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by Gennady Sheyner / Palo Alto Weekly
Uploaded: Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 2:25 pm 2
Time to read: about 4 minutes
Palo Alto edged closer Monday to installing automated license plate readers in about two dozen locations around town when the City Council tentatively supported a Police Department proposal to adopt the technology.
License plate reading cameras (located to the left and the right) are used on one of the Palo Alto Police Department’s police cruisers. Embarcadero Media file photo by Veronica Weber.
Despite some concerns about an increase in surveillance and retention of records, the council generally agreed that license plate readers could be a useful tool for combating common crimes like store burglaries and thefts of catalytic converters as well as investigating rarer and more serious cases.
Acting police Capt. James Reifschneider cited the recent increase around the region of certain property crimes, including auto burglaries and organized retail thefts. He emphasized, however, that the technology could be useful even if crime is not on an upward trajectory.
“We’re not here advocating or even discussing the technology because of some crime emergency,” Reifschneider said. “We’re here because we feel this is a potentially useful crime-solving and crime-prevention tool, regardless of what the current crime trend might be.”
If the city adopts the technology, the department would install cameras on about 20 locations throughout the city. These will include prominent shopping areas and traffic corridors. The technology will issue real-time alerts to the police when a vehicle marked as suspicious or wanted gets captured by a camera. And while the cameras don’t capture the images of drivers, they provide information about a vehicle’s make, model and color.
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Reifschneider said the department would only share the information with other law enforcement agencies. All recordings would be deleted within 30 days unless they are linked to an active investigation, he said.
“The fact that we have a common database to work with with other investigators in other departments helps us to connect the dots and kind of complete that puzzle where we may have a partial plate, they may have a vehicle description,” he said.
Automated license plate readers are already in use in other local police departments, including Atherton, Menlo Park and Los Altos Hills. Policies for retention and sharing vary. The Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department, for example, has a policy of not sharing its data with other agencies, though it allows other departments to request information about specific cases they’re investigating. Sgt. Bill Hoyt, detective for Los Gatos-Monte Sereno police, told the Palo Alto council that the technology, which the department adopted in the beginning of this year, has been very effective in helping the agency track and apprehend criminals.
“Between January and July of 2021 and the same months in 2022, our stolen vehicle recoveries rose from three to 22,” Hoyt said. “That’s just an extraordinary measure.”
Hoyt said the department is approaching about 100 successful cases that he believes would otherwise have been very unlikely to have been solved without the resource.
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The technology, however, has its skeptics. The American Civil Liberties Union issued a guide in 2016 for communities looking to adopt surveillance technology like automated license plate readers. The report urged cities to launch robust community engagement efforts and to clearly identify the costs and legal risks of surveillance before adoption.
“Surveillance can easily intrude upon the individual rights of residents and visitors, perpetuate discriminatory policing, or chill freedom of expression, association, and religion — freedoms that public officials are sworn to protect,” the report states. “As a result, surveillance can erode trust in law enforcement, making it harder for officers and community members to work together to keep the community safe.”
Some council members shared these concerns and supported stricter rules for record retention. Council member Greer Stone acknowledged the usefulness of the technology in solving crimes but noted that balancing this with the privacy and civil liberties issues will be key to the success of this policy getting approved by the council.
Council member Tom DuBois also cited privacy concerns and said he would like to see a system in which license plate data that is not associated with suspect vehicles is quickly deleted. He also warned about the prospect of license plate data being used for other purposes in the future.
“Once it’s in place, it seems like it will be tempting to upgrade it in a few years and say, ‘Now we can do speeding or red lights. We can do all this enforcement.’ And then we start to get this feeling of being watched all the time,” DuBois said.
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But despite these misgivings, council members generally supported the approach proposed by Palo Alto police, including the deletion of data within 30 days. Reifschneider noted that some police departments store data for a year or longer.
Mayor Pat Burt said he was assured by the fact that the technology only captures rear license plates and not drivers.
“It seems to address concerns over potential racial profiling, which I think needs to be high on our priorities, and it’s not used for purposes of tracing undocumented residents,” Mayor Pat Burt said.
