Nassau lawmakers advance plan to add 20 new license plate readers in Jericho

Nassau County legislators on Monday advanced a plan to install 20 license plate reader cameras on several key roadways in Jericho, a move that would expand a tech network police say helps them track suspected criminals in real time.

Lawmakers from the chamber’s Rules Committee unanimously passed the measure to install the readers. It now heads to the full legislature for a vote Jan. 27.

If the resolution passes, the readers will be installed at the following 10 intersections, according to legislators:

• Robbins Lane at Ellen Place
• Robbins Lane at Lydia Place
• Robbins Lane at Freedom Drive
• Robbins Lane at Birchwood Park Drive
• North Service Road at Open Street
• North Service Road at Placid Street
• Birchwood Park Drive at Village Drive
• Hazelwood Drive at Market Street
• Jericho Turnpike at Merry Lane
• Jericho Turnpike at Marian Lane

Under the plan, the new state-funded readers in Jericho will be attached to street poles between 10 and 15 feet high. Nassau County officials bought the cameras from Leonardo, an aerospace, defense and security company based in Italy with a manufacturing arm in North Carolina.

The so-called ELSAG cameras can read license plates at night and under challenging weather conditions, according to the company’s website. They collect date and time stamps, GPS coordinates, an image of the plate and vehicle make, type and color.

The use of license plate reader technology is not new to the Town of Oyster Bay. Local police departments across Nassau County installed nearly 70 license plate readers last fall, following a $1 million state grant to purchase fixed and portable cameras in 2020.

Old Westbury Mayor Marina Chimerine previously told Newsday the cameras are a valuable tool for public safety for areas that straddle the high-density Long Island Expressway.

"It makes it easier for police to find perpetrators, it is less expensive for the village and it frees up officers to do other things," Chimerine said.

Once a license plate is captured, police can run it through several databases that help them get registration and criminal information associated with the car. Law enforcement officials are able to scan for stolen vehicles or license plate numbers connected to suspected criminals, helping them solve crimes ranging from homicides to minor thefts, officials have said. While police chiefs say the cameras help monitor crimes in progress, civil liberties groups have called them a highly invasive violation of privacy.

New York does not track the number of license plate reader cameras that exist across the state, officials previously told Newsday. Brookville Village Police Chief Kenneth Lack previously told Newsday the villages and Nassau and Suffolk counties have been using license plate reader technology for about two decades.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Nassau the safest county in the nation last year. It spent an average of $1,148 per resident on health and emergency services — compared to the national average of $440 per resident, according to the report. 

“They are just one tool in a toolbox filled with advanced technology that augments our intelligence led policing which has resulted in Nassau County being named the Safest County in America,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder wrote in a statement to Newsday. “We utilize the data to solve crimes from petit larcenies to homicides and everything in between.”

Police did not respond to Newsday's inquiry on how many readers have been installed across the county.

Civil liberties advocates and legal experts like Susan Gottehrer, Nassau County Chapter director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, have opposed expanding the license plate readers.

“With these cameras, police officers and the government can easily track where we work, who we meet, where we pray, and even which doctors we visit,” Gottehrer wrote in a statement to Newsday. “Long Island residents want safety and privacy over their daily lives, not to be constantly tracked by the government with no guardrails.”