A conjugation of civilian rights groups connected Tuesday asked a authorities justice to bid 1 of New York's largest suburban counties to halt its deployment of astir 600 licence sheet readers, calling it a warrantless and “indiscriminate surveillance system” that violates the authorities constitution.
The people enactment suit besides alleged that Westchester County ne'er got due authorization to motorboat the program, which has amassed a database of 1.6 cardinal sheet scans that has been shared with much than 50 extracurricular instrumentality enforcement agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The ailment said the web “records the semipermanent question patterns, regular habits, and intimate accusation of millions of law-abiding New Yorkers and different motorists who question done Westchester.”
“In a democracy, a constabulary section cannot unilaterally determine — without legislative authorization — to surveil the regular movements of its ain citizens without immoderate existent accountability, transparency, oregon oversight,” said Barry Friedman, laminitis and module manager of the Policing Project astatine NYU School of Law, which brought the suit connected behalf of 4 motorists. “This indiscriminate information surveillance indispensable not beryllium allowed to proceed successful the dark.”
“Westchester County has not yet received oregon reviewed the suit referenced,” a spokesperson for the region said.
The wide usage of licence sheet scholar systems, which utilize a strategy of cameras to scan and grounds motorists’ licence sheet information, has generated controversy. The Associated Press successful November reported that the U.S. Border Patrol was moving a secretive licence sheet scholar programme that singled drivers retired implicit their question patterns, prompting a ailment from legislature Democrats that the programme whitethorn beryllium unlawful.
A licence sheet scholar company, Flock Safety, said past twelvemonth it was pausing enactment with the Department of Homeland Security aft it was revealed that constabulary departments crossed the state were sharing licence sheet scholar information with migration authorities. Other cities and states are restricting information sharing with national authorities, reducing however agelong they support licence sheet scholar information oregon adjacent canceling contracts successful effect to residents' complaints.
The civilian rights groups brought the lawsuit against Westchester County connected behalf of 4 women who unrecorded successful the region oregon successful adjacent jurisdictions. The suit alleged that the 4 motorists' licence sheet information had been collectively captured thousands of times by the county’s camera web successful the past fewer years. A conveyance belonging to 1 plaintiff, Lora Nelson, was captured by the county’s cameras much than 2,400 times. Another plaintiff’s conveyance was captured 1,134 times betwixt 2023 and 2026, the suit alleged.
Westchester County, which is 430-square miles (1,114 quadrate kilometers) and conscionable northbound of New York City, is crisscrossed by large thoroughfares, including Interstate 87 and Interstate 95 and the Hutchinson River Parkway that service regular commuter postulation into and retired of New York City and longer region travel.
The women who brought the lawsuit are represented by the Policing Project astatine New York University School of Law, the Knight First Amendment Institute astatine Columbia University, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the instrumentality steadfast Freshfields.
The usage of licence sheet readers has broadly been upheld by astir courts due to the fact that they papers the question of cars connected nationalist roadways. The Westchester litigation is portion of a broader ineligible effort seeking to person courts reconsider specified ineligible doctrines amid the proliferation of surveillance technologies, information postulation and analysis.
———
AP writer Garance Burke successful San Francisco contributed to this report.
——-
Contact AP’s planetary investigative squad astatine [email protected] oregon https://www.ap.org/tips/.
English (CA) · 
English (US) · 
Spanish (MX) ·