The Kewanee City Council is exploring using a location intelligence and foot traffic data software to track people’s movements within the city. [Photo by Michael Berry]

Cell phones are useful devices that many people feel they couldn’t live without.

Cell phones are also a source of information for companies that know how to collect it. And City Manager Gary Bradley said Monday that he’d like for the city government to have access to that information.

At Monday’s City Council meeting, Bradley said he’d like to work with a company called Placer AI to get information on people’s movements in Kewanee. The company’s services would cost $15,000 for a year, and Bradley said the service could be well worth it.

The company uses cell phone data to track people’s movements. For example, the phone usage information can help determine people’s shopping patterns — information that could be useful to local merchants.

Bradley stressed that the analytics platform would not collect personal information on cell phone users; the information would be anonymous. The company would not have information on where phone users had been on the Internet, or listen in on any phone conversations; it would just trace where the phones had been.

That information would enable local business people to do targeted marketing, Bradley said. And it could help the city government as well.

For example, he said, the city is working to develop a sidewalk improvement plan. The cell phone data could reveal which streets have the heaviest pedestrian traffic and would most benefit from new sidewalks.

“Yes, there are a lot of people who don’t have cell phones,” Bradley said. “But there are a lot of people that do.”

He said the upcoming Hog Capital Festival would be an excellent opportunity to gather information on how many people visit Kewanee for the weekend, and where they go when they’re here.

Councilman Mike Komnick, who works in information technology at Martin Engineering, said he would go along with hiring Placer AI, but only for a year. At the end of the year, Komnick said, the city could review the program to see how much benefit it offers.

Mayor Gary Moore agreed, and suggested that city staff could check with other communities that have used Placer AI’s services to see what their experience has been.

A vote on whether to go with the location analytics will be scheduled for the council’s Aug. 26 meeting.