Unanswered Questions About Scarsdale’s Surveillance System
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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(This letter was submitted by Mayra Kirkendall-Rodriguez)
Had it not been for Ms. Joanne Wallenstein of Scarsdale 10583, Scarsdale residents would not have learned that Scarsdale Village Board of Trustees voted on a contract with Flock Safety for a mass surveillance system. While for over a decade, I have reviewed both the Scarsdale School District Board of Trustees agenda as well as the Village's agenda on a bi-weekly basis, I saw nothing about the new surveillance system in the Village’s agenda. It was not until I read Ms. Wallenstein's article that I learned that Village personnel or officials had only placed the terms "Public Safety Equipment" in the April 8 Working Session agenda without any description or other terms. Not telling Scarsdale residents in detail beforehand what the Village mayor, trustees, and personnel were planning, is hardly a hallmark of transparency. Implementing a surveillance system behind residents’ backs could have very dangerous consequences to service providers who come to Scarsdale, as well as to residents and the very fabric of our village.
Had other residents and I known about the Village’s plan to implement a new, massive surveillance system, we could have attended the meeting. Scarsdale Village would benefit from hearing different perspectives. We as residents should have been allowed to discuss perceptions of increased public safety for actual increases in ICE and other federal law enforcement activity around private residences as domestic workers, landscapers and trades people are swept up on suspicion of immigration violations, irrespective of whether there is actual evidence.
For the last two weeks, I have been sending emails with questions to the Scarsdale Village Manager, the Mayor, and the Board of Trustees. None have been answered. I group my questions below:
Surveillance Technology
• Just because other towns might be using Flock Safety, why does Scarsdale need surveillance technology?
• Can you please provide Scarsdale crime data by type and year for the last 15 years?
Scarsdale School District
• Did you inform the Scarsdale School District Superintendent, the Superintendent’s Cabinet, or the Board of Education Trustees about your plan and how it could impact students, teachers, principals, and other staff?
• Did you make the seven Scarsdale teachers, principals, and staff union aware about your plan to significantly increase surveillance?
Engagement with Scarsdale Residents
Scarsdale Village trustees, mayor, or personnel did not survey residents to learn how we feel about privacy and freedom; that should have happened before the Board of Trustees voted secretly on the contract with Flock Safety.
One of the greatest things about Scarsdale is the incredible diversity of our residents in terms of personal and professional backgrounds. About 25% of our residents are foreign-born and the rest of us hail from numerous states. Why would the Scarsdale mayor and board of trustees not avail themselves of our free expertise?
• Other than discussing this topic amongst yourselves, did you speak to any residents in Scarsdale before the April 8th meeting? How about foreign-born ones? People of color? Security, technology, or risk experts? Lawyers?
• Why did you not hold a public hearing or a meeting about the surveillance issue?
• Why won't you hold a public meeting now to hear residents' views?
• What are the quantifiable benefits to the community of this surveillance system?
• How could you all vote on the surveillance issue when two new trustees had just come on Board? Had you all been discussing this behind closed doors with them? How could the new trustees have been prepared to vote so soon on an issue when they barely had been at Village Hall? Had the rest of you been talking about this issue for several years as your own memo on the Village site states?
• How is it that you could not put this issue on the Main agenda if you knew you would vote on it?
Flock Safety
• Did you consult the ACLU since one of its members wrote about Flock?
• Did you speak to municipal authorities in towns and states where Flock is being sued?
• What due diligence did you conduct on this technology and on Flock itself?
• Can the technology you are buying capture images? If so, what is the accuracy of this technology when used on people of different colors?
• What is Flock’s technology servicing record?
• Did you review Flock’s financial statements? What is the company’s financial health?
In mid-March 2025, Flock raised $275 million from Andreessen Horowitz, with backing from Greenoaks Capital, Bedrock Capital. Meritech Capital, Matrix Partners, Sands Capital, Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins, Tiger Global, and Y Combinator. Did you conduct due diligence on these investors and how they could affect Flock Safety’s services and financial health?
• How was Flock chosen? Was there a Request for Proposal? What other companies were vetted?
• When will you share with residents the contract you signed with Flock Safety?
