San Francisco begins to roll out new automated license plate readers to help fight crime

San Francisco is beginning to roll out a new tool to help fight crime, especially retail and car theft.

Hundreds of automated license plate readers are about to be installed at intersections around the city.

Supporters said they could be a game changer in San Francisco, not just in helping with arrests but making sure people are held accountable.

“It’s an extraordinary tool and we are really grateful,” said Mayor London Breed.

She joined police and community leaders in the San Francisco’s Inner Sunset neighborhood Wednesday to talk about 400 new automated license plate reading cameras rolling out around the city.

“So when are talking about car break ins and car theft when we’re talking about sideshows and some of the other issues that have happened in our city, automated license plate readers can play an invaluable role in helping us to track some of the perpetrators of these crimes and hold them accountable,” said Breed.

The cameras are going up at 100 intersections around the city and are expected to be up and running within the next three months.

“This was possible because the department secured a $15.3 million organized retail theft grant but this grant does not just limit us to organized retail theft because this will help us address all crimes,” said police chief Bill Scott.

“Retail crime is a problem that we have last year alone. My store, which is only 300-square-foot, lost $7,000 in products,” said Alex J. Sinclair of Willow on the Green. 

Sinclair said they’ve had challenges and weighed in on the new crime fighting tool today.

“I believe it will have a long term effect,” said Sinclair.

But not everyone is cheering for the new tech.

“Any time this type of tool is adopted, there are a lot of privacy concerns and civil liberties concerns that come along with it because the picture of a person’s life that can be sketched through the location of their vehicles is actually very detailed,” said Beryl Lipton of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The city says these are not red light or speed cameras, and will not include any facial recognition.

They describe them as the latest step in a larger public safety campaign -- a campaign they say has helped cut property crime by 32% this year.

“I think some of what we’re doing with the camera technology in the city is going to put us in a good place because many cities around us have that technology already,” said Scott, talking about cities like Piedmont.

There, police Chief Jeremy Bowers said his department has been using them since 2013. He said license plate readers are tied to state data bases that track wanted or stolen vehicles.

Chief Bowers says the way they use it, the information comes into the dispatch center, live.

“After a dispatcher confirms that information, it’s a seamless thing that happens here in Piedmont. It informs the officers of the location, direction of travel, and again, some unique features of the car,” said Bowers.

Officers there could give chase -- something San Francisco Police Commission Vice President Max Carter-Oberstone asked Chief Scott now that voters passed Prop E -- which among other things, expands the circumstances in which police officers can chase suspects by car.

“Are you at all concerned about potentially increasing our already high collision and injury rates?” Carter-Oberstone said.

“What we have to be committed to, to address that is to make sure that we have management of those pursuits supervisory and officers that are always evaluating the crime that was committed that caused that pursuit to be initiated with the risk,” replied Scott.

In Vallejo, police have used license plate readers since 2020.

Data released show a record 197 chases last year, with more than 20% of the time ending in crashes and sometimes injury.

The department cited the use of license plate readers as the most notable reason for the spike.