License plate readers along Southern State planned to ID drivers with outstanding warrants

State Police are expected to install 22 new license plate readers along the Southern State Parkway next year to identify drivers with outstanding arrest warrants and gather more information on traffic patterns, officials said Friday. 

The cameras will be installed at five locations along the parkway in Nassau and Suffolk counties after approval by the state Dormitory Authority, the state's public finance and construction authority, said State Sen. John Brooks (D-Seaford).

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, who joined Brooks in announcing the $900,000 program in Wantagh on Friday, said installation of license plate readers on the Southern State "will significantly enhance the police department’s ability to investigate, prevent and respond to criminal incidents."

Similar license-reading programs are in place in Suffolk County and in the Village of Freeport, Brooks said.

Brooks said the proposal for plate readers originated with the State Police, who will hire a vendor for the program once funding is released, likely during the 2023 legislative session.

Brooks, who is running for reelection on Nov. 8 against Nassau County Legis. Steven Rhoads (R-Wantagh), said he also is working with State Police on plans to address traffic safety issues on the parkway through use of technology.

The Southern State, opened in 1927, was designed to give drivers access to Long Island’s beaches and other areas.

But the parkway long has recorded disproportionate numbers of fatal accidents.

Of the 535 people killed from 2001 to 2021 on four major Long Island freeways — the Long Island Expressway and the Southern State, Meadowbrook and Northern State parkways — more than 200 of the deaths occurred on the Southern State, according to a Newsday analysis published in August.

Brooks and others said options to fix the Southern State were limited because of the layout of the winding parkway.

"There are far too many people killed on this road," Brooks told Newsday. "We have been dealing with this parkway for a long time and now we need to use technology."

Mitchell Pally, CEO of the Long Island Builders' Institute, said the only way to address some of the safety issues is with more technology. 

"We are never going to be able to do to that road what should be done because it was built to engineering standards in the '30s and the roadway was not designed for the hundreds of thousands of vehicles we see there every day," Pally told Newsday. 

"We need to find other ways to make it safer and this is one of the ways to make it happen," he said.

The only cameras already in use along the Southern State provide data on weather and traffic, a spokesman for Brooks told Newsday.

Brooks has introduced legislation to establish a pilot program to increase penalties for traffic violations along the Southern State Parkway corridor.

Another measure of his would boost fines for intentionally defacing or obscuring license plates.

A third bill would require all rental vehicles over six feet in height to display notification so drivers know the height when approaching restricted bridges on state parkways and other roadways.

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.