City leaders in San Francisco, California, are working to install 400 license plate readers across the area to reduce criminal activity.
Leaders and community groups held a press conference on Wednesday to highlight the technology for which the city received a $15.3 million grant to install, KTVU reported.
Mayor London Breed (D) said, “This does not include speed cameras. This does not include facial recognition, but it will be useful for Amber Alerts. It will help us to find missing persons as well.”
San Francisco’s Chief of Police Bill Scott said it will help officers catch alleged criminals and address homicides, robberies, assaults, car break-ins, and other crimes.
“We have not had the ability to do what, starting today, we will have the ability to do. And that is to track those vehicles when they’re used in crime, give our officers the advantage so we can catch people if they commit crimes in this city,” Scott told reporters:
The installation process will reportedly be finished in the next three months.
A few weeks ago, voters in San Francisco passed ballot measures to expand law enforcement powers, require drug screening for people on welfare, and reduce restrictions on commercial real estate development, Breitbart News reported of Super Tuesday.
“Voters reacted to a wave of crime in the city, which began even before the Black Lives Matter movement had attacked police and led to brief attempts to ‘defund’ local law enforcement. The crime wave has also led to an exodus of retailers from the city,” the outlet noted.
However, Breed claimed in November that viral videos showing rampant crime and homelessness in her city were not accurate.
She commented, “When people are coming to San Francisco, they are surprised that things aren’t as bad as what they thought they were. Are things perfect in San Francisco? No, they’re not, but we continue to work aggressively at it in order to solve some of our most pressing problems.”
In February, NBC Bay Area reported that neighbors in San Francisco’s Mission District wanted license plate reader cameras installed to cut down on prostitution:
The outlet spoke with one resident who said he was among a group of people threatened by a prostitute who told them “her pimp would come by and shoot them all.”