With the San Diego Pride Parade almost a week away, some bars and nightclubs in Hillcrest are taking customer safety and security into their own hands. At least two establishments have purchased license plate reader cameras to protect against hate crimes and attacks.
These efforts come on top of the so-called "Smart Streetlights" that San Diego police installed this week.
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Owner Moe Girton showed NBC 7 the latest piece of security equipment about to be installed in her arsenal of surveillance cameras at Hillcrest bar and grill Gossip Grill.
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“Every single car, we will be able to get every single license plate in detail,” Girton said.
Girton says an uptick in hate-related attacks and vandalism in Hillcrest — which serves the greater LGBTQ+ community — calls for this next-level technology.
“Sometimes it’s like the wild wild West, and you just have to take care of you,” Girton said.
One block west and across the street, Rich's nightclub installed two license plate cameras in front of its establishment. Rich’s is where the necessity for such cameras came to a head.
On May 18, the VIP host at Rich's went to the ground after being shot in the eye with a gel pellet. Police say at least four other gel-pellet attacks happened that night.
The pellets were fired from a black sedan, police said. The vehicle was recorded on Rich’s cameras and others.
“It was disheartening to look at all the footage we all had, and nobody had a license plate reader,“ Girton said.
The trail went cold.
“Having that kind of technology available to them for their day-to-day operations is really critical,” Ben Nicholls, the executive director of the Hillcrest Business Association, told NBC 7.
Last weekend, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl committed to the installation of 14 new smart cameras, which include license plate reader technology, around Hilcrest.
NBC 7 spotted a few on University Avenue at Sixth Street, four blocks west of Rich’s.
“We’re happy that they have decided to really focus on security in Hillcrest, especially this week,” Nicholls said.
By most accounts, timing is of the essence. The San Diego Pride Parade, which attracts thousands of people to Hillcrest, is set to take place next Saturday. Security during such a mass gathering is on many people’s minds.
Nicholls says, per the Hillcrest Business Association's recommendation, the police installed cameras where many of the businesses are open late at night.
