SAN LEANDRO — San Leandro could soon have a network of 41 surveillance cameras throughout the city.
While not taking a formal vote, the City Council on Tuesday supported Police Chief Abdul D. Pridgen’s proposal for the cameras, which he said would reduce crime by helping solve cases and subsequently taking criminals off the street.
“It’s a way of trying to make San Leandro a safer community,” Pridgen said. “[It allows] us to glean evidence to hold people accountable to the crime in San Leandro.”
The cameras, equipped with license plate readers, will be able to record video, which the chief said would be used in criminal investigations, focusing on burglaries and violent crimes. Though crime in San Leandro overall is down, some areas, including robbery, are up, police say.
“I can tell you firsthand that there are crimes we would not have solved if we didn’t get video,” Pridgen said, referring to footage police have retrieved from both businesses and the city’s red-light cameras, which were installed years ago. “Those criminals would still be on the street.”
The surveillance cameras, which will cost an estimated $110,000 annually, will likely be located on most major roads, including those in and out of the city. The police department will avoid residential neighborhoods and focus on high crime areas when placing the cameras.
Chief Pridgen said police do not have data on how often traffic cameras have helped solve crimes or how many investigations they have been used in. The police department hopes to start collecting crime data with the new proposed cameras, he said. Police also have not yet set any metrics or goals for the cameras.
Like many police departments, San Leandro has experienced staffing shortages. The police chief said the cameras could help with investigations for the short-handed department, which has 15 vacancies.
“This is one of the ways you’ve asked us to provide help for you,” Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter said to Pridgen. “We used to be known as that city where [you] don’t come to San Leandro to commit crimes because you’re going to get caught.”
Out of the 10 or so residents who called in to the council meeting, many were in favor of the added cameras.
“I understand people’s privacy concerns, but I don’t think that they outweigh the benefit,” Morgan Mack-Rose said.
Privacy rights advocate Mike Katz-Lacabe said he was concerned about the city adding the cameras, noting that the proposal came as a surprise because in 2020 when there was more crime, the city sought to install only 20 cameras. That proposal was shelved as the city dealt with the killing of Steven Taylor by a San Leandro police officer, and the protests afterward. A police officer has been charged in that shooting.
“The idea that these cameras are going to do something magical to reduce crime … is ridiculous at best,” Katz-Lacabe said.
According to research done by Katz-Lacabe on the Piedmont Police Department, about 99.7% of the data collected by license plate readers are of no interest to law enforcement and don’t generate an alert.
“Even with that small percentage of useful information, there’s a question about what impact it has on crime,” he said. “The data that shows that it works is sketchy at best and in most cases nonexistent.”
All of the City Council members and Cutter at least partly favored the cameras, although Councilmember Fred Simon said he had reservations about using the cameras for crime prevention. Simon said he prefers to reduce crime by investing in things such as youth programs, though he noted those are long-term solutions.
“I am not a fan of cameras… and the reason, the biggest reason is they’re reactive, they’re after the fact,” Simon said. “On the flip side, if it can solve a crime, a murder perhaps, that’s a good thing.”
Only law enforcement will have access to the camera’s recordings and only for crime investigations. If the data is not being used for an investigation, it will be erased after 15 days.
The police chief will return to the council with a specific proposal that it can vote on.
Source: www.mercurynews.com