Discovery Bay license plate readers await state approval for installation
DISCOVERY BAY >> A plan to install 24 license plate readers in and around Discovery Bay to help law enforcement solve crimes is on hold awaiting state approval.
The project was first presented more than a year ago to the Discovery Bay P-6 Zone Citizens Advisory Committee, which suggests ways to spend funds earmarked for local law enforcement. In January, the committee approved spending up to $350,000 from reserve funds for the cameras, which cost about $14,000 each plus $825 in annual fees for maintenance, licensing and software.
Cameras that scan license plates are to be installed at key locations and operate 24 hours a day in the far eastern Contra Costa County town of nearly 15,000. They photograph license plates and compare the information with local records and a state database of stolen vehicles. When a match is found, dispatchers are alerted to the vehicle’s location.
“The (P-6 Zone) board’s intent was to create a virtual boundary around Discovery Bay for the purpose of assisting law enforcement solve crimes where vehicles were used for transport to or from the area,” said Capt. Steve Borbely of the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Division.
But 14 of the 24 license plate readers to be located on the state Highway 4 corridor have yet to be approved, said sheriff’s spokesman Jimmy Lee.
The cameras, which were supposed to be in place this fall, cannot be installed until everything is approved, officials said.
“If permission is not given for the state-run locations, which are ideal for best coverage, other locations will need to be looked into,” Lee said, noting the state has not given a time frame for its decision.
Borbely said the readers not only will help the Sheriff’s Office identify vehicles used in crimes in Discovery Bay but also will notify officers when a vehicle connected to
any crime has entered the area — if the license plate is already in the database.
“The cameras can also assist law enforcement with missing persons, kidnapping, runaways or other persons-at-risk cases,” he said.
All data obtained from the license plate readers will be kept for one year and then purged unless needed as evidence for an investigation, Borbely said, noting that the data is only accessed in conjunction with an active criminal investigation.
Borbely, formerly manager of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Delta Station in Oakley, has been working on identifying locations and getting permits for the license plate readers, which are similar to those installed in Brentwood, Pinole, Martinez, Danville, Alamo, Antioch and Pittsburg, among others. Lt. Matt Foley, who replaced Borbely in Oakley, is now assisting with the project.
Although all the locations have yet to be approved, Borbely said cameras will be installed in spots “that will be of the most use, along the Highway 4 and Bixler corridors and entrances to the community.”
Leslie Belcher, chairwoman of the P-6 Zone Citizens Advisory Committee, said the town has been asking for some sort of surveillance mechanism for a while. Videotape was explored, but did not prove viable, she said.
“The community is very happy that this (the reader program) is coming,” she said. “The myth is all of our crime comes from Stockton,
but some are in our community as well; this happens in every community.”
Although Borbely said Discovery Bay has not seen an uptick in crime, there has been a series of unrelated, random crimes. In 2017, a Discovery Bay resident was shot and killed for confronting reckless drivers. That same year, two separate murders were also committed close to Discovery Bay.
“Though there does not appear to be any link to Discovery Bay regarding the murders, they nevertheless had an impact on the community,” Borbely said.
Belcher said Discovery Bay has experienced petty theft, property crimes and vandalism as well as a rash of mail thefts in the last year, but otherwise the statistics have been pretty stable.
The town’s location at the far edge of the county has resulted in some crimes of opportunity and town leaders are hoping the license plate readers will help.
“We are an island, so to speak, at end of county, the last stop going out to another county,” she said. “With crimes of opportunity, it’s the last stop, and they are gone.”
Although state approvals are taking longer than anticipated, Belcher said she is still hopeful that the plan will proceed this fall.
“There definitely has been progress made — the goal was for the project to be completed in the fall,” she said. “We thought the project would be up and running by now. Hopefully, we’ll get some movement soon.”