Oversight of Surveillance Technology, Data Security, and Use of Images
Flock Safety claims that its professionals will not sell the data they collect, that they are nonpartisan, and maintain audit trails for all data queries.
• What do you know about Flock’s professionals' biases?
• Are you aware of what their data safety protocols are?
• What documentation are you getting Flock to sign before you start implementing the technology in Scarsdale?
• What happens if Flock misuses the images and data their professionals collect?
• Who will supervise the use of this technology? What is the expertise of those individuals?
Federal Grant
The Scarsdale Mayor has stated several times that Scarsdale taxpayers will not pay for this technology and that Scarsdale has applied or is applying for a grant. Yet, most recently, the mayor told a resident that while he personally does not want taxpayers footing the bill, “it would be up to the Board to make that decision.” It is important for the Mayor and BOT to be transparent about the financing of this technology.
Nothing is ever free. If the government or a company gives anything for 'free,' it means that we the individuals are the product.
• When did you file the grant application to the Federal government to pay for the surveillance technology?
• When will you share the grant application with the public?
• Did someone in the Federal government reach out to you with the offer of this grant? Or who in Scarsdale asked for this grant?
• How is it that the Federal government is offering to pay for this technology and why? One has to ask why the federal government would offer funding for the product when the
Administration is making a public show of drastic cost-cutting at the same time
• What does the Federal government require of Scarsdale in exchange for this technology?
• Who would pay for servicing the technology once the initial grant is disbursed?
• If you do not get the grant, will taxpayers be on the hook for paying for this technology?
• If there were to be an error with the technology and someone were to sue the Village, who would pay for that damage?
• And if you are connected to the key individuals who would give Scarsdale a grant, is it possible for you to get funding for our schools, roads, and flood remediation? The return on investment for expenditures on education and infrastructure is far higher than for anything that this technology might accomplish.
Petition to the Village
I encourage Scarsdale residents to sign this petition requesting that the Village have an open forum to discuss this surveillance system. When and if I receive answers to my questions, I would be happy to share them with Scarsdale residents. It is important that we all can discuss the need for surveillance publicly and that the Scarsdale Village mayor, trustees, and personnel take your views into consideration seriously.
Mayra Kirkendall-Rodríguez is a financial risk consultant and trainer and has lived in Scarsdale almost 14 years.
See the Village's contract with Flock Safety here.
Mayor Vows to Improve Transparency and Responds to Questions About Proposed Surveillance System
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
- Hits: 2015
Two weeks ago, the Board of Trustees approved a last minute resolution to purchase $1.5mm in surveillance equipment including drones, cameras and license plate readers from Flock Safety. The proposal was reviewed at a work session prior to the meeting which you can watch here - and the resolution was a late addition to the to the Village Board agenda and was not included in the meeting materials.
In response to community concerns about the prospect of increased neighborhood scrutiny, privacy and data sharing, along with questions about prior notice, Mayor Justin Arest made the following statement at the April 22, 2025 meeting of the Village Board.
“In government, process is more than procedure: it’s the foundation of public trust. It gives residents confidence that decisions are made thoughtfully, with integrity, even when they may disagree with the outcome. But process isn’t something we can champion only when we like the result. It must be a constant, guiding principle. That’s a standard we take seriously, and one we are always working to strengthen.
In recent weeks, a few meetings have included agenda items added late in the process. That’s not typical, and it’s certainly not our goal. It reflects a time when we were short-staffed and finalizing critical materials close to meeting dates. That said, we hear the concern, and we agree; this is not a practice we intend to continue.
We are tightening our internal procedures to ensure agenda items are posted earlier, materials are more complete, and descriptions are clearer. The Village Manager’s Office will begin implementing improvements to ensure meeting notices are more informative and easier for residents to engage with. While occasional time-sensitive matters may arise, they will be clearly flagged and treated as the exception, not the norm.
One recent item that has drawn public attention is the Village’s adoption of a public safety technology initiative, including a contract with Flock Safety. Let me be clear: this initiative was discussed at a properly noticed, publicly accessible Work Session. The agenda listed the item as “Public Safety Equipment”- a broad term, yes, but not an attempt to obscure. While we acknowledge backup materials would have been helpful, they were not yet ready. The purpose of the Work Session was exactly what it should be: to allow the Board to receive briefings, ask questions, and hold discussion in a public setting. When sensitive law enforcement information needed to be reviewed, we appropriately moved into Executive Session, as allowed by law. The resolution is now online and as soon as the contract is finalized will be as well.
