At its January 15, 2026, meeting, the Croton Police Advisory Committee (PAC) discussed a draft memo to the Village Board requesting three additional police officers and an outside staffing consultant. The draft was to be circulated for members’ approval before being sent. The request stemmed from a patrol schedule that Chief John Nikitopoulos described as detrimental to officer health and morale. The minutes describe Chief Nikitopoulos’s concerns about the health effects of Croton’s rotating backwards schedule and his preference for steady tours, as used by most other Westchester County departments. The minutes report that the village had recently lost several officers and that the schedule was believed to be a factor in their departures. The staffing request coincided with a broader look at department operations. Nikitopoulos planned to discuss with the Board whether the labor-intensive accreditation process was diverting manpower from police work. The department had finished its policy manual but still needed to complete procedures and accreditation manuals, with officers reviewing and signing off on the policies and requirements. The committee also discussed village cameras and privacy concerns. Village Manager Healy asked the committee to weigh in on proposed locations for two red-light cameras: the southbound Route 9 exit ramp at Croton Point Avenue/Municipal Place, and the Riverside Avenue intersection. Acknowledging that a "vocal group of residents" opposes any government cameras in the village, the PAC decided to hold a special discussion on all village cameras at its March meeting. Members planned to consider a public education campaign explaining what village license plate readers and proposed red-light cameras capture, how long data is retained and who can access it. The minutes attribute the following account to Detective Fielding: license plate information was retained at the County Real Time Crime Center for approximately three years; disclosure to ICE required a judicial warrant; and the information was used for incident-specific investigations rather than compiling patterns of residents’ daily behavior. Those statements describe the committee’s recorded account of his report. The PAC also planned to request warning signs near the proposed red-light cameras. The committee also discussed flag design for National Police Week. While planning to request a flag-raising ceremony at the Stanley H. Kellerhouse Municipal Building, the PAC explicitly agreed that a "thin blue line" cannot be part of the custom Croton PD flag, though a solid blue background is acceptable. The PAC was also exploring a Latino community soccer game day, a free raffle basket for National Night Out, and volunteer-led English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at the village community room. A proposal for a youth art contest was rejected by the Village Manager for not being police-related. The department had received 400 free gun safety locks and had already distributed 25, according to the minutes. Locks were available in the police department lobby. Trustee Maria Slippen reported that the village website was scheduled for a redesign in the 2026-2027 budget year during discussion of multilingual access to village resources.