Others agreed. Vice Mayor Lydia Kou suggested moving ahead with the new technology and council member Greg Tanaka both lauded the new technology as a useful tool for solving crime. Tanaka called the license plate readers a tool that should have been adopted a long time ago.
“If you have stolen cars converging on Stanford Shopping Center, that could be a great way to solve those kinds of crimes — those smash-and-grabs,” Tanaka said. “Otherwise, it’s hard to do that because the horse has left the barn.”
While the council did not take any votes Monday, its positive feedback was effectively a green light for the Police Department to return with a formal proposal, including details on where the cameras would be installed.
The department’s proposal to install the cameras received a mixed response from the public. Resident Julie Beer said she was concerned about civil liberties and argued it should be the responsibility of big businesses and institutions like Stanford to adopt technology that provides more security against thieves.
“I just really am concerned about privacy. I don’t like the Big Brother feel to this,” Beer said.
But Megan Kawkab, owner of The Patio, a downtown bar and restaurant, lauded the technology for preventing crime. She had two license plate cameras installed near her restaurant, Kawkab told the council.
“We have an influx of folks coming in from out of Palo Alto to break into cars, to steal catalytic converters, to do all sort of nonsense and this is a really big way for us to make sure that our customers, our neighbors and folks coming in to Palo Alto and parking in the lots across the streets are safe,” Kawkab said. “People see cameras and they think twice before doing bad things. They are wonderful.”
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by Gennady Sheyner / Palo Alto Weekly
Uploaded: Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 2:25 pm
Palo Alto edged closer Monday to installing automated license plate readers in about two dozen locations around town when the City Council tentatively supported a Police Department proposal to adopt the technology.
Despite some concerns about an increase in surveillance and retention of records, the council generally agreed that license plate readers could be a useful tool for combating common crimes like store burglaries and thefts of catalytic converters as well as investigating rarer and more serious cases.
Acting police Capt. James Reifschneider cited the recent increase around the region of certain property crimes, including auto burglaries and organized retail thefts. He emphasized, however, that the technology could be useful even if crime is not on an upward trajectory.
“We’re not here advocating or even discussing the technology because of some crime emergency,” Reifschneider said. “We’re here because we feel this is a potentially useful crime-solving and crime-prevention tool, regardless of what the current crime trend might be.”
If the city adopts the technology, the department would install cameras on about 20 locations throughout the city. These will include prominent shopping areas and traffic corridors. The technology will issue real-time alerts to the police when a vehicle marked as suspicious or wanted gets captured by a camera. And while the cameras don’t capture the images of drivers, they provide information about a vehicle’s make, model and color.
Reifschneider said the department would only share the information with other law enforcement agencies. All recordings would be deleted within 30 days unless they are linked to an active investigation, he said.
“The fact that we have a common database to work with with other investigators in other departments helps us to connect the dots and kind of complete that puzzle where we may have a partial plate, they may have a vehicle description,” he said.
Automated license plate readers are already in use in other local police departments, including Atherton, Menlo Park and Los Altos Hills. Policies for retention and sharing vary. The Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department, for example, has a policy of not sharing its data with other agencies, though it allows other departments to request information about specific cases they’re investigating. Sgt. Bill Hoyt, detective for Los Gatos-Monte Sereno police, told the Palo Alto council that the technology, which the department adopted in the beginning of this year, has been very effective in helping the agency track and apprehend criminals.
“Between January and July of 2021 and the same months in 2022, our stolen vehicle recoveries rose from three to 22,” Hoyt said. “That’s just an extraordinary measure.”
Hoyt said the department is approaching about 100 successful cases that he believes would otherwise have been very unlikely to have been solved without the resource.
The technology, however, has its skeptics. The American Civil Liberties Union issued a guide in 2016 for communities looking to adopt surveillance technology like automated license plate readers. The report urged cities to launch robust community engagement efforts and to clearly identify the costs and legal risks of surveillance before adoption.
“Surveillance can easily intrude upon the individual rights of residents and visitors, perpetuate discriminatory policing, or chill freedom of expression, association, and religion — freedoms that public officials are sworn to protect,” the report states. “As a result, surveillance can erode trust in law enforcement, making it harder for officers and community members to work together to keep the community safe.”
