Cameras that capture your car’s license plate number may soon watch over more of West Hollywood’s major intersections.
The Public Safety Commission gave input at their meeting Monday night on a proposal to increase the number of ALPR (automated license plate reader) cameras operating within the city.
WeHo currently has one in operation at the intersection of La Brea and Santa Monica Blvd. Four more are being proposed on Santa Monica Blvd. at its intersections with Doheny, Fairfax, La Cienega and San Vicente.
While paid for by the city, the cameras are only accessible to the Advance Surveillance and Protection (ASAP) Unit of the L.A. Sheriff’s Department. According to the staff report, the ALPR cameras are one of the department’s “best technological tools” in solving crimes.
Public Safety Director Kristin Cook explained to the commission how the cameras work.
“For an example, a detective may speak to a victim of a crime who says, ‘I saw a red Toyota Corolla and the first 3 numbers were 1, 2, 3,’ and the detective would then punch that number into the system, and then those cameras would be alerted to any type of partial plate hit matching.”
ASAP also manages all the hardware and data storage for the system. Only a small number of county employees have access to the system, and proper justification for access is required for every search. The system is regularly audited to ensure proper use. Previous cost estimates have come in at about $175,000 per intersection for ALPR purchase, installation, and alignment. In addition, $25,000 is estimated for construction costs related to lateral connections for conduit and fiber, for a total of $200,000 per intersection. Therefore, installation of these four new intersections is estimated at approximately $800,000. This is a conservative estimate and costs could come in lower.
With the highly controversial topic of the sheriff’s budget still fresh on their minds, some commissioners seemed cautious about the ALPR cameras’ data being limited to the hands of the LASD.
“I had a comment around the fact that this is around $800,000, and I know these numbers are not precise, but specifically to the LA County Sheriff’s Department Advanced Surveillance
And Protection unit, and so all of this data wouldn’t be managed by the county, but by the LA Sheriff’s Department,” said Commissioner Nika Soon-Shiong. “And so in addition to the number of arrests, given that we have had a fair amount of these cameras before, I mentioned the number of false arrests.”
“Also, I’m interested in what it would cost, not only to install, which in a preliminary number is $800,000 for four new installations, but also what the cost would be to maintain those cameras over time. Historically, I also would like an explanation of why this is a cost incurred by the city itself, and potentially a cost that could be incurred from the Sheriff’s Department which does have a technology budget.”
“Those cameras in the wrong hands could be very dangerous,” said Commissioner Danny Roman. “But that being said, the police literally come into our store twice a week to ask us to download footage for them.”
“If you see what happened to Mayor Meister’s sister. when she got hit by the scooter … like, that camera just caught it perfectly. We’re all able to see exactly what happened there. And so, as long as the surveillance cameras are not being used to target people that could be innocent, I think that as a futuristic city, when we’re looking to reduce our costs, and maybe reduce the number of police officers we need to rely on, you could use a high-tech camera system to kind of offset those other costs. So I am pro cameras everywhere.”
Commissioners wanted to know how the program compared to Beverly Hills’ citywide camera initiative, and whether the county should be funding such a program for WeHo.
“I firmly believe this is a city decision not a county decision on whether or not the city would like ALPR cameras at their intersections,” Cook said. “The county has saddled all of those costs. But if the city were to put those cameras up, the city would also have to fund the data storage management. Public records requests for all those cameras as well. Not to say that the city couldn’t do that, but that’s a much bigger undertaking. We met with the city of Beverly Hills at the Council’s request to look at their camera system. They have an outlay. Multiple millions of dollars for those cameras and their ongoing storage costs are just under half a million dollars a year.So, while their camera system is pervasive, and everywhere and they even added more during the pandemic, the data storage and retrieval program is an enormous in-house city hall function with staff assigned and a rather large budget to manage that data.”
