By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 11/10/2026
Category: Police Accountability / Civil Rights / Government Oversight
NEW YORK CITY, NY – Cameras across New York can record where a vehicle travels, when it arrives and which police agency searches for it. State law still does not set one clear rule for how long that information may be kept.
That gap was the focus of a State Assembly hearing Monday as civil-liberties advocates, prosecutors, sheriffs, state officials and a camera company pressed competing plans for automated license-plate reader data.
The New York Civil Liberties Union urged lawmakers to require deletion within 48 hours unless the information is connected to an investigation or preserved with legal authorization. Daniel Schwarz, the group’s senior privacy and technology strategist, warned that keeping location records because they may become useful later turns a police tool into mass surveillance.
Law-enforcement officials argued that two days is too short. Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said tips may arrive weeks or months after a crime. Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney described plate-reader data as a critical investigative tool and suggested older records could be sealed, then accessed with a court order for cold cases.
The attorney general’s office supported a retention limit but did not endorse a specific period. Tyler Nims, who leads the office’s Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office, told lawmakers that limiting storage may be the best protection against misuse.
The debate is not theoretical. The Times Union reported that the hearing came two months after an Albany County sheriff’s investigator was arrested for allegedly conducting more than 4,000 unauthorized searches to track a former girlfriend. The allegation has not been adjudicated, but it shows why access logs and outside audits matter.
New York has no statewide law governing automated plate-reader retention and access. Local policies vary. The state has also helped agencies buy the technology through public-safety grants, giving Albany leverage to require safeguards as a condition of funding.
The New York Police Department uses readers made by Leonardo Elsag. An NYPD spokesperson told Gothamist that the city controls its own plate-reader data and does not feed it into Flock Safety’s national network. The department can access a separate national database maintained by Vigilant Technologies, according to the report.
That distinction does not resolve the accountability question for city drivers. New Yorkers still need to know how long NYPD keeps a routine plate scan, who can search the system, what justification must be entered and how often an independent reviewer checks the logs.
A workable statewide rule should separate an investigative hit from an ordinary scan. Evidence tied to a crime can be preserved under documented authority. The movements of millions of drivers who are not suspected of wrongdoing should not remain searchable indefinitely.
Lawmakers should also require agencies to publish retention periods, access policies, vendor contracts, audit results and misuse findings. Every search should record the user, reason, case number and time. Out-of-state access should require legal process, not a casual database request.
Public safety and privacy are not mutually exclusive. A plate reader can help locate a stolen car without creating a permanent map of everyone’s movements.
The hearing established the dispute. It did not settle the rules. Until Albany acts, the length of a driver’s digital trail may depend on which agency owns the camera.
Sources
New York State Assembly, Public Hearing on Automatic License Plate Reader Systems
Gothamist, NY Civil Liberties Groups Push for 48-Hour Limit on Police Retaining Flock Camera Data
Times Union, State Lawmakers Mull Regulations for Automated License Plate Readers
Leave a Reply