter patrol was $44.03 an hour, overtime $66.05. The preliminary vote was 8–1, Carlino opposed. City officials said the work reduced direct calls to police. The company reported needing police backup in about one of every 15 public interactions from January 1 to September 15. It reported using force twice in three years, both times when a security employee was assaulted. Arianna Jones, president of operations, said the company wrote 1,026 park reports in that same span, 372 of them trespass, during 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. when parks are closed. She said Black Knight does not have a direct contract with the Poverello and cannot enter unless the center approves.

A 2020 Board of Private Security matter, numbers 2020-PSP-104 and 2020-PSP-105, is a stipulation involving Black Knight license 289 and a complaint about resident managers. The pages retrieved did not state a penalty. None is printed here.

NBC Montana, October 8, 2024 · NBC Montana, September 25, 2025

Grizzly Security · not this patrol

A fee-counting contract, not a county police contract

USAspending lists purchase order 140L1022P0004 to Grizzly Security Armored Express, Inc., of Kalispell, awarded by the Department of the Interior. The description is “Missoula Field Office fee counting services.” The industry code on later modifications is armored-car services. That is not a Missoula County patrol contract, and this desk did not find one. The company says its officers are licensed by the Montana Board of Private Security. A license is not a finding about how a guard treated anyone.

USAspending, 140L1022P0004

Left off, because it was not in a record

Providence or St. Patrick Hospital security. No public contract or complaint was copied.
A federal-building contract for Black Knight. The city stories say parks, shelters, and government buildings. They do not name the federal building.
Off-duty police or sheriff staffing. Not in the stories copied here.
Harassment of poor or disabled people. The public fight is about who patrols parks and shelters, and about body cameras. That fight is not a verdict.