[…] many other intersections in West Hollywood, too, an expansion of the L.A. County Sheriff Department technology that allows them to identify specific vehicles out of the tens of thousands that pass through town every […]
This could easily be a fourth amendment violation…
No, it couldn’t. Plenty of constitional law cases allow these recordings. So, don’t commit a crime, and your license plate will be irrelevant.
Good intentions for police reform are hijacked again to usher in the control grid. Watch as the Hegelian dialectic unfolds in real time, as an Orwellian surveillance state is offered up as the prefab “solution” to civil unrest and lowered-confidence in local police.
The idea of using cameras isn’t a terrible one…as long as they’re being used as a crime deterrent, and not just to get money for the city from people who may have run a yellow light rather than slam on their brakes and risk getting rear ended.
It’s a license plate reader, not a red light enforcement camera. They are different. These are intended to capture all license plates that drive through an intersection to assist law enforcement in investigating and solving crimes. They can also help locate a suspect vehicle. So, it’s a good idea to have them. The only people who should dislike them are criminals.
WeHo Citizens … WeHo camera system needs to wake up to what Beverly Hills has implemented 1,900 citywide cameras: of that 75 cameras focused on Plate Reading, 80 Cameras on Sunset Blvd, 175 Cameras on Schools and Parking Structures. Beverly Hills knows in Southern Ca. 75% of crimes are committed with a vehicle … therefor this focus.
BH has this all dialed in. WH worries about parades and crosswalks…..such silly people on the city council.
BH has adults on their city council whereas in WH the emotionally damaged children are concerned only about how many can be squeezed into their playpens and sandboxes with no awareness of what is happening in the world let alone their own small piece of real estate. It would be comical if not tragic.
This is a stupid idea. We don’t need more cameras and more surveillance, especially in the hands of LASD. Installing cameras will NOT free up the police to focus on other *public safety* issues.
Anybody promoting this idea should have his/her head examined.
You are a strong supporter of the corrupt city council. Interesting that you resort to name calling over more cameras.
It sounds like a way to further the massive money making program that generates enough money to buy off City Council Members, who rapidly become beholden to the HUGE & POWERFUL Real Estate Developers who aren’t even close to the end of their list of projects inside the legal boundaries of the CITY OF WEST HOLLYWOOD. Oh the magic money making program…. The WeHo Parking Ticket Revenue that is denied to exist, as most goes to paying for the parking patrol. Here’s the math. Grab a calculator – last checked, am sure numbers have grown. Every Day 360 days a… Read more »
Did they provide ongoing costs for the cameras? Presumably there is a yearly cost beyond the $800k installation cost. I’m curious what that is and how it compares to the $300k a year cost for a typical LASD deputy. I would like to see cameras like this used for proactive enforcement of vehicles that are missing license plates and not just used for investigating crimes after they already happen. I’d also be interested in consideration of automated enforcement of vehicle noise laws. Other parts of the world are using microphones and cameras for this purpose and it would be a… Read more »
So we have a commissioner who says we have a “fair amount” of cameras when according tot his article we have exactly one? well, okay then..
Can we piggy-back on the cameras in Beverly Hills? I am assuming that they have them at Doheny/Beverly, Doheny/SMB and the Sunset Blvd border.
If we are doing this then, like BH, WeHo would need to step up ticketing cars without front license plates.
Cameras…absoulutely…yes. And while we’re at it..can we please instruct the Sheriffs to enforce ALL the laws…like registration tags, headlights that work..etc. All of it leads to safer roads. The council instructing the sheriffs to enforce some of the laws and not all is ridiculously stupid.
that would be racist. will never happen here.
These cameras have always been controversial but remain just one more element in the move to make the streets – and sidewalks – safer. As a source of revenue – well, they may eventually pay for themselves but we’d have more income from selling lemonade during Pride parade.
I trust Oliver is not going to run for West Hollywood City Council. Because he’s about as popular as Erickson. And Ericsson is about as popular as Hitler would be in Israel.