Some council members shared these concerns and supported stricter rules for record retention. Council member Greer Stone acknowledged the usefulness of the technology in solving crimes but noted that balancing this with the privacy and civil liberties issues will be key to the success of this policy getting approved by the council.
Council member Tom DuBois also cited privacy concerns and said he would like to see a system in which license plate data that is not associated with suspect vehicles is quickly deleted. He also warned about the prospect of license plate data being used for other purposes in the future.
“Once it’s in place, it seems like it will be tempting to upgrade it in a few years and say, ‘Now we can do speeding or red lights. We can do all this enforcement.’ And then we start to get this feeling of being watched all the time,” DuBois said.
But despite these misgivings, council members generally supported the approach proposed by Palo Alto police, including the deletion of data within 30 days. Reifschneider noted that some police departments store data for a year or longer.
Mayor Pat Burt said he was assured by the fact that the technology only captures rear license plates and not drivers.
“It seems to address concerns over potential racial profiling, which I think needs to be high on our priorities, and it’s not used for purposes of tracing undocumented residents,” Mayor Pat Burt said.
Others agreed. Vice Mayor Lydia Kou suggested moving ahead with the new technology and council member Greg Tanaka both lauded the new technology as a useful tool for solving crime. Tanaka called the license plate readers a tool that should have been adopted a long time ago.
“If you have stolen cars converging on Stanford Shopping Center, that could be a great way to solve those kinds of crimes — those smash-and-grabs,” Tanaka said. “Otherwise, it’s hard to do that because the horse has left the barn.”
While the council did not take any votes Monday, its positive feedback was effectively a green light for the Police Department to return with a formal proposal, including details on where the cameras would be installed.
The department’s proposal to install the cameras received a mixed response from the public. Resident Julie Beer said she was concerned about civil liberties and argued it should be the responsibility of big businesses and institutions like Stanford to adopt technology that provides more security against thieves.
“I just really am concerned about privacy. I don’t like the Big Brother feel to this,” Beer said.
But Megan Kawkab, owner of The Patio, a downtown bar and restaurant, lauded the technology for preventing crime. She had two license plate cameras installed near her restaurant, Kawkab told the council.
“We have an influx of folks coming in from out of Palo Alto to break into cars, to steal catalytic converters, to do all sort of nonsense and this is a really big way for us to make sure that our customers, our neighbors and folks coming in to Palo Alto and parking in the lots across the streets are safe,” Kawkab said. “People see cameras and they think twice before doing bad things. They are wonderful.”
Palo Alto edged closer Monday to installing automated license plate readers in about two dozen locations around town when the City Council tentatively supported a Police Department proposal to adopt the technology.
Despite some concerns about an increase in surveillance and retention of records, the council generally agreed that license plate readers could be a useful tool for combating common crimes like store burglaries and thefts of catalytic converters as well as investigating rarer and more serious cases.
Acting police Capt. James Reifschneider cited the recent increase around the region of certain property crimes, including auto burglaries and organized retail thefts. He emphasized, however, that the technology could be useful even if crime is not on an upward trajectory.
“We’re not here advocating or even discussing the technology because of some crime emergency,” Reifschneider said. “We’re here because we feel this is a potentially useful crime-solving and crime-prevention tool, regardless of what the current crime trend might be.”
If the city adopts the technology, the department would install cameras on about 20 locations throughout the city. These will include prominent shopping areas and traffic corridors. The technology will issue real-time alerts to the police when a vehicle marked as suspicious or wanted gets captured by a camera. And while the cameras don’t capture the images of drivers, they provide information about a vehicle’s make, model and color.
Reifschneider said the department would only share the information with other law enforcement agencies. All recordings would be deleted within 30 days unless they are linked to an active investigation, he said.
“The fact that we have a common database to work with with other investigators in other departments helps us to connect the dots and kind of complete that puzzle where we may have a partial plate, they may have a vehicle description,” he said.
Automated license plate readers are already in use in other local police departments, including Atherton, Menlo Park and Los Altos Hills. Policies for retention and sharing vary. The Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department, for example, has a policy of not sharing its data with other agencies, though it allows other departments to request information about specific cases they’re investigating. Sgt. Bill Hoyt, detective for Los Gatos-Monte Sereno police, told the Palo Alto council that the technology, which the department adopted in the beginning of this year, has been very effective in helping the agency track and apprehend criminals.
