Alameda may scan cars coming, going
Frustrated by a wave of auto break-ins and thefts plaguing the Bay Area, police officials on the island of Alameda have proposed a strategy that would take advantage of the city’s unique geography, even as it raises the ire of privacy advocates.
They want to scan the license plate of every vehicle that enters the city from Oakland, and every one that leaves.
The Alameda City Council will vote Tuesday on whether to spend $500,000 on 13 license plate recognition systems, which would be installed over the traffic lanes of several bridges, two underwater tubes and two intersections near city limits. The devices create records of when vehicles come and go, while immediately flagging stolen and wanted vehicles.
The Police Department has four license plate readers, all attached to cruisers. Chief Paul Rolleri said a spike in property crime has shown that more needs to be done.
“We have the same issues you’re seeing in San Francisco with the epidemic of car break-ins and thefts,” Rolleri said. “It’s a
regional safety issue. We had, overall in 2017, a 12 percent increase in crime, but twothirds of that increase was in property crime.”
Alameda is following the lead of Piedmont, which blanketed much of its border with Oakland with license plate readers. Property crime has dropped 34 percent in Piedmont since 2014, when the cameras were installed, said Police Chief Jeremy Bowers, who gives partial credit to the devices’ deterrent effect.
The Alameda proposal, though, has prompted city leaders and privacy advocates to raise questions about how information will be used and shared. License plate readers remain controversial, even as they have become popular around the country for crimefighting as well as other uses such as toll-taking and parking enforcement.
Brian Hofer, chair of the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission, said he was concerned that Alameda was seeking to put up a virtual border wall.
“They’re scared of Oakland,” Hofer said. “Alameda’s had that history, and that’s playing out. ... That’s not to discount that crime does occur, but there’s definitely this fear of Oakland that’s ridiculously frustrating to me.”
Alameda Councilman Frank Matarrese said he hadn’t decided which way to vote, but is “very leery” of the plan, with concerns about the high cost of the installation and the privacy concerns.
“I’m not sure that the benefits of it outweigh the risks,” he said. “This whole thing about security, security, security. Maybe we’re more secure, I don’t know, but is that additional security worth the indiscriminate gathering of data on people’s whereabouts, or at least the whereabouts of their car?”
Shirlene Concepcion, who works at 77Salon in Alameda, said she tentatively supports the idea of installing license plate readers. The salon was recently broken into when thieves shattered a window and kicked in the door, taking the contents of the cash register and an iPad. No one was caught.
“I personally don’t love the idea of my personal information being tracked, but if (installing readers) would help prevent crimes like that and if it promotes general safety, I think it would be good,” Concepcion said.
Rolleri said data will be stored for six months and can be accessed by detectives investigating crimes. If a plate is associated with a warrant, theft or missing-person case, the system will alert police immediately, he said.
He also said his department is ensuring that information is not shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.
Plate scans from Alameda and other cities are sent to a multiagency partnership called the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center. The resulting database can be accessed by other state, local and federal agencies looking to pinpoint past locations of vehicles.
Mike Cena, director of the regional center, said it changed its approach to data-sharing after California adopted a statewide sanctuary law last year restricting cooperation with immigration authorities. He said the center will honor an ICE request for information only if it’s related to a criminal investigation.
Another concern is that the company providing Alameda with the scanners, Vigilant Solutions of Livermore, recently entered into a contract to provide data on vehicle locations to ICE.
“There’s been absolutely no demonstration to me that Alameda won’t share data with them,” said Gabrielle Dolphin, co-president of the Alameda Democratic Club. “Everyone knows without it being spoken that this system is being used to track undocumented people.”
Rolleri said he is working with Vigilant to make sure the city’s scans are kept from ICE.
“I was (concerned) when I first heard about” the contract, Rolleri said. “But we’ve been in communication with Vigilant, and they have assured us in writing that we, the Alameda Police Department, own our data and we have ultimate control over that data and they are not going to give data to ICE.”