Westchester Drivers Sue County Police Department Over Mass Vehicle Surveillance System
Class action lawsuit challenges the highly invasive, warrantless surveillance system that captures hundreds of millions of vehicle records each year
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 9, 2026
MEDIA CONTACTS: Joshua Manson, joshua.manson@nyu.edu; Kaye Dyja, kdyja@nyclu.org; Gabriel Tyler, gabriel.tyler@knightcolumbia.org
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Today, on behalf of New York drivers whose personal vehicle data has been tracked, monitored, and collected by the Westchester County Police Department (WCPD), the Policing Project at New York University School of Law, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), and Freshfields LLP filed a class action lawsuit challenging the legality of the WCPD’s vehicle surveillance system — one of the largest, most technologically advanced systems in the country. The plaintiffs challenging the system include politically active New Yorkers from diverse backgrounds whose movements have been tracked and recorded thousands of times by WCPD.
“I’m a teacher and a mother. I drive to work, I drive my kids where they need to go, and I try to show up for people in my community,” said Sarah Moore, a plaintiff in the case. “It’s scary to think that my car can be tracked just because I’m going about my life, and that this information can be shared with ICE. I shouldn't be watched by the police every time I get behind the wheel. No one should.”
The suit argues that by collecting and storing such highly detailed personal information about millions of innocent drivers, the program violates the New York State Constitution’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures and exceeds WCPD’s authority under New York law. The lawsuit asks the court to declare the system unlawful and prohibit the WCPD from operating it.
“In a democracy, a police department cannot unilaterally decide—without legislative authorization—to surveil the daily movements of its own citizens without any real accountability, transparency, or oversight,” said Barry Friedman, founder and faculty director of the Policing Project at NYU School of Law. “At a time when our personal data is being collected and misused on an unprecedented scale, this indiscriminate data surveillance must not be allowed to continue in the dark.”
WCPD's highly advanced, invasive system deploys at least 575 cameras — known as automatic license plate readers — that indiscriminately record vehicles on Westchester County roads, from residential neighborhoods to major highways, and analyzes those recordings using sophisticated AI tools. These cameras are connected to a database containing approximately 1.6 billion vehicle recordings, each of which WCPD retains for at least two years. WCPD provides more than 50 outside agencies with access to that data, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Westchester County’s mass surveillance apparatus is infringing on New Yorkers’ privacy and violating basic constitutional limits on police power,” said Daniel Lambright, director of Criminal Justice Litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Right now, the Westchester County Police Department is collecting and storing huge swathes of highly personal data—making it easy for police officers and the government to track where drivers work, who they meet, where they pray, and even which doctors they visit.”
In 2024 alone, the system collected more than 264 million recordings, more than 99 percent of which were unrelated to any suspected crime or investigation. This data can reveal intimate portraits of people’s movements, routines, and associations. The groups say WCPD operates the system without meaningful safeguards governing how officers may collect, use, or share the data.
“This case is about whether we can move through our communities without the government compiling a digital dossier on our activities and associations,” said Jake Karr, staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute. “We shouldn’t have to worry that we’re being watched and recorded every time we get behind the wheel. That sort of surveillance chills our fundamental freedoms and has no place in the open society we aspire to be.”
The complaint also raises concerns about how the cameras are deployed, including their concentration in neighborhoods with largely Black and Latino populations that are already more heavily policed.
Read more about the case here: http://policingproject.org/umemoto-v-westchester.
Read the full complaint here: https://www.policingproject.org/s/Umemoto-v-Westchester-complaint
###
About the Policing Project at New York University School of Law
The Policing Project at NYU School of Law is dedicated to bringing democratic accountability to policing. It works with communities and police departments across the country to ensure that agency policies and practices are transparent, efficacious, and adopted with public input. www.policingproject.org
About the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University
The Knight First Amendment Institute defends the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age through strategic litigation, research, policy advocacy, and public education. It promotes a system of free expression that is open and inclusive, that broadens and elevates public discourse, and that fosters creativity, accountability, and effective self-government. www.knightcolumbia.org
About the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU)
NYCLU advances civil rights and civil liberties so that all New Yorkers can live with dignity, liberty, justice, and equality. Founded in 1951 as the state affiliate of the national ACLU, we marshal an expert mix of litigation, policy advocacy, field organizing, and strategic communications. Informed by the insights of our communities and coalitions and powered by 90,000 member-donors, we work across complex issues to create more justice and liberty for more people. www.nyclu.org
About Freshfields LLP
Freshfields is a global law firm with a long-standing track record of anticipating change, setting new standards and shaping the future of law. We successfully support the world’s leading national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments on complex and business-critical mandates when it matters most. Our 2,800-plus lawyers and other legal professionals are steadfast champions of our clients and we are proud to be recognized as a top-tier leader in the practice areas most important to clients around the world. www.freshfields.com