Cameras that capture license plates: A public safety solution for WeHo?

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.”