Sheriff’s office defends use of Flock Safety surveillance cameras at Amenia Town Hall

AMENIA — A representative of the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office appeared at an Amenia town meeting last week to defend the use of automatic license plate readers, widely known as ALPRs.

The cameras, most of which are manufactured by Flock Safety, have sparked privacy concerns from county residents. Nationally, Flock has come under fire after police were found to have accessed the camera’s data for personal use. In Amenia last week, Dutchess County’s Chief Deputy Steve Reverri said the technology has been used by the county for two decades, though newly-installed ALPRs in Amenia, Pine Plains, Milan and Millerton have brought renewed attention.

“I think one of the biggest concerns the community has is about transparency,” Reverri said. “There are a lot of misnomers about all of the technology we use in Dutchess County.”

Reverri then cited a number of violent cases that were solved with the help of ALPR cameras — in 2007, a family was murdered in Fishkill, and their killers were found with the help of surveillance cameras. Reverri also cited a 2026 domestic dispute in Beacon, and the kidnapping of an infant near Marist University three months ago.

Reverri encouraged the board to visit the county’s ARTCIC site, which lists the locations of some ALPR cameras and highlights success stories where the cameras have helped solve crime. “The communities in Dutchess County are safe because we work together,” Reverri said. “This is technology that we have led the state and the country in utilizing.”

The ARTCIC site does not include the location of cameras on private property. Some property owners who have allowed the installation of Flock cameras have expressed discontent about the placement of those cameras and a lack of communication from the sheriff’s department.

The company has also come under fire for unlicensed data sharing, and on Aug. 13, Flock Safety announced new guardrails to prevent police from using the data system for non-law enforcement purposes.

But Reverri insists the cameras are essential for tracking down suspects, citing another case in which a woman threatening to kill her child was located in 7 minutes using ALPR technology. “We’re not using it for traffic enforcement,” the officer said. “We don’t have red light cameras. They don’t have facial recognition software or track your movement,” he continued. “We save the data for 30 days and then it’s expunged.”

Reverri did qualify that during those 30 days, the data gathered is part of a “sharing network” with other agencies. “It’s not the Yellow Pages or Google,” he said. “It’s very controlled.”

Asked why an established police tool had generated public opposition, particularly after a January controversy involving Flock cameras in Pine Plains, Reverri distinguished the sheriff’s office from the Pine Plains Police Department.

Reverri said the installation of cameras approved in Pine Plains had not followed proper procedures. “People do things they’ve never done before, and they don’t know the rules,” he said. “We don’t do those things.”

In 2021, Reverri said, the local presence of ALPRs became more robust. That included more cameras and more network sharing, allowing law enforcement to see camera sources live on a comprehensive map. “We’ve prevented pursuits,” Reverri said. “Vehicle pursuits are inherently dangerous, and now we can track a vehicle.”

Reverri went on to say that there are three Flock cameras in Amenia and Wassaic, and at least one camera in every Dutchess County municipality.

Town Board members offered a mix of support and skepticism. “I watch a lot of British television,” said Councilmember Walter Dietrich. “This is nothing like what they have over there,” referring to the country’s CCTV camera network.

Councilmember Vicki Doyle expressed concerns about the prevalence of the cameras, but later seemed open to the idea of sharing camera feeds of “hot spots,” such as at Beekman Park.