In order to combat crime and improve public safety in North Shore Nassau County communities, Senator Anna M. Kaplan (D-Port Washington) has launched a $1,050,000 Public Safety Initiative to provide grants to local police departments. The grants will fund the purchase of license plate readers that help local law enforcement to fight crime and solve cases, particularly auto thefts that have spiked in North Shore communities in recent months.
Senator Anna M. Kaplan said "Our police deserve to have the best tools and resources at their disposal in order to fight crime and keep our communities safe, and I'm proud to always stand with them and provide them with the funding they need to do their jobs well. License plate readers are a cutting-edge tool that our law enforcement can use to catch criminals, and solve crimes, and thanks to my new Public Safety Initiative, every local police department on the North Shore of my district will now have access to this vital equipment."
Each of the seven local Police Departments on the North Shore in Senator Kaplan's District will receive $150,000 for the purchase of license plate readers. The local Police Departments are Kensington, Kings Point, Lake Success, Great Neck Estates, Port Washington, Sands Point, and Old Westbury.
Great Neck Estates Mayor William D. Warner, DDS said "My goal is always to ensure that our Police have the best tools to keep our community safe, and thanks to Senator Kaplan's new million dollar Public Safety Initiative, which will provide our Village with $150,000 for public safety improvements, we have another tool in our kit to fight crime here in the Village of Great Neck Estates and across the North Shore without asking local taxpayers to foot the bill. I'm grateful for Senator Kaplan's leadership to bring license plate readers to our area, and I'm eager to work with her to get them up and running here in our Village."
License plate readers are high-tech computer-controlled camera systems that can be either mounted on patrol vehicles or fixed locations. They read the license plates of passing vehicles and immediately cross-reference them with State DMV records and law enforcement databases in order to detect a vehicle that is stolen or was recently involved in a crime, as well as individuals wanted for outstanding criminal offenses.
While bigger departments like the Nassau County Police have been able to invest in some of these readers in other areas of the County, the costly technology has been out of the reach of many local police departments on the North Shore, such as those controlled by Villages. The goal of Senator Kaplan's initiative is to help smaller Police Departments to purchase this important technology to dramatically increase its use on the North Shore and help keep every community safe by solving and preventing crime.