The town board approved the installation of the cameras on town property at its work session on Monday, with the number of planned cameras dropping from eight to four.
Lewiston is one of at least nine Niagara County municipalities allowing the technology to operate within its boundaries, as the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office in 2023 entered into a five-year contract with Flock Safety worth $172,000 per year to install the cameras around the county, with funding coming from a state Law Enforcement Tech Grant. The sheriff’s office will be responsible for maintaining the equipment.
Lewiston Police Chief Mike Salada said the cameras were originally going to be put on state roads, but they ran into permitting issues with the state Department of Transportation, causing them to mainly use town roads.
“The (sheriff) had to reduce the number of cameras countywide, not just in Lewiston,” Salada said, with the sheriff’s office originally intending to install 67 of them across the county.
The cameras scan only a portion of a vehicle and its license plate, which will be part of a data system where the information is deleted every 30 days. Sheriff Michael Filicetti has previously said that every police department in the county would have access to the data gathered.
Former Police Chief Frank Previte said when first pitching the cameras to the town board earlier this year that they can help in determining if a vehicle is stolen, has suspended registration, or is being sought in a missing persons case. He said they would not be used for speeding tickets and they did not have the capability for facial recognition or to trace people’s movements.
The American Civil Liberties Union had repeatedly criticised this technology, calling it “dangerously powerful and unregulated” and claiming that Flock is building mass-surveillance infrastructure nationwide.
The only reader already present is Lewiston, which is on North 2nd Street.
With the town board giving its approval, Salada said they will work with the town’s building department to get the proper permits. They aim to have them installed over the next few months.
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