As local officials released water from the Lake Manatee Dam to manage rising reservoir levels during Tropical Storm Debby, residents felt they were left with little warning to prepare for the flooding.
Now, Manatee County officials are using a real-time data monitoring system, implemented after the dam flood, to help prevent similar situations by giving them more time to anticipate rising waters, plan dam releases and notify residents before the next major storm.
"What we want to try to do is minimize any impacts of our operations on people downstream," said Patrick Shea, Manatee County’s director of utilities.
The system, called Peregrine, brings information from county departments and outside agencies into a single dashboard, allowing officials to track everything from rainfall and stream levels to emergency calls and wastewater infrastructure. The county signed a contract to bring Peregrine to Manatee days before Debby hit, but equipment wasn’t set up before the storm arrived. Officials used data from Debby to prepare for Hurricane Helene just one month later.
But the technology, originally developed for law enforcement, has also raised concerns about privacy and government surveillance. As Manatee County expands its use beyond storm response to include emergency medical calls, patient histories and wellness checks, questions remain about how residents’ personal information is protected and who can access it.
In neighboring Sarasota County, the Sheriff’s Office secured nearly $1 million in state immigration enforcement funding to purchase Peregrine for criminal investigations. As Suncoast Searchlight previously reported, the technology has faced opposition in places like Durham, North Carolina, where officials rejected a proposed police contract after residents raised concerns about privacy and potential racial bias.
The company is one of the latest examples of how powerful — yet polarizing — AI data technology has become.
Austin Finan, a spokesperson for Peregrine, said the company doesn’t collect data or operate any surveillance hardware. Instead, it compartmentalizes existing data to help public safety agencies utilize information more precisely.
“Data protection and privacy are fundamental to the platform's design,” Finan told Suncoast Searchlight. “Agencies retain full ownership and control of their data, and Peregrine embeds configurable, policy-driven safeguards directly into the platform.”
Manatee is the first county in the nation to use Peregrine for storm and emergency management services. Officials describe the system as a valuable tool for making faster, better-informed decisions during potential disasters.
Officials now use the platform to assess rip currents, notify emergency personnel of incidents such as active shooter situations, identify residents who may need wellness checks and guide decisions about lifeguard staffing.
"It doesn't create data, it consolidates existing data," said Tony Incarnato, Manatee County Public Safety business systems support manager.
The need for better information became painfully clear during Tropical Storm Debby in August 2024, when as much as 18 inches of rain fell across parts of Manatee County, flooding homes and prompting more than 200 high-water rescues in Parrish and the eastern part of the county.
The county began implementing Peregrine during that hurricane season. By the time Hurricane Helene approached in September, officials had begun developing dashboards displaying stream gauge readings, wastewater lift station data and damage assessments.
The initial implementation of Peregrine cost $140,000, including the software and data integrations needed for storm response, according to Incarnato. The county spent another $267,500 to expand the system into other public safety operations this fiscal year.
Before Peregrine, departments relied on separate systems to collect and monitor information. Officials often had to pull updates from multiple sources, sometimes receiving data that was already outdated.
The system now allows utilities officials to monitor water flowing into Lake Manatee, compare current conditions with historical records and plan dam releases ahead of approaching storms.
During this year’s hurricane season, officials used Peregrine to determine how much water to release before a projected storm, working backward from the anticipated arrival to establish when releases should begin and how far the reservoir should be lowered.
For another projected storm that never materialized, Shea said officials were able to make decisions about releasing water based on the time of year and how quickly the reservoir could refill.
"We want to make sure it's holding enough water, but not too much and not too little," Shea said. "Too much puts us into the potential of having to release water too quickly, and not enough we get nervous during the dry season for being able to provide water."
The system also helps officials monitor storms that never make landfall in the county.
Hurricane Isaiah didn’t strike Manatee County in October, but Shea said Peregrine helped officials stay on top of any last-minute developments as the storm brought heavy rain and flooding concerns to the area.
“We were able to make some prudential judgment calls on what to do,” Shea said. “It's just a really good tool to be able to look at all the data that the county has and data that's available from the state and United States Geological Survey to be able to operate and make adjustment calls.”
In Manatee County, officials say the system’s power has expanded into other public safety operations, including beach patrol staffing, emergency dispatch and community health outreach.
When Manatee County lifeguards performed 136 water rescues in a single day, officials used Peregrine to investigate what made beach conditions so dangerous.
By analyzing historical weather data, wave heights and beach attendance, officials identified conditions associated with increased rip currents. The county then developed a rip current risk simulator to help determine where dangerous currents may be more likely, allowing lifeguards to be stationed in higher-risk areas.
"We're evolving as the world is evolving into data-driven decisions, looking at historical data to do predictive possibilities," Incarnato said.
The system also integrates 911 dispatch data to help officials identify incidents such as active shooter situations and notify designated personnel who may need to respond.
And the platform is being used to identify residents who may need additional medical attention. By analyzing emergency medical service calls, patient histories and other information, community health teams can identify potentially vulnerable residents and prioritize outreach.
The county is also finalizing a wellness platform to help deputies identify residents who may need a wellness check based on patterns in emergency calls.
"I think Peregrine for the 2024 storm season that everybody knows about has evolved into much, much more than that," Incarnato said. "Storm usage is almost secondary now.”
The expansion into medical outreach and wellness checks brings renewed attention to concerns about the technology’s ability to combine and analyze information about individuals.
Peregrine was originally developed for law enforcement, allowing agencies to pull together information from sources like police reports, public records, dispatch systems and automated license plate readers.
Privacy advocates have warned that combining such information can reveal details about people’s movements, relationships and daily routines that might otherwise be difficult for government agencies to identify.
Those concerns helped derail a proposed contract in Durham earlier this year. Residents warned that the technology could amplify racial bias in policing and expose personal information to misuse.
Citing those anxieties, city council members there voted in January to block the police department from initiating a contract.
“No one here today can promise that Durham’s policing tools and infrastructure won’t be used against us all in six months,” resident Rayna Rusenko said during the Durham City Council meeting in January.
Finan said Peregrine has protections in place to ensure the existing data compiled by the software isn’t compromised by unauthorized individuals, including audit logs that track who has accessed what information and when.
Peregrine also allows agencies to decide who can access specific information and for what purpose.
“These safeguards give agencies greater control and oversight over how their information is accessed and used, helping them enforce their own policies and protect sensitive data,” Finan said. Despite concerns surrounding its law enforcement applications, Manatee County officials see broader opportunities for Peregrine in emergency management.
The success of Peregrine in the county, Incarnato said, has encouraged the Florida Division of Emergency Management to expand its presence to other state counties.
In an August announcement, Peregrine said it was helping connect emergency response agencies across the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s six county Region 6, which includes Manatee, Pinellas and Pasco counties.
The initiative is designed to allow law enforcement, fire, emergency medical services and emergency management agencies to share real-time information during major storms and other emergencies.
Clinton Engelberger is a contributing writer and fact-checker for Suncoast Searchlight and has freelanced for The Times Union, OutSFL and The Washington Blade. Email Clinton at clintonengelberger@gmail.com. This article first appeared on Suncoast Searchlight and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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