Another WNY Town Is Using Cameras To Keep Track Of Your Car

Just when the winds looked like they would be shifting away from local governments using technology to keep track of the people in the region, another town has announced it is adding more traffic and license plate cameras to more streets around the 716.

While some communities in the Empire State and around the nation have decided to limit the use of Automated License Plate Reader technology, the number of these devices in Erie and Niagara County is increasing. Those in governmental power say this is a useful means to fight crime, but is the cost to our civil liberties worth the benefit of allowing local governments and police departments to collect more information about us, our movements, and our locations as we move about the region?

Lewiston, New York, Announces Plan To Add License Plate Cameras

The Town of Lewiston, in Niagara County, is the latest community in Western New York to start using ALPRs, and now joins the Buffalo Police Department, the Cheektowaga Police Department, the Erie County and Niagara County Sheriff's Office, along with several other communities that have hundreds of cameras spread throughout the region.

KEEP READING: Beware, Western New York Police Are Watching You

According to the Niagara Gazette, the town is working on the permits to install cameras at four intersections in the town:

• Pletcher Road and Calkins Road,
• Pletcher Road and Park Road,
• Military Road and N. Hewitt Road, and
• Saunders Settlement Road and S. Hewitt Drive,

Once these cameras on online, the data will be managed by Flock Safety and the Niagara County Sheriff's Office, and will be in a database that's searchable by other police agencies in the region. Thanks to a grant from New York State, the Sheriff is spending more than $170,000 per year for these cameras through 2028.

KEEP READING: Are The Days Numbered For The License Plate Cameras In Western New York?

While the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services says these License Plate Readers are perfectly legal as long as they're used for legitimate law enforcement purposes, many around the nation, including the American Civil Liberties Union, are concerned these devices invade our privacy. The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) feels it's an undue invasion of our rights since Police Departments track significantly more innocent people compared to alleged lawbreakers.

If you can imagine having a police officer on the corner of a street writing down the license plate of every person who drives by, these cameras are the digital equivalent of that. Officials have said that this data is only used to investigate crime and not for any other purposes, but do we trust them to keep their word?

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