The State of Iowa owns 8,896 miles of roadways. These miles are managed by the Iowa Department of Transportation. As is typical, the DOT sets rules for what can and can’t be constructed on the side of the road, and it has a permitting process in place to ensure that whatever is built there conforms to rigorous safety standards.
For most of us anyway.
Rules for the Rest of Us
The Iowa DOT publishes a Design Manual that covers construction in the state right-of-way.
In it, you’ll find such statements as:
The Right of Way Design Section’s basic purpose is to produce and maintain a set of right of way plans for a project that are accurate, legible, clear and concise so as to be understood by landowners and Department personnel alike.
The DOT also operates a utility accommodation program, which the DOT helpfully describes as “the process that occurs when utilities are placed within the highway rights-of-way.”
The DOT operates an online utility permitting system and publishes a handbook that contains statements like:
115.15(7) Engineering. The utility owner is to retain the services of a licensed, professional engineer familiar with the requirements for utility work to be accomplished in Iowa.
Then there are 511 forms for lane closures, requirements about insurance, traffic restrictions, MUTCD compliance, MASH ratings, engineering standards, and various other things that are far beyond this simple poster’s paygrade.
Aren’t we all engineers when you think about it?
With that in mind, I present the site plan submitted to, and approved by, the Iowa DOT for Project Number FN-150-6(3)–21-33.
Deputy Sergeant Schveiger, who I assume is a licensed, professional engineer, assures us in the permit that the “wooden 18 ft breakaway pole” will be “put into the ground” behind the guardrail and that the Flock device will be “place on top of [the] pole approximately 11–12 ft in the air with two metal bands.”
Further, from Engineer/Sergeant Schveiger’s drawing, it is plainly visible that the pole is to be placed directly behind the guard rail and inside the guardrail’s deflection zone, where the “ground” is made of concrete.
A wooden breakaway pole is uncommon for equipment. Typically, those are smaller posts, used for signs. Equipment, including ALPRs, is typically placed on MASH-rated aluminum or composite poles, which Flock can helpfully provide — for a fee.
Due to its height, the proposed 18 foot wooden pole cannot be both a breakaway pole and support any sort of equipment. Now, without giving the DOT a pass for approving the permit, I’ll give Engineer/Sergeant Schveiger the benefit of the doubt and assume that “18 foot” is a typo. The main question — whether the pole is MASH-rated — remains unanswered.
However, that question does not matter. Even if it were a breakaway pole, by placing it directly behind a guardrail, that guardrail is turned from a shock-absorbing, protective barrier, engineered to deflect several feet and absorb the energy of a crashing vehicle, into a rigid wall.
The application was approved by the county. Not the county engineer or anyone whose position would give them insight on traffic engineering. Nor anyone with at least an appearance of neutrality. Instead, it was approved by Fayette County Sheriff Marty Fisher.
Then Nick Sorenson, the DOT’s “Engineering Operations Technician,” approved this death trap, based on the permit submitted — Microsoft Paint and all.
And it only gets worse from here.
All Roads Are Basically the Same, Right?
Different cities and different DOT districts take different approaches. Some submit one-liners on handwritten forms, others forward the more extensive Flock-produced plans that don’t follow DOT standards. The only thing they have in common is that the DOT approves them all.
Council Bluffs keeps it short and sweet in its permit application:
Installation of a Flock Safety license plate reader camera system with pole
That’s it.
Carlisle’s permit goes into slightly more detail than Council Bluffs’, and, to Carlisle’s credit, it even mentions they will be using a (MASH-rated, breakaway) Redi Torque assembly.
Installation of 2 ALPR cameras in DOT ROW installed (2) or X2 Redi Torque - Soil Plate and solar powered on behalf or Carlisle PD ... Falcon 2.2 - 16 mm - Verizon CAT 4 (7611) 65W Solar Panel cameras installed on behalf of Carlisle PD
Unfortunately, despite the technobabble, just like in Council Bluffs, the permit does not identify where the devices are to be installed.
Gary Kretlow Jr., Iowa DOT’s Engineering Technician Senior, approved it anyway.
After all, all roads are basically the same, right?
White Lies and Permit Applications
In an entirely unnecessary move, Storm Lake, home of Tyson Foods and its many immigrant laborers, takes it a step further and decides to lie on its permit application. Why not?
Cameras will be managed according to the restrictions of the devices. All replacement or maintenance of the devices and their supporting structures will be the responsibility of the Storm Lake Police Department.
Storm Lake is, in fact, the only party contractually prohibited from replacing or maintaining “the devices and their supporting structures”:
Customer is not permitted to remove, reposition, re-install, tamper with, alter, adjust or otherwise take possession or control of Flock Hardware. Customer agrees and understands that in the event Customer is found to engage in any of the foregoing restricted actions, all warranties herein shall be null and void, and this Agreement shall be subject to immediate termination for material breach by Customer.
“But,” I hear you say, “they can still be responsible without doing the work themselves!”
That would typically be true. Except the contractual prohibition on, basically, touching the device is exacerbated by the fact that Flock is under no obligation to maintain or fix it.
Flock shall use reasonable efforts consistent with prevailing industry standards to maintain the Services in a manner which minimizes errors and interruptions in the Services ... In the event that Flock Hardware is lost, stolen, or damaged, Customer may request a replacement of Flock Hardware at a fee according to the reinstall fee schedule.In the event that Customer chooses not to replace lost, damaged, or stolen Flock Hardware, Customer understands and agrees that Flock is not liable for any resulting impact to Flock Service, nor shall Customer receive a refund for the lost, damaged, or stolen Flock Hardware.
A Process for Some, a Rubber Stamp for Others
The Iowa DOT’s robust permitting process, with its reams of engineering standards, safety manuals, and requirements for licensed professionals, is a façade.
The evidence shows a two-tiered system. For the public and legitimate utilities, there are rules. For police agencies, there are approvals.
If you are a utility, you must hire an engineer. If you’re with the sheriff’s office, you can use MS Paint on a Google Maps screenshot and call it a site plan. The DOT will approve it.
The department will approve dangerously incomplete applications that fail to state where the equipment will even be installed. It will approve applications containing obvious, verifiable falsehoods about maintenance and liability. And it will sign off on plans that turn engineered safety barriers into rigid, vehicle-impaling deathtraps.
Just as police are not keeping us safe with mass surveillance, the DOT is not ensuring safety with mass approvals of equipment in the right-of-way. It abandons its most basic public duty in favor of providing a fast lane for surveillance, one dangerously stupid permit at a time.