Police to Ask City Council to OK License Plate Reader System

SUMMARY

The Alameda Police Department could soon have its first automated license plate reader system if the city council approves a request from Interim Chief Paul Rolleri.

Rolleri is asking the council for its OK to seek a federal grant to pay for the patrol car-mounted system, which photographs vehicle license plates and compares them to a database of stolen vehicles.

The council meets Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. in the City Hall council chambers, 2263 Santa Clara Ave. The meeting agenda and Rolleri's request are available here.

DETAILS

You may have seen them in Alameda Patch's police log articles: brief reports labeled "auto recovery" or "vehicle recovery." (There's one in the most recent police log.) They denote vehicles stolen in Alameda or elsewhere and found — often abandoned — in Alameda.

Right now Alameda police officers find these vehicles, and others wanted in connection with a crime or California Vehicle Code violation, by checking license plates again a written list as they patrol city streets.

Although it works, to a degree, it's what Interim Police Chief Paul Rolleri calls a "tedious and distracting" process.

He'd like to modernize the process by equipping at least one patrol vehicle with an automated license plate recognition system.

To that end, Rolleri is asking for the Alameda City Council's approval to seek grant funding from U.S. Department of Homeland Security to purchase and install a system. Costs can range from about $7,500 for a single-camera system (plus installation and service contract) to $22,000 for a four-camera system, which provides a patrol vehicle with 360-degree coverage as it travels.

Currently Alameda police are field testing a two-camera system, according to an article published on The Alamedan website. (That article also discusses some of the privacy concerns related to the use of automated license plate readers.)

About three-quarters of the nation's police departments already have at least one automated system in place, many of them funded through Home Security, The Alamedan reports.

According to Rolleri's report to the city council, the police department would likely enter into an agreement with the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC) for access to its automated database of "hot list" license plates.

The database is just one of the services offered by the NCRIC, one of 78 multi-jurisdictional "fusion centers" in the U.S. It also focuses heavily on drug trafficking and threats to national security.

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