Council agrees to solar-powered plate readers

The Niagara Falls Police Department will be using 24 solar-powered stationary plate readers to monitor traffic in Niagara Falls for at least the next 4 years.

The city council last night voted unanimously to allow Mayor Robert Restaino to enter into a grant-funded $300,000 contract with SHI International of Somerset, N.J.

Council members Brian Archie and Donta Myles both expressed concerns about the technology being intrusive or potentially misused but ultimately agreed.

Myles ultimately spoke about the importance of tech in solving hit and run accidents or even finding a missing child for whom there is an Amber alert.

Archie talked about how the tech might help in an instance like the hit-and-run death last summer of Yolanda Yvette Carr who was killed last summer riding home following a shift at the casino.

Myles lamented that no one from the administration was in attendance to answer questions about overreach.