License plate readers on the rise in Nassau, giving police an edge but generating privacy concerns

Police departments across Nassau County have installed nearly 70 license-plate reading cameras in recent months, building a surveillance network that officials say is designed to detect criminal suspects and deploy emergency resources in real time.

The inconspicuous cameras are easy to miss. Affixed to the top of black poles with a solar panel at pivotal traffic choke points, the technology scans for license plates and sends key data to a central cloud. There, police can filter and share information with departments across Long Island, New York City and the rest of the country.

The Old Westbury Police Department has used a state grant to buy 34 license plate readers from the Atlanta-based Flock Safety Group, police chief Stuart Cameron said. The Muttontown-Upper Brookville, Old Brookville, Brookville and Oyster Bay Cove police departments also purchased 34 license plate reader cameras to be operated in the nine villages they patrol. The City of Glen Cove recently approved the purchase of nine cameras.

“It’s like having a police officer on every corner,” Cameron said. 

“There’s really no way to get in here without passing one of these cameras,” said Ted Mergel, police chief for the Village of Oyster Bay Cove.

The technology, officials said, help police investigate crimes, from stolen cars and petit larceny to burglaries and homicides. The technology can inform how police respond to 911 calls, helping officers determine if an auto accident is a fender bender or an emergency requiring immediate attention. But civil liberties groups and legal experts worry the technology is intrusive and rife for abuse. The cameras can be used to track individual travel patterns, and the Flock systems can store the data for weeks — even if a vehicle is not tied to a crime. The New York Civil Liberties Union calls the network of license plate cameras “highly invasive technology.”

“We think the technology can have some beneficial use, but only if put under the right limitations,” said Daniel Schwarz, a senior privacy and technology strategist for NYCLU.

The Nassau communities employing license plate readers have reported some of the lowest crime rates in the state. In August, the U.S. News & World Report listed Nassau County at the top of its list ranking the nation's safest counties.

Burglaries, vehicle thefts

The North Shore police departments are employing the cameras with a $113,000 U.S. Department of Justice grant across Brookville, Matinecock, Mill Neck, Cove Neck, Muttontown, Old Brookville, Upper Brookville, Oyster Bay Cove and Laurel Hollow.

Flock’s cameras use artificial intelligence to capture license plate data as well as a vehicle's make, model, year and color. Police can apply filters to scan for certain plates or vehicles and narrow searches further to cars with roof racks or bumper stickers. Unlike old license plate readers, the Flock ones can scan paper plates and identify vehicles with stolen plates.

Police chiefs are embracing the networks, citing a post-pandemic surge in burglaries and stolen vehicles. Major crimes in Nassau County rose 41% between 2021 and 2022, due in large part to a spike in property crimes, law enforcement officials said.

The thefts are primarily the work of crime crews that target wealthy areas and quickly ship valuables overseas, law enforcement officials have said. That spike served as the impetus for some of the purchases where village police departments looked to expand their capabilities. 

“We have to develop a way for crime prevention, so this was a huge thing for us,” Brookville police chief Kenneth Lack said. “The plate readers are just a force multiplier.”

Old Westbury Mayor Marina Chimerine said the network is a good fit for her village, which straddles the Long Island Expressway and has plenty of open spaces at golf courses and school campuses.

“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. The village pays $2,500 annually for each camera.

In September, Cameron gave a presentation on the village's investment in police technology. When he was appointed chief in January 2023, Cameron recalled being impressed with the professionalism of the village's 28 officers. But the technology required major upgrades, he said. Scheduling, for example, was done on a printed spreadsheet with colored pencils. There was just one policy manual — at police headquarters — that officers could not access while on patrol.

Cameron, the longtime chief and former acting commissioner of the Suffolk County Police Department, said he began applying for grants shortly after starting in Old Westbury. The village also has invested in a police drone, body cameras, Tasers and other equipment, he said.

The village’s license plate readers soon will be complemented by 160 security cameras at golf clubs, schools and businesses that have agreed to share their video with police, Cameron said. Video from Old Westbury’s police drone also can be shared with officers, allowing police to track suspects or search for missing people from up to 400 feet in the air.

Burglaries in the village have dropped, with two reported through Sept. 30, compared with 12 in 2022 and six in 2023, according to Old Westbury crime statistics. Just one vehicle has been stolen through Sept. 30, compared with 11 in 2022 and four in 2023.

“I can’t convince criminals not to commit crimes,” Cameron said, “but I can convince them not to commit crimes in Old Westbury.”

Other networks on Long Island

Officials from Flock and the state have declined to say how many license plate reading cameras have been installed on Long Island or across New York. Connor Metz, a company spokesman, said he did not “have access to the reliable, county-level stats” Newsday requested.

The New York State Department of Transportation only maintains information on license plate readers installed within a right of way that the agency operates. Just seven cameras are included under those criteria, including two on Route 107 in Glen Cove.

Janine Kava, a spokeswoman for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, said there is no requirement for police departments or sheriff’s offices to register license plate readers with the state. As a result, there is no state database of license plate reader cameras in Nassau and Suffolk.

The Nassau police department uses the technology but declined to say how many cameras it operates, citing law enforcement investigations. Scott Skrynecki, a department spokesman, said Nassau works with law enforcement agencies and private entities that share data. Nassau police uses “the data to solve crimes from petit larcenies to homicides and everything in between,” Skrynecki said.

The New York State Police use license plate readers on Long Island, but a spokeswoman declined to say how many were in operation or identify their locations.

Muttontown-Upper Brookville Police Chief Eric Irizarry said the agency pushed to purchase eight cameras in 2022, when the two villages reported 22 burglaries in a span of 12 months.

In 2015, the Village of Freeport erected a “ring of steel” of cameras around the village similar to ones employed in London and Manhattan. The Freeport system helped the village’s police department catch an alleged killer, robbery suspects and a church burglar in the first few months of the program, Newsday has reported.

'Room for abuse'

Lack, Brookville's chief, said while license plate readers are not new technology, their capabilities have grown exponentially. "The villages and the counties have been using them for probably two decades,” Lack said. “The analytics have changed.”

The networks’ advanced capabilities concern civil rights advocates and criminal justice experts.

“I think it’s great technology, but that there is room for abuse,” said Adam Wandt, an associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The NYCLU has called for stricter limits on how the cameras are used and how long the data can be stored. The cameras provide police with residents’ commutes and travel patterns, the organization said, and could be used to target protesters and other individuals.

“Long Islanders want safety and privacy, not to be constantly watched and tracked,” said Susan Gottehrer, NYCLU’s Nassau County director.

“Installing automated license plate readers across Old Westbury threatens new levels of spying and surveillance — giving the police, government bodies, and corporations unchecked access to information about where we work, who we meet, where we pray, and even which doctors we visit.”

There is no universal policy in New York that dictates how long data can be kept, said Schwarz, of the NYCLU. Policies regulating the technology are “woefully inadequate to protect privacy and civil rights and civil liberties of New Yorkers.”

Flock typically retains data for 30 days. Nassau police said the department keeps data for six months.

Officers are required to input identification information when they log into the Flock system, and provide a reason for searches, police said. That activity is subject to an audit. But the database could be compromised, Wandt said, and officers could use it to track individuals — even if they are not suspected of a crime.

“There are ways to try to avoid those things,” Wandt said, “but, realistically, those things do happen.”