PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners are considering a multi-year contract for street-level imaging technology that the Assessor’s Office has already been using on a trial basis.
The county has been piloting the service from Cyclomedia Technology, Inc., which captures high-resolution, 360-degree images from public roadways to help appraisers review property conditions.
The proposed agreement would cover more than 400 miles of roadway and include LiDAR data. The 2026 cost would be just over 71-thousand dollars — funding that is already built into the Assessor’s budget.
Chief Appraiser Dan Childress says the system allows staff to conduct more desktop reviews instead of driving long distances for site visits, saving time and county resources.
“Think Google Street View, except much more high-resolution. So it allows us to assess conditions and different characteristics much more accurately. One of the benefits of that — particularly given how spread out many areas of our county are — is that it saves a considerable amount of time. If we have to send someone out, that takes significant county resources, especially if we can streamline that,” Childress told commissioners.
While commissioners say the pilot appears to have improved efficiency, they raised several concerns before moving into a longer-term contract.
One question is whether the county must put the contract out to competitive bid now that the trial phase is ending — or whether Cyclomedia qualifies as a sole-source provider.
Commissioners also pressed for clarity on privacy protections, including how long images are stored, who has access to them, and whether license plates or faces are visible.
Childress said the imagery includes automatic blurring for public-facing use and that the data is not sold or shared outside county operations.
“Cyclomedia actually keeps that data, although we have a right to it. From what I understand, we can apply as many licenses as we want to utilize it. So we can share it with other departments. I don’t think we can sell it right now. The only people using it are the Assessor’s Office, or another department that may want to use it in the courthouse,” said Childress.
Staff will review procurement requirements and return with clarification before commissioners take formal action on the contract.