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Politics & Government

Glen Cove Ave. Cameras Record License Plates Only, Chief Says

New fixture supplied by federal grant for surveillance equipment filed by mayor three years ago.

The new cameras discussed at the city’s council meeting on Monday are devices which read license plates as vehicles pass, then send the information to a central database to be stored, according to Glen Cove chief of police William Whitton.

“They are a form of camera, but they don’t take any other image than the license plate,” Whitton said.

License plate readers are used across the country and heavily in New York City, especially at bridges and tunnels, said Whitton. Their function is to record and store all plate numbers of vehicles which pass by in order to provide authorities with “one extra avenue to pursue” in the event of a serious crime in the area.

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Whitton used the example of a bank robbery in Glen Cove. If a witness provides a vehicle description of a getaway car, police can cross-reference all plate numbers collected in a certain block of time with all vehicles fitting that description in order to increase the possibility of identification.

“Basically, it’s another tool in our toolbox,” Whitton said of the device, which he said can record hundreds of plate numbers per second. His department already uses a mobile version in its traffic enforcement car, used to identify uninsured vehicles.

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The stationary readers recently installed on Glen Cove Avenue are not used for that purpose, Whitton said, as it would be impossible to act on such a vast amount of data due to the volume of traffic that travels past each day.

Whitton addressed privacy concerns, saying the stored data is only examined retroactively in the event of a crime rather than continuously monitored to track the movements of individuals.

“We’re not interested in looking at that,” he said.

Glen Cove mayor Ralph Suozzi said he was unaware of the fixture’s installation on Glen Cove Avenue until Monday’s council meeting because the city had received late authorization to deploy the equipment from the federal government.  It was paid for as part of a Department of Justice grant he had applied for three years ago, he said.

“The thrust of the grant is to provide [surveillance] cameras in the two city garages and in public spaces,” said Suozzi, adding that signs will be put up to make people aware they are in an area that is under surveillance.

He said all the equipment has been ordered and is expected to be installed by mid-March.

Whitton said one more license plate reader will be placed on Route 107 within the next two months to record the plates of vehicles entering and leaving Glen Cove.

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