Reporter raises privacy concerns about borough's Viper/PlateLogic license‑plate system; chief says department is customer

At the public-comment period on June 17, Kyle Hudson of the Westchester Chronicle raised privacy and procurement questions about a line item described as "Viper AI" (PlateLogic) on the council's consent agenda.

Hudson told council he reviewed the company's website and federal guidance and described the system as one that indexes license-plate reads into historical models retained for about a year and stored on a cloud server, allowing retrospective searches. He cited a joint report by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI about authentication weaknesses for some systems and said he found the vendor vague about security on its public pages. Hudson said he could not locate any public discussion or contract documents before September 2025 and had reached out to the company for comment.

Council read an email from Chief Lee during the meeting stating: "Westchester Police Department has been a customer of Viper Plate Logic for several years. They provide cameras, subscription, and service to those cameras owned by and located in Westchester. They do not provide access or subscriptions to federal law enforcement." Hudson followed up in public comment that he still could not find when the borough signed the agreement and that he will pursue public records requests. Council members said staff would follow up offline and suggested right-to-know requests for procurement and payment records.

No formal action or vote on the system was taken at the meeting; the item remained a topic for follow-up with the police chief and staff.