Some residents have raised concerns about privacy, surveillance, and federal overreach. While these views reflect a handful of voices, they deserve a respectful and direct response.
We are aware of concerns in other jurisdictions about unauthorized federal access to similar technologies. Let me be clear: such access, if it occurred, would violate the terms of our agreement with our vendor, Flock Safety. Any such breach, without proper legal process, would prompt immediate termination of the program. Our contract includes safeguards to protect residents’ rights, and we are committed to enforcing them. Protecting civil liberties is not optional, it is essential.
As for funding, the pilot is contingent upon receiving a federal public safety innovation grant. This is not a direct award from the Executive Branch, nor does it bind us to any long-term obligation.
Like any responsible local government, we explore non-property-tax revenue opportunities to offset costs. This grant is one such opportunity that we have worked on with the offices of our Senators and Congressman to apply for and, if it’s not awarded, we are not obligated to proceed. In the current climate, and we just heard from our congressman that there may not be much opportunity for Federal money this year, we believe that public safety funding has the best chance of success.
It’s also worth noting that public safety technologies like these are not unique to Scarsdale. Communities across Westchester, and beyond, are exploring similar tools to help their police departments respond effectively and keep residents safe. Many of our neighboring municipalities have already implemented these technologies. Our responsibility is to evaluate these technologies through the lens of Scarsdale’s values: with care, caution, and accountability. Just because a tool has sparked debate elsewhere doesn’t mean we should dismiss its potential here. What matters is how we use it, how we protect privacy, and how we ensure it serves, not compromises, the public good.
Should the initiative proceed, it will be time-limited, strictly governed, and subject to regular oversight. No permanent infrastructure will be installed. Any future decision to expand would require further public input and Board review.
We welcome continued conversation, and we welcome your input.
Ultimately, our responsibility is to do what is right for Scarsdale, openly, responsibly, and with care. To everyone who has taken the time to engage, thank you. We may not always agree, but we are listening. Your voices are heard, and your perspectives matter.”
During the Public Comments portion of the meeting, Josh Frankel of 45 Black Birch Lane addressed the Board. He said, “I am late due to the demise of the Inquirer. I want to speak against this agreement with Flock Safety.”
He read quotes from an article that appeared in The Guardian on March 11, 2025, called, "ICE in Westchester Accessed Car Trackers in Sanctuary Cities that Could Help in Riads Files Show. Westchester County has laws limiting cooperation but ICE has accessed trove of data that hold license plate readers
Frankel read information about data sharing between the County Police, and ICE.
He said, “The documents, which Westchester County police made public in response to a freedom of information law request by a legal non-profit and shared exclusively with the Guardian, include a list of its “users”, or organizations that had access to this database as of February 2022. The non-profit asked not to be named to avoid compromising the federal grants the organization was awarded. In addition to Ice and the DHS, agencies listed as having access include the Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Secret Service and the FBI.
A separate list details individual users who have access to the database. Among the users were five individuals who had email addresses that ended in @ice.dhs.gov and two people with Secret Service email addresses ending in USSS.dhs.gov. There were 44 users with email addresses that end in FBI.gov, 40 with DOJ.gov addresses and just over a dozen featuring DEA.gov.”
Furthermore, the article says, “Privacy and civil liberty experts argue these technologies create a vast surveillance dragnet wherein the movement of every vehicle in the US is being tracked and examined regardless of whether there is an active investigation.”
“Residents of Norfolk, Virginia, sued the city for allegedly violating their fourth amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures by installing license plate readers from another Rekor competitor called Flock Safety. When announcing the contract to install 172 Flock cameras across Norfolk, the police chief, Mark Talbot, said his office wanted to create “a nice curtain of technology” that would make it “difficult to drive anywhere of any distance without running into a camera somewhere”. Lee Schmidt, one of the plaintiffs, said four of the cameras had fenced in his neighborhood.”
