Residents press board on data access, audits and constitutional concerns over camera network

During public comment at the Aug. 21 meeting, three residents delivered extended remarks asking the board for transparency and harder limits on who can search camera data.

One resident who spoke at the lectern said the village currently 'rents a spy network' and asked that camera hardware and the stored data remain under local control rather than housed in an external cloud. He cited news reports that out-of-state law-enforcement agencies performed many searches of the network and asked whether that practice implicates Fourth Amendment protections, referencing a recent Supreme Court ruling he said treats stored-location histories as a search.

Gloria Frzy said she supports police work but asked the board to pause new installations near the elementary school and YMCA until binding privacy rules and independent oversight are in place. “Privacy is not about hiding bad behavior. It’s about being able to drop your kids at school or head to the gym without feeling tracked,” she said.

Michael Kogler, vice chair of the East Hampton Democratic Committee, said he and others had compiled written questions about data governance, access controls, whether data are sold or shared, and the qualifications of any accountability panel; he asked the board to answer those questions publicly.

Board members noted an existing local law governing camera use and that an advisory committee would be appointed to address governance. No detailed technical disclosures or search-log audits were presented during the meeting.