The Town of Tonawanda will replace its license plate reading cameras at the start of 2027. Citing costs, the town will replace the dozen Flock Safety cameras it currently uses, and will replace them in early 2027 with a system provided by Axon.
Such systems raise privacy concerns by critics. Town of Tonawanda Supervisor John Flynn says the town has used the system for the past four years. The cameras, he explained, capture license plate images but do not collect any other personal identifying information.
“All it is, is a picture of the license plate. You then have to take that information, that number basically, and go into a separate system now to get further information,” he said.
Flynn credits the town’s current system with helping to solve a recent bank robbery.
“Within 24 hours, we were able to capture the suspect, arrest him, and now he’s being prosecuted for a lot of reasons,” he said. “These cameras helped solve this crime. That's a perfect example of how these cameras help solve crimes, and by doing that, helps out public safety from a big picture standpoint.”
But Flock Safety and other companies have come under fire nationally in recent months after documented abuses and lack of regulation. About 25 states have laws putting a framework on their usage but New York is not among them.
Flynn says the Town of Tonawanda has rules in place to prevent it.
“We have safeguards in place here in Tonawanda to prevent that. You have to have a complaint number. You have to have a reason and a purpose to actually go into the system and use the data from the license plate reader. And we have our management team constantly monitoring it and auditing it to make sure that no one is improperly using this information,” he said.
A bill currently in Albany backed by the New York Civil Liberties Union would mandate timelines for data deletion, sharing, and what kinds of investigations they may be used for. The next state legislative session begins in January.
