Tedisco Calls for New Bill to Install Security Cameras in all State Parks & Campgrounds

Senator Jim Tedisco (R,C-44th Senate District), a member of the Senate Parks and Recreation Committee and a longtime legislative expert on missing persons and child abductions, is introducing new legislation to require all state parks, campgrounds and recreational facilities have security cameras in place at all entrances and exits.   

The legislation is in response to the abduction of a 9-year-old girl from Moreau Lake State Park on Saturday. According to the Times Union, no security cameras were present when the kidnapping took place and the state is now “reviewing” the issue statewide.  Fortunately, the girl was found and safely returned to her family about 48 hours after her abduction thanks to a fingerprint found on a ransom note left by the kidnapper at her family’s home in Corinth.  Senator Tedisco represents both Moreau Lake State Park and Corinth. 

Senator Tedisco’s bill, Senate bill 7688, would require state-run parks and campgrounds be equipped with security cameras that can identify the license plate, make and model of any vehicle entering or exiting the facilities as well as record the image of any person walking into or out of the grounds. 

“We’re all overjoyed that our collective prayers were answered, and the 9-year-old girl was safely rescued by law enforcement and returned to her loving family.  What I’ve learned over the years in my legislative work to help find missing persons is that when an abduction occurs, seconds count and time is of the essence and could make the difference between life and death. If security cameras were already in place last Saturday at Moreau Lake State Park, perhaps the kidnapper would have been identified and the girl found much sooner and not 48 hours after her disappearance. It’s thanks to the grace of God that the police were able to capitalize on the kidnapper’s mistake of leaving a fingerprint on the ransom note, and that his prints were on file from a DWI in the 1990s, that she was safely found,” said Senator Jim Tedisco. 

“We don’t need the state to ‘study’ and ‘review’ the need for security cameras at our state parks and campgrounds, we need them installed as soon as possible,” said Senator Jim Tedisco.  “This is vital public safety legislation to keep all New Yorkers who recreate in our state’s 180 parks safe and more secure.” 

With former Governor Mario Cuomo, Tedisco helped make New York the first state in the nation to put the pictures of missing persons on Thruway Toll tickets.  

As Chair of the Assembly Minority Task Force on Missing Children, Tedisco sponsored and passed New York’s landmark non-custodial release law to protect children from being abducted. This child release procedure law is used by every school in New York State to provide guidance on who is authorized to pick up a child.  

As Assembly Minority Leader, Tedisco was a driving force for passage of New York’s civil confinement law to keep dangerous sex predators out of the community. 

Over the years, Senator Tedisco has worked closely with Suzanne Lyall’s parents Mary and the late Doug Lyall of Ballston Spa and the Center for Hope on a number of innovative initiatives to find missing persons and support their families, including creating the nation’s first Missing Persons Remembrance Monument located next to the state museum in Albany.  Suzanne Lyall went missing from the University at Albany in 1998.