“He was outraged by the loss of privacy,” said Michael Soyfer, an attorney at the Institute of Justice who is representing the plaintiffs on this case. “He noticed that he basically couldn’t leave his neighborhood without one of the cameras picking it up.”
Frankel asked the Mayor if this project would proceed if there was no federal funding available, and Arest replied, “I think there is a need, but that will be up to the Board.” About the story in The Guardian, Arest said, “The Westchester story is concerning. We want to find out more about it.”
Two SHS Students Supply Nut-Free Food to Food Pantries
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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Matthew Nussbaum and Ryan Camhi, founders of Safe BitesWhat to do if your kids have food allergies but you rely on food pantries to feed your family?
Two Scarsdale High School juniors, who suffer from food allergies of their own, recognized the need for nut free alternatives at national food panties and formed an organization called Safe Bites to address it.
Matthew Nussbaum and Ryan Camhi have been friends since second grade when they bonded over their love of ice hockey and their common allergy to peanuts and tree nuts. Fast forward ten years and the boys have started a non-profit dedicated to fostering health and inclusivity by establishing allergy-friendly sections in food pantries across Westchester County as well as pantries in Orlando, Florida affected by hurricane Milton and in California in support of the wildfires.
Through fundraising efforts, Safe Bites has raised over $2000 to donate food to pantries in Westchester including Church of the Holy Spirit Food Pantry, Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry, Allen Memorial Church, Eastchester Community Action Program, Community Pantry of Sleepy Hollow, Horseman’s Harvest, Westside Food Bank, Operation Hope Food Pantry, Kol Ami Food Pantry and more.
In between their homework and sports schedules, the boys spend a couple of afternoons a week as well as on weekends, unpacking their various food deliveries and then re-packing up and driving to drop off at the various local pantries.
They have two events coming up in support of Safe Bites; Look for them at the Mitzvah Fair at Westchester Reform Temple in late April and Non-Sibi day at Scarsdale High School in May where Safe Bites will lead students in making homemade allergy-free granola bars which will then be delivered to pantries.
Find out more at [email protected].
Letter to the Editor: Not In Our Name
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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(This letter was written by Michelle Sterling of Brayton Road)
As a child and grandchild of Holocaust survivors, I’ve spent my life carrying the weight and wisdom of history. The lessons of the past are seared into my consciousness: where authoritarianism is tolerated, freedom is crushed; where justice is subverted, people suffer. And when hatred is weaponized—especially in the name of Jews—history teaches us to stand up and say no.
That is why I write today in profound distress. I am deeply alarmed by how the Trump movement is exploiting Jewish identity and concerns for Jewish safety to carry out grave injustices against freedom, pluralism, and the rule of law.
Trump—who has consistently trafficked in antisemitic tropes and courted the extreme right—now wraps himself in the Jewish flag. Not out of solidarity, but as a shield. If he truly cared about combating antisemitism, he would not have said that American Jews who vote for Democrats show “great disloyalty”—a remark rooted in the age-old slur that Jews are inherently more loyal to Israel than to their own country. Nor would he have tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton over a pile of cash and a Star of David—an image sourced from a white supremacist message board that evokes classic stereotypes of Jews as corrupt and money-obsessed.
He would not have appointed officials with documented histories of antisemitic views, dismantled civil rights teams tasked with addressing campus hatred, or pardoned January 6 rioters, including members of militia groups steeped in antisemitic and white nationalist ideologies.
American Jews have flourished in recent decades—in business, culture, politics, and education. But this success did not come from authoritarian protection. It was built on democracy, on civil liberties, on an America that strove—however imperfectly—to uphold the rule of law. Trumpism seeks to unravel all of that. And worse, it does so while claiming to speak for us.
As someone whose family witnessed the worst of what happens when law is trampled and hate is empowered, I am chilled to my core by this moment. We know what it looks like when leaders twist the language of protection into tools of control. We know what happens when silence enables injustice. And we know that “never again” means never again—for anyone.
To my fellow Jews: This is not what safety looks like. This is not what justice demands. We must stand up and say clearly and unequivocally: Not in our name.
