Kathy Hochul
Role at the time: Kathy Hochul, sitting state governor
Defended or excused
Statement summary
Hochul endorsed license plate readers for every police department.
“Every police department needs to have license plate readers to do their jobs.”
Read the official statement (opens in a new tab)Hochul Garden City police technology remarks and official transcriptGovernor quotation and surrounding reader-policy discussion
Hochul spoke at the Garden City Police Department on October 15, 2025, while discussing state funding for police equipment.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Hochul directly endorses police deployment of readers. The passage does not make that endorsement depend on a new restriction or moratorium.