Pleasantville Police Respond to Privacy Concerns, Relocate License Plate Reader

By Toby Rosewater

On Tuesday, July 22, The Examiner published an article about a new automatic license plate reader (ALPR) at the junction of Bedford and Maple Hill Road in Pleasantville. 

As of July 24, that camera is no longer present.

The Removal 

“I [came] home, and the whole thing [was] gone,” Maple Hill resident Bill Stoller told The Examiner.

Following a mixed community response to the camera’s installation, officials from Westchester County came to remove the device on the 24th.

“Some specific local residents raised privacy concerns,” Pleasantville Police Chief Erik Grutzner said. “We [are] sensitive to their concerns, and we [are] mov[ing] it to a non-residential area.”

The $10,000 ALPR, which was installed at the beginning of June, is currently being relocated.

“We are confident that relocating the camera will not impact its functionality,” Grutzner said. “All we want to do is expand our network, and there are other places we can do that.”

Further, Grutzner noted, the costs of removing and reinstalling the camera will be covered by Pleasantville’s partnership with Westchester County.

The Initial Decision

When asked why the camera was placed in a residential area in the first place, Grutzner clarified that Pleasantville had partly outsourced the decision to county police.

“At some point, the people who installed the camera went out and determined that such a location would best enhance the network, and that’s essentially how the site was chosen,” Grutzner explained.

In making the decision, he continued, authorities tried to maximize public safety and effectiveness.

“Our intention is always to get as much coverage as possible from each camera we have,” Grutzner said. “If we have an incident happening in one location, we want to be able to follow relevant vehicles as they travel through the village.”

Moving Forward

While many residents took issue with not being notified about the camera’s installation, according to Grutzner, this protocol is unlikely to change.

“I don’t anticipate specific notifications to residents as we upgrade any of our technology platforms,” he said.

Despite this, the police department will continue to review its overall ALPR installation protocol moving forward.

“I think this most recent incident highlights our strong commitment to hearing our residents’ concerns and doing whatever we can to alleviate them,” Grutzner said. “We will definitely have internal conversations…moving forward.”

A phone call seeking comment from the Westchester County Police was not returned.