Michelle Sterling
Brayton Road
Student Group Seeks to Promote Civic Engagement and Civil Discourse
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- Written by: Wendy MacMillan
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Dylan LembergPassionate about politics but discouraged by how divided and angry people have become when discussing “hot topics,” Scarsdale High School Junior, Dylan Lemberg recently started a non-government organization, New York Student Engaged Citizenship (NYSEC), focused on teaching students how to participate in responsible civil discourse and how to be informed and engaged citizens. According to the NYSEC website:
“While it may take time, NYSEC aims to pass New York State Legislation requiring all schools to have a mandatory level of civic and media literacy education within the curriculums.Civic Participation among students and beyond is one of the most vital things in keeping, protecting, and improving our freedom, democracy, and our very own lives.”
Partially due to this important and timely work, Lemberg was just selected by the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale to participate in their “Students Inside Albany” program. LWV describes the program by saying:
“Students Inside Albany is an intensive four-day conference run by the New York State League of Women Voters Education Foundation. The program is designed to immerse students in the process by which public policy is proposed, enacted and changed in New York State and educate them as to how they can influence and affect this process. The conference brings approximately 60 students from across the State to Albany to get a first-hand education about their state government. The highlight for most students is the opportunity to shadow their state representatives for an afternoon, with many students getting the opportunity to attend a session on the Chamber floor. LWVS annually sponsors and funds the expenses for two highly qualified Scarsdale students, selected from an outstanding pool of applicants, to attend the conference.”
Seeming like the perfect candidate for the LWV program, we recently interviewed Lemberg to learn more about his organization and how he hopes it can make a positive impact in the Scarsdale community and in other New York school districts.
Q: What inspired you to start NYSEC?
I think it is safe to say that we struggle, as a society, at having difficult conversations. I have seen friends and family members sitting across from each other at the table, arguing for hours on end and hurting their relationships, simply because they don’t know how to communicate. This struggle to communicate can be observed within all political parties and isn’t reserved to one side or another. As a whole, we seem to lack the ability to have meaningful conversations, to look each other in the eye, to stand in each other’s shoes and recognize all that we share as humans. It is imperative that we learn to talk and I believe it starts with our students.
Q: How do you hope NYSEC can make a difference?
NYSEC, or New York Student Engaged Citizenship, has the goal of improving media literacy, responsible civic discourse, and prevailing civic engagement among students. Overall, the organization aims to teach students how to be a responsible democratic citizen for now and years to come. Considering the current, unwelcoming civic environment, we have heard from students, parents, teachers, and administrators alike, who all agree that Civic Education is of the utmost importance at this time and we hope to help students and schools find a path forward.
Q: How has NYSEC started to advocate for more civic education?
We have spoken at major events and panels for civic education in New York (LIUH envisioning the future to name one) where several principals from Westchester County schools and the New York State Commissioner of Education were in attendance. I have also had the privilege of speaking with Representative George Latimer who has expressed interest in collaborating with our organization. Though we are currently only working with Scarsdale and Pleasantville, we are planning on talking with other schools across Westchester as well. In the past, we have also designed workshops in which students of all ages come together to discuss topics, from politics to toys. The results are better than we have ever imagined and we have managed to create an environment where both teachers and students across grade levels are having responsible conversations about something they may disagree with.
Our end goal is to work with the New York State Legislature in Albany and have a bill introduced allotting funding, experience, and opportunity for schools to teach these much-needed civic lessons. They are more vital than ever.
Q: Has NYSEC already started to make an impact in communities?
As of now, our biggest impact has been within Scarsdale. Along with the Scarsdale Student Government, I largely shaped the design of the up and coming Scarsdale “Hot Topics Room,” a safe space designed for a variety of students to talk about pressing issues that they may not otherwise have a chance to discuss. NYSEC alone has run this exact same room on multiple occasions. This is exactly the NYSEC model as we have envisioned it, a chance for students to talk freely and openly; a chance to learn how to talk.
In our conversation, Lemberg expressed that the work he is doing with NYSEC is something that he is incredibly passionate about and he will continue to work on for the rest of his life. He also made a point to include, “I founded the organization back in 2023, but since then, Oliver Kaiden has come on as a “Vice President,” and has been more valuable than I could imagine. He is a major part of the organization’s function.
For more information about NYSEC and to learn how you can get involved, check out their website here ny-sec.org.