“Between January and July of 2021 and the same months in 2022, our stolen vehicle recoveries rose from three to 22,” Hoyt said. “That’s just an extraordinary measure.”
Hoyt said the department is approaching about 100 successful cases that he believes would otherwise have been very unlikely to have been solved without the resource.
The technology, however, has its skeptics. The American Civil Liberties Union issued a guide in 2016 for communities looking to adopt surveillance technology like automated license plate readers. The report urged cities to launch robust community engagement efforts and to clearly identify the costs and legal risks of surveillance before adoption.
“Surveillance can easily intrude upon the individual rights of residents and visitors, perpetuate discriminatory policing, or chill freedom of expression, association, and religion — freedoms that public officials are sworn to protect,” the report states. “As a result, surveillance can erode trust in law enforcement, making it harder for officers and community members to work together to keep the community safe.”
Some council members shared these concerns and supported stricter rules for record retention. Council member Greer Stone acknowledged the usefulness of the technology in solving crimes but noted that balancing this with the privacy and civil liberties issues will be key to the success of this policy getting approved by the council.
Council member Tom DuBois also cited privacy concerns and said he would like to see a system in which license plate data that is not associated with suspect vehicles is quickly deleted. He also warned about the prospect of license plate data being used for other purposes in the future.
“Once it’s in place, it seems like it will be tempting to upgrade it in a few years and say, ‘Now we can do speeding or red lights. We can do all this enforcement.’ And then we start to get this feeling of being watched all the time,” DuBois said.
But despite these misgivings, council members generally supported the approach proposed by Palo Alto police, including the deletion of data within 30 days. Reifschneider noted that some police departments store data for a year or longer.
Mayor Pat Burt said he was assured by the fact that the technology only captures rear license plates and not drivers.
“It seems to address concerns over potential racial profiling, which I think needs to be high on our priorities, and it’s not used for purposes of tracing undocumented residents,” Mayor Pat Burt said.
Others agreed. Vice Mayor Lydia Kou suggested moving ahead with the new technology and council member Greg Tanaka both lauded the new technology as a useful tool for solving crime. Tanaka called the license plate readers a tool that should have been adopted a long time ago.
“If you have stolen cars converging on Stanford Shopping Center, that could be a great way to solve those kinds of crimes — those smash-and-grabs,” Tanaka said. “Otherwise, it’s hard to do that because the horse has left the barn.”
While the council did not take any votes Monday, its positive feedback was effectively a green light for the Police Department to return with a formal proposal, including details on where the cameras would be installed.
The department’s proposal to install the cameras received a mixed response from the public. Resident Julie Beer said she was concerned about civil liberties and argued it should be the responsibility of big businesses and institutions like Stanford to adopt technology that provides more security against thieves.
“I just really am concerned about privacy. I don’t like the Big Brother feel to this,” Beer said.
But Megan Kawkab, owner of The Patio, a downtown bar and restaurant, lauded the technology for preventing crime. She had two license plate cameras installed near her restaurant, Kawkab told the council.
“We have an influx of folks coming in from out of Palo Alto to break into cars, to steal catalytic converters, to do all sort of nonsense and this is a really big way for us to make sure that our customers, our neighbors and folks coming in to Palo Alto and parking in the lots across the streets are safe,” Kawkab said. “People see cameras and they think twice before doing bad things. They are wonderful.”
Perhaps I should have chosen “Crimes & Incidents” as a category. Regardless, I listened to the discussion on Monday and I think CC shares concerns about privacy and asked the right questions.
The officer was well informed and I think it makes sense that CC voted as they did.
A few questions:
1. How difficult is it to use a screwdriver to steal a license plate and put it on your stolen car?
2. Since the police haven’t done anything with the security camera footage (including plates), that I’ve personally turned over for 8-10 incidents of theft at our complex… what are they going to do with this mass surveillance system?
This shiny new toy isn’t going to solve the problem they think it will, but it’s a nice wedge to permanently pry open the door to a local surveillance state.
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