The Houlton Town Council has agreed to remove controversial surveillance cameras in town and delete data from them as part of a settlement agreement with several residents who were preparing to file a lawsuit.
One resident, Mark Lipscombe, said the cameras have been in clear violation of Maine law, and the agreement brings the town into compliance.
Lipscombe said the agreement also requires a third party audit to ensure the town deletes some of the data and maintains some for public access requests.
"But it shouldn't be like this," he said. "We should be able to expect our town to operate within the parameters of the law, and anyone can make mistakes but, when it was identified, it should have been addressed immediately, and we wouldn't be where we are today."
Lipscombe said part of the issue has been difficulty getting information from the town about the cameras.
"And this is part of a pattern of the way the town of Houlton deals with freedom of access requests," he said. "And so the other big part of the settlement agreement is that the town is agreeing to maintain a publicly accessible freedom of access act log on their website."
Lipscombe said the residents have always hoped to resolve the issue out of court but until now, the town refused to enter negotiations.
He said the settlement agreement will need to be reviewed again before it is finalized. Town officials could not be reached for comment.
