World Courant
OAKLAND, California — Tons of of high-tech surveillance cameras are being put in within the metropolis of Oakland and surrounding highways to fight crime, California Governor Gavin Newsom introduced Friday.
Newsom, a Democrat, mentioned in a information launch that the California Freeway Patrol has contracted with Flock Security to put in 480 cameras that may determine and monitor autos by license plate quantity, sort, coloration and even decals and bumper stickers. The cameras will present authorities with real-time alerts about suspicious autos.
Opponents say the expertise invades privateness and can result in additional police abuse of already marginalized communities.
However Newsom, who has deployed state attorneys and CHP officers to assist Oakland crack down on crime, mentioned the surveillance community will give regulation enforcement instruments “to successfully fight legal exercise and maintain perpetrators accountable — creating safer, stronger communities to construct for all Californians.”
Public security stays a priority throughout the state, particularly shoplifting, forcing even liberal leaders of Democratic cities to step up oversight.
However whereas crime has fallen in different main California cities, it has soared in Oakland, a metropolis of about 400,000 throughout the Bay from San Francisco. In-N-Out Burger closed its solely restaurant in Oakland – the primary closure in its 75-year historical past – as a result of automotive break-ins, property harm, theft and robberies.
On Thursday, the CEOs of 4 main employers in downtown Oakland introduced plans for a joint $10 million safety program to enhance public security and defend staff. The businesses are Blue Protect of California, Clorox, Kaiser Permanente and Pacific Gasoline & Electrical.
Cat Brooks, govt director of the Anti Police-Terror Challenge and candidate for mayor of Oakland in 2018, mentioned Friday that the cash can be spent on flawed expertise and positioned in poor communities to additional goal Black, Latino and different susceptible residents. terrorize.
“How many individuals may be housed or educated right into a residing wage job, or despatched to school and given well being care, issues that really defend folks?” she mentioned. “You are disinvesting in Oakland. You take essential assets that this metropolis desperately must construct entire, comfortable, and protected communities, and you might be utilizing them for a similar failed methods.”
The governor’s workplace and California Freeway Patrol didn’t reply to requests for the price of the contract, however a spokesperson for Flock Security mentioned the cameras every value $3,000 per yr, which quantities to greater than $1.4 million per yr .
Connor Metz additionally mentioned in an e-mail that Flock Security operates in 47 states and 5,000 communities throughout the nation, together with faculties, cities, neighborhood associations and police.
Practically 300 of the cameras can be deployed on metropolis streets and the remainder can be deployed on close by state highways, the governor’s assertion mentioned.
For privateness causes, the pictures can be retained for 28 days and won’t be shared with third events outdoors California regulation enforcement, Newsom’s workplace mentioned.
Earlier this month, voters permitted a poll measure backed by San Francisco Mayor London Breed to grant police entry to drones and surveillance cameras.
California’s governor will ship 500 surveillance cameras to Oakland to struggle crime
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