Municipal officials in New Lebanon have taken a formal stand against automated traffic surveillance, unanimously approving a resolution that bars the placement of Flock Safety license plate reader cameras on all town-owned property. The legislative decision follows escalating public and political scrutiny across Columbia County regarding how automated surveillance systems are procured, authorized, and utilized by regional law enforcement agencies.
Under the provisions of the newly enacted policy, municipal infrastructure cannot be used by external agencies or third-party entities seeking to host or operate the surveillance devices without first securing explicit approval from the New Lebanon Town Board. Furthermore, the measure mandates that a formal public hearing must be conducted before any such request can even be considered by town officials.
The resolution also establishes strict guardrails regarding the use of local assets, stipulating that no town resources may be deployed to assist in expanding or maintaining the Flock Safety database. Local leaders emphasized that the restrictions are rooted in the municipal government’s fundamental obligation to protect the constitutional rights, civil liberties, and privacy interests of residents, local business owners, and visiting motorists.
In articulating their opposition to the devices, town board members raised significant legal and ethical concerns regarding the nature of continuous automated surveillance. The official resolution highlights that the pervasive deployment of Flock cameras operates without requiring individualized reasonable suspicion or probable cause, fundamentally altering how daily public movements are observed.
According to the approved measure, the continuous tracking captures data on law-abiding citizens as they go about ordinary routines and daily travel. The Town Board underscored specific concerns that the technology indiscriminately records trips to sensitive destinations, such as medical appointments, houses of worship, consultations with legal counsel, and community or political gatherings.
While adopting a firm stance against automated license plate scanning technology, the town made an explicit technical distinction for other forms of municipal road monitoring. The resolution clarifies that New Lebanon does not oppose the standard installation and use of vehicle-counting cameras, which track traffic flow volumes without collecting identifiable license plate information.
The town's decisive vote unfolds against the backdrop of a growing controversy in Columbia County, where local officials learned that the county sheriff’s office had acquired 10 Flock Safety cameras without presenting the purchase to or informing the county Board of Supervisors.
Records indicate that former Sheriff Don Krapf finalized the equipment purchase in 2024 utilizing funding from a state law enforcement grant. That unilateral acquisition occurred approximately one year after a Board of Supervisors committee had tabled an earlier proposal to acquire Flock cameras through private funding offered by an anonymous group of donors.
Current Columbia County Sheriff Jackie Salvatore, who served as undersheriff at the time the 2024 transaction occurred, has defended the procurement. Salvatore asserted that the legislative committee's previous hesitation in 2023 was centered entirely on discomfort regarding the anonymous donor funding mechanism rather than the surveillance technology itself.
However, that explanation has faced direct pushback from former county leadership. At least one former supervisor has publicly disputed Salvatore's characterization of the event, maintaining that the governing body's concerns were not limited solely to the financial source behind the initial proposal.
The practical reach of New Lebanon's local ban remains subject to land-use jurisdictional limits. Crowd-sourced data published by DeFlock Maps indicates that one Flock camera is currently operating within New Lebanon; however, because that device is installed on private property, it is not subject to the town's newly adopted municipal property prohibition. Sheriff Salvatore has previously stated that all 10 Flock cameras active throughout Columbia County are situated on private land.
Despite those private property exemptions, New Lebanon Town Supervisor Tistrya Houghtling—who also serves as the Democratic leader on the county Board of Supervisors—is seeking to expand the policy's impact beyond town borders. Houghtling announced plans to distribute New Lebanon’s resolution to leaders across other Columbia County municipalities, urging neighboring governing bodies to adopt similar regulatory limits.
Simultaneously, the procedural origins of the county’s surveillance system remain under administrative examination. Columbia County Attorney Robert Fitzsimmons is actively investigating the 2024 camera purchase to determine whether Krapf violated any established county bylaws or procurement protocols during the acquisition.
Sheriff Salvatore has contested the notion of any wrongdoing, maintaining that her department operated within applicable rules. Salvatore argued that the acquisition did not mandate Board of Supervisors approval because the agency entered into a memorandum of understanding with Flock Safety rather than a standard commercial contract.
Public debate over the surveillance network has also galvanized grassroots mobilization across the region. A coalition composed of local activist groups alongside current and former government officials recently staged a public rally calling for a comprehensive ban on Flock cameras and all automated license plate reader technology throughout Columbia County. The system works by automatically photographing passing license plates and cataloging the vehicular information within artificial intelligence-driven searchable databases.
Similar municipal debates have emerged in nearby communities across the Hudson Valley. Earlier this summer, the City Council in Newburgh considered terminating its own memorandum of understanding with Flock Safety, though that proposed cancellation measure ultimately failed during a council vote last month.
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