County legislators' concerns about surveillance and privacy lead them to jumpstart discussion Tuesday of automated license plate readers [ALPR] and their use by police. County law enforcement does not presently have such devices but they have become so controversial that a resolution to create a policy on them is to be heard by the full legislature on Nov. 17.

Resolution 569 notes that “ALPR technology can assist legitimate public-safety efforts” but “also raises substantial privacy and civil liberties concerns, since it “may reveal sensitive information about an individual's residence, employment, medical care, associations and other lawful activities."

In broad terms, the resolution calls for creation of policies that greatly restrict access to, use of, proliferation and retention of the information collected by the county through the technology. It mandates a thorough audit and report to the legislature, within 90 days of the resolution's passage, on ALPR use county-wide.

“We know that there are a lot of nationwide issues that have been brought forward [on ALPR],” said Law Enforcement and Public Safety Committee Chair and resolution co-sponsor Deb Clinton (D-Gardiner, Plattekill). “Let's bring forward a resolution that makes sense for everyone.”

The resolution's “direction is really good,” co-sponsor Abe Uchitelle (D-Kingston) told the committee. But, he continued, it “goes a little bit astray” in that it singles out just one ALPR manufacturer, Flock – by far the largest in the field – to the exclusion of the technology more broadly. “The conversation about Flock has woken people up to just how much of a surveillance state we're in,” he said.

In defense of the technology, Legislator Richard Walls (R-Shawangunk) a law enforcement veteran, granted that “occasionally we read about abuses [of ALPR]. Somebody is checking to see where their girlfriend or boyfriend went and when caught doing those things, they're disciplined and or terminated.”

But, Walls continued, “I don't think you throw the baby out with the bathwater … the overall benefit of license plate readers and this technology has been beneficial for law enforcement, and I think we have to just be careful with that."

Flock has had issues here in the Mid-Hudson Valley, where a recent City of Newburgh audit turned up thousands of system searches by outside law enforcement, including ICE, after which the city council voted to end its contract with the company.

Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger's sensitivity to the issue was seen in her public announcement of privacy guidelines for a recent 44-camera traffic study by the County Transportation Council.

On the other hand, privacy concerns don't appear to have killed the legislature's consideration of Sheriff Juan Figueroa’s request for multi-million dollar packages of information technology whose surveillance capabilities have been widely abused – specifically a product called Fusus, from Axon (formerly Taser). The relevant resolutions are stuck in committee.

But the sheriff’s office got a boost last week from none other than Uncle Sam, in the form of a $790,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. According to the DOJ’s press release, the money is to be used thusly: “The Sheriff’s Office can now procure and implement next-generation 911 and phone system capabilities, secure a crisis intervention and overdose data platform, mobile device forensic technology, a handheld Raman-based drug identification device, camera and automated license please reader infrastructure [italics ours] and AI-supported report drafting. This will result in safer drug identification, stronger crisis follow up, better correctional awareness and more coordinated countywide public safety operations.”

In a phone call, Uchitelle told Kingston Wire, “My concerns and the concerns of the public are not strictly about one specific vendor. It's about the surveillance apparatus being employed by law enforcement more broadly.”

“I think it's time to get a full picture of just what is being used,” Uchitelle said, “Then potentially limit that usage to things that will allow law enforcement to do their job but will also address the privacy concerns that many of us have.”

No vote was taken on the measure since it was brought to the floor, as Chair Clinton noted, strictly for the purpose of discussion. Uchitelle told Kingston Wire he hopes to see it amended before the Legislature's November.