Civil rights groups sue Westchester County over license plate reader surveillance
Civil rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit against Westchester County, New York, alleging that its network of nearly 600 license plate readers constitutes warrantless surveillance in violation of the state constitution. The lawsuit claims the county collected 1.6 billion plate scans without proper authorization and shared the data with over 50 law enforcement agencies.
What happened
A coalition of civil rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit against Westchester County, New York, seeking to halt the operation of nearly 600 license plate readers.
The lawsuit alleges the county deployed the system without proper authorization and that it constitutes a warrantless and indiscriminate surveillance system that violates the state constitution.
The database contains 1.6 billion plate scans that have been shared with over 50 external law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Reported impact
The complaint asserts that the network records the long-term travel patterns, daily habits, and intimate information of millions of law-abiding New Yorkers and other motorists who travel through Westchester.
One plaintiff's vehicle was captured by the county's cameras more than 2,400 times, and another plaintiff's vehicle was captured 1,134 times between 2023 and 2026.
Governance controls
Barry Friedman, founder and faculty director of the Policing Project at NYU School of Law, stated that a police department cannot unilaterally decide to surveil citizens' daily movements without legislative authorization, accountability, transparency, or oversight.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.