The Syracuse Common Council will hold a meeting to assess how the police department opted into a data-sharing agreement for its license plate reader program, said all four members of the council’s Public Safety committee.
The meeting follows recent reporting from Central Current, which revealed how the Syracuse Police Department had exposed data on drivers’ movements despite explicit instructions to protect such data from other law enforcement agencies.
Councilor Chol Majok, who chairs the Public Safety committee, confirmed he would call a meeting to review the data-sharing agreement.
Majok did not specify when the meeting would be held and did not detail his concerns when asked by a Central Current reporter.
“You’ll hear about them in the committee meeting,” Majok said.
The department last year entered into a contract with license plate reader manufacturer Flock Safety for license plate readers, “inadvertently” opting into a data-sharing agreement, said police spokesman Kieran Coffey. That allowed police around the nation to search Syracuse drivers’ data without a warrant.
Since June 2024, SPD’s data has appeared in nearly 4.4 million searches by out-of-city law enforcement agencies. While most of these searches examined Flock’s national network of databases, comprising thousands of individual law enforcement agencies, hundreds of searches focused solely on Syracuse’s database.
Councilor Jimmy Monto, who also sits on the council’s Public Safety Committee, expressed the most concern regarding the Syracuse Police Department’s year-long sharing of data meant to be private.
Monto called for a full investigation into how the department wound up sharing data with the entire nation and also into the other features of the policy governing the department’s contract with Flock.
“I think it’s a very dangerous road to be on,” Monto said.
When Central Current in 2024 asked lawmakers about license plate readers before they approved the contract with Flock, Majok guaranteed the data would be kept private, and would remain accessible only to select Syracuse Police Department personnel.
Majok at the time relayed that the data would be stored similar to how other city data is stored.
“If you’re not authorized,” Majok said at the time, “you can’t have access to it.”
City administration and police department only recently clamped down on access to its data. Coffey confirmed to Central Current that the department has contacted Flock about removing Syracuse police’s data from the company’s data-sharing program.
Monto said he lacks the technical expertise to understand all the ins and outs of the software’s capabilities, but said simple aspects of the license plate reader program – especially data storage and sharing – are concerning.
Given the federal government’s expansion of its deportation operations targeting undocumented individuals — and potentially naturalized citizens, green card holders, and other residents with some form of citizenship documentation — Monto fears that Syracuse data, if unprotected, could support those efforts.
“We’re one of the cities in the country that has the most resettled refugees, who are arguably being targeted by (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” Monto said. “I’m very concerned that that Big Brother in the sky thing could be used against people that are just trying to seek refuge and live their lives.”
Elsewhere in the nation, local lawmakers have backed away from Flock Safety products after critical investigative reporting revealed how data-sharing through Flock’s network was facilitating ICE operations.
The City Council of Austin, Texas recently terminated the city’s contract with Flock for license plate readers. One Austin lawmaker said, “The technology is ahead of the policymakers.”
Councilor Monto on Monday echoed the Austin lawmaker while explaining his support for a committee meeting.
“We may get to a point where we realize that the technology is ahead of the policy,” Monto said. “We might be there. Maybe we are. We’ll see. We’ll dig a little bit.”
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