By Kevin Ostrowski
AMHERST — Sometime this spring, 20 solar-powered cameras are expected to go up at the roads leading into and out of the University at Buffalo. For 60 days they will read the license plate of every car that passes. Then UB will decide whether to keep them.
The university announced the trial last week in a UBNow brief and an explainer on the University Police website. The cameras come from Flock Safety, the Atlanta company whose readers have drawn pushback in several Western New York towns this fall. The trial costs UB nothing. Flock is offering it free.
The university says the readers will help police solve crimes. A lot of students and faculty say they don’t want them on campus at all.
“As the University of Buffalo Chief of Police, I have an obligation to keep our students, faculty, and staff members safe,” Kim Beaty, the UB police chief, told WKBW.
What UB says the cameras will and won’t do
According to the University Police FAQ, the pilot will put 20 readers at entrances and exits on the North and South campuses in March or April 2027. Exact locations have not been chosen. (The UB Spectrum, the student newspaper, reported that the cameras would go on the North Campus. The university’s own page lists both campuses.)
UB says the cameras capture plates and vehicle details, not faces. Beaty was direct about that point.
“It does not do facial recognition, so we’re not looking to do anything like that with biometrics or facial recognition,” she told WKBW.
The FAQ says only certain University Police investigators will be able to search the data and that searches will be audited internally on a regular basis. Beaty said the circle is small.
“We are not going to share our information with other agencies,” she told WKBW. “The access will only be privileged to our investigators and our deputies of investigations. We have a limited number of supervisors that will have access to the information. Our patrol officers will not have access.”
The university’s written policy leaves a little more room than that. UB says it will opt out of Flock’s national database, but the FAQ allows limited, permission-based sharing with local law enforcement agencies. Data is deleted after seven days by default. UB also says state Executive Order 170 and New York’s Green Light Law bar the data from being used for civil immigration enforcement.
UB says it started exploring license plate readers in December 2025, after the mass shooting at Brown University. It cites an estimate that vehicles are involved in more than 70% of crimes. Its parking office has used vehicle-mounted plate readers for enforcement since fall 2023, and other SUNY campuses already use the fixed kind. Any purchase after the trial would go through state procurement rules.
A crowded town hall
The plan has been under discussion since at least September, when the Spectrum first reported that University Police wanted a trial. The Student Association Senate unanimously criticized the cameras on Sept. 30, the Spectrum reported. A petition asking UB President Caroline Genco to drop the plan drew more than 930 signatures, and on Oct. 20 the Faculty Senate passed a resolution supporting it.
More than 60 people came to a University Police town hall on Oct. 28, according to the Spectrum. Beaty described the trial as a test run.
“They offered us a 60 day free trial,” she said, according to the Spectrum. “And the only thing that does is give us an opportunity to see if it’s something we want to utilize.”
Some in the room weren’t convinced. Na’Dia Carter, the Student Association’s vice president for advocacy, asked: “So my question is, what’s the point of having town halls if you’re already going to do what you’re going to do?”
Stephanie Mejia of the Western New York Peace Center said her worry was about who could get the data later. “And while I would like to believe you folks have the best intentions, the thing is that not everybody does,” she said. “I don’t trust this administration not to take advantage of what data that you guys are eventually gathering.”
The Spectrum also reported that audit logs show a University Police search of the Cheektowaga Police Department’s Flock database on April 6. Deputy Chief Gregory Sauers called it a training demonstration. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there,” he said.
Beaty said she welcomed the pushback. “People were able to express themselves freely, and we’ll have more sessions so that we can talk more,” she said. “I appreciate people saying how they feel about things. I’m all for the First Amendment.”
Students are split
Students who spoke to WKBW didn’t agree with each other. Chadwick Podkulski said he could live with it under the right conditions. “It’s protecting our privacy, and it’s protecting our safety,” he said. “As long as they delete the information afterward, I’m totally okay with it.”
Maggie Giancola saw it differently. “This is a school. This is a place where people have to learn,” she said. “So like I think it’s unfair that we’re being policed and we’re being watched specifically by such a damaging industry.”
WGRZ has also covered the debate. The Chronicle has reported on the state’s license plate reader bill, which doesn’t reach the police cameras now spreading across the region, and on how Flock cameras became a campaign issue in the 143rd Assembly District.
What happens next
UB says its Police Advisory Council will hold more listening sessions on campus before the cameras go up and that updates will be posted in UBNow. The questions most worth watching: where exactly the 20 readers will go, who outside UB can ask for the data, and what standard the university will use after 60 days to decide whether the cameras worked.
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