Dobbs Ferry trustees approve school video‑access MOA after extended privacy and oversight discussion

Trustees on Jan. 27 voted to authorize a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Village of Dobbs Ferry and the Dobbs Ferry School District to permit the village police department controlled access to school video feeds through the department’s Leosight (VioSync) video‑management platform.

The MOA formalizes a process school administrators must follow to provide footage to police under defined circumstances, the chief told trustees during an extended discussion. He described Leosight as a tool that aggregates and synthesizes footage so detectives spend less time manually reviewing multiple cameras: "It is able to bring that information into one's location, which makes it easier for the officers in the moment potentially or even after the fact," he said.

Trustees focused questions on the conditions that would trigger access, whether the agreement changes legal standards for obtaining footage, vendor oversight and how the village would measure whether the software reduces detective workload. The chief said the district retains ownership of its camera data and that the MOA does not eliminate written requests or subpoenas for routine investigative needs; the agreement is intended to enable faster access in exigent or emergency situations. He said the village plans to ask the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services to perform a work‑based assessment of the department to help quantify staffing and efficiency needs.

Trustees sought explicit guardrails: requests outside exigent circumstances must be written and identify date, time, location and legal basis; the district can restrict access; audit trails would record who accessed footage. One trustee said the board should require the vendor and the district to demonstrate ironclad data‑security agreements; the chief confirmed audit logs and contractual protections would be part of oversight.

After discussion and some expressed reservations about potential privacy or data‑storage risks, the board approved the MOA. The transcript records at least one trustee expressing continued reservation and opposing on that basis. The MOA vote was recorded in the meeting audio/transcript; the village clerk will publish the final executed agreement and associated redlines as provided by the district.

What happens next: The MOA authorizes the administrator to sign the agreement and staff said the district’s rules and education law will still govern access. Trustees asked staff to return with measures to evaluate whether Leosight meaningfully reduces detective hours and to provide more information on vendor safeguards.

Sources: Village meeting Jan. 27, 2026; on‑record statements from the police chief and trustees during the MOA discussion.