License plate readers on the agenda for city council
City council members have been asked by Mayor Robert Restaino's administration to consider approval of a $300,100 grant-funded contract with SHI International Corp., a New Jersey company that offers surveillance equipment to municipalities in partnership with another firm, Flock Safety. The proposed agreement is on the agenda for consideration by city lawmakers during today's council meeting.
Under the proposed contract, the city would pay SHI International Corp. $12,100 to install 24 new, outdoor, solar-powered surveillance cameras capable of recording and reading license plates at 'locations selected by the Niagara Falls Police Department.' Under the agreement, camera installation would be performed by Flock Safety or its subcontractor and the equipment would be supported by the company's cloud-based automated license plate recognition software at an annual cost of $72,000 over a period of four years. The council resolution indicates that funding for the project is available from the New York State Law Enforcement Tech Grant previously awarded to the city's police department.
Flock Safety technology has been used by law enforcement agencies in other communities to trace stolen vehicles, track criminal suspects tied to shootings and other crimes, and enhance recovery efforts under Amber and Silver alert systems which are employed during searches for children who have been kidnapped and elderly adults who have been reported missing.
The company's system has drawn criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which has described it as 'dangerously powerful and unregulated.'
The Niagara County Sheriff's Office entered into a similar agreement with Flock Safety in 2023 for the installation of 67 license plate readers at what was described as 'strategically located' spots throughout the county.
An announcement accompanying the installation of those cameras indicated that they were capable of providing law enforcement with the make, model, color and license plate from the rear of vehicles traveling throughout the county. At the time, the sheriff's office said the readers would allow law enforcement to collect 'actionable evidence' while sending 'real-time alerts' 'within seconds' if a wanted or stolen vehicle passes by the cameras.
The sheriff's office said in 2023 that the plate readers would not be used to enforce traffic law violations or to 'track citizen movement' or to take photos of vehicle occupants or to employ facial recognition technology. The sheriff's office release noted that all data collected through the system would be stored in the cloud, deleted every 30 days on a rolling basis and not sold or shared with third parties.
According to the ACLU, a non-profit organization that advocates for the protection of individual rights and liberties across the country, as of mid-February, Flock Safety automatic license plate recognition systems were in place in more than 2,000 cities in 42 states.
On its website, the ACLU encourages residents living in communities where Flock Safety systems are not in place to 'pump the brakes' on the company's license plate readers.
The ACLU does not object to every use of license plate readers, including using them to locate stolen cars or for AMBER alerts involving child abduction cases. It does, however, advocate for fair use subject to 'proper checks and balances' to ensure the devices are not being disproportionately used in low-income and minority communities.
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