LA MESA TO ROLL OUT LICENSE PLATE READERS

By Michael Howard

December 8, 2023 (La Mesa) – The La Mesa City Council voted on Nov.28 to join 15 San Diego County cities and agencies in installing 20 automated license plate readers (ALPR) in high traffic areas throughout the city at a cost of $124,500 for a two-year period. 

The vote passed 4-1, with Vice Mayor Laura Lothian casting the only dissenting vote.

“I have concerns about this system because it’s so powerful,” she told La Mesa Police Chief Ray Sweeny after he asked the Council to approve the resolution. 

The crime fighting technology captures still-images of car license plates as they travel on the city roads where the cameras are installed. The images will be stored for 30-days and be shared with other California state agencies.  But data will not be shared with federal agencies, pursuant to SB 54, which prohibits California law enforcement from sharing immigration status information to ICE and US Border Patrol agencies.

Lothian’s concern wasn’t centered around sharing of data or privacy, but instead over how it could be used in government overreach.

Referring to misuse of data authorized by the 2001 Patriots Act following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Lothian reminded Chief Sweeny, “What started as a noble intention of capturing terrorists became a giant spying tool on American citizens.”

She stated, “I’m not comfortable with any institution collecting hundreds of thousands of plates of La Mesans just going about innocently doing their business.” 

Once the camera captures an image, optical character recognition software transforms plate information into alphanumeric data and stores the image, the plate data, geolocation, and when possible, car make and model information. The data is stored in servers that reside in the United States, but the data is owned solely by the City of La Mesa, according to the staff report submitted to the city council. 

Police officers can then search the database that stores the data during the course of an investigation.  In doing so, they must attribute the search to a specific police investigation, pursuant to Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) regulations.  Additionally, the system can send real-time alerts when a plate matches a stolen vehicle or known to be associated with a suspect, crime, or missing person. 

“We’re always looking for how we can better keep our community safe, this is one tool that we’d like to look into and ask the council to approve,” Chief Sweeny implored the council members. 

The chief touted El Cajon’s recent purchase of 40 ALPR cameras that enabled El Cajon Police department to recover 49 stolen vehicles and 57 arrests due to the technology in a span of 11 weeks. The cameras also helped investigators identify a getaway vehicle, leading to the arrest of a murder suspect.  

Besides El Cajon, La Mesa will be the only other East County city to install the cameras. Other notable cities with the technology include Chula Vista, National City and Carlsbad. 

Public comments by La Mesa citizens ran from tepid on the idea to outright full stop against it, which accounted for three of the four citizens who spoke.

Notably, a retired police dispatch supervisor  likened her support to the color “amber” on street lights – more commonly thought of as yellow – meaning proceed with caution.

“What we’re seeing is the defunding of the police and arming of the police state,” claimed a citizen who identified herself as Truth. “The more one tries to control someone, the more out of control they will become,” said another citizen who was not identified but also opposed the cameras.

Before the vote, other council members besides Lothian used their time to ask questions about the data security and philosophical justifications. “Would this be much different than a peace officer standing on the street corner watching a car go by to see if it meets a description of a car that’s wanted?” Councilmember Jack Shu asked. 

“It is similar,” Chief Sweeny confirmed.

Mayor Mark Arapostathis revealed that the citizens he received emails from about this subject were typically ones whose cars had been stolen and were for the technology. He, too, addressed data and privacy concerns.

“If this program is approved and rolled out, I know [Chief Sweeny] will talk to other jurisdictions, including Chula Vista and El Cajon to see what the best practices are for getting the information [needed] but still protect the citizens that are innocent and just going about their daily lives," he said before making the motion to approve

In other action, the council approved the transfer of funds from the general fund to an account slated for La Mesa small business loans, a weight limit for trucks traveling on Jackson Drive and Lemon Avenue, and approval for out-sourcing engineering services to augment current civil engineering services. 

SOURCES

City of La Mesa. (2023, November 28). City Council, Tuesday November 28, 2023 @ 6:00 PM. https://pub-lamesa.escribemeetings.com/?Expanded=City%20Council

La Mesa City Manager. (2023). Report to the Mayor and Members of the City Council. https://pub-lamesa.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=12037