Photo by Courtesy of the City of Los Alamitos

 The ALPR Cameras are mounted on traffic poles in various parts of California, including Santa Clara County and Orange County.

On the night of Nov. 8, 2022, two burglars kicked down the front door of Saratoga resident Paul Corsbie’s house when he was out of town. The burglars quickly ransacked his bedroom and hauled away a 300-pound safe — effectively evading security precautions he had installed such as alarms and cameras. Though the police responded quickly, the suspects were gone by the time they arrived and were never caught. 

This break-in was part of a post-pandemic increase in residential burglaries in the area — one that many residents say needs to be curtailed through the use of security cameras that capture license plates numbers and other identifying information about potential suspects.

During the pandemic, residents stayed home for prolonged periods, drastically reducing the number of home burglaries. However, following looser pandemic restrictions and more residents returning to their workplaces in the past year, crime rates in Saratoga have risen again. 

Residential burglaries continue to be the most common form of crime in the area, mainly occurring between 5 p.m. and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays — periods when many people aren’t typically home. Crime also increases during the summer months, when residents tend to go on vacation.

Neighborhood Watch: reducing and preventing crime

After crime rates reached an all-time high in 2016, the Sheriff’s Department collaborated with the City Council to raise awareness regarding Neighborhood Watch programs, nearly 60 of which have been established around the city. 

Many Neighborhood Watch programs emphasize a tightly knit community of neighbors who look out for each other and work with local law enforcement to report suspicious activity. Though they rarely include the implementation of cameras or security measures across a neighborhood, signs posted on roads often deter potential criminals from acting in an area.

In addition to these watch programs, many homes in Saratoga are protected by security systems from companies like Ring and Google that equip houses with basic alarms, motion detectors and glass-break sensors. 

But in cases like Corsbie’s, those measures aren’t always enough.

“My home is equipped with home alarms and multiple cameras, and we were all working when this burglary took place,” Corsbie said. The system was unable to deter the thieves or catch them afterward. 

While Corsbie did not receive much benefit from these safety precautions, many Sheriff’s deputies have seen their effective use. 

Ricardo Urena, Commander Captain of the West Valley Patrol, said, “A lot of folks who have an alarm system also have a video camera system around the exterior of their home. These cameras have motion-activated lights, and if someone is coming to your front door, we’ve seen crooks run away because they think someone is inside.”
Many burglars look for houses that appear vacant. Hence, some homeowners utilize timers when they are out of town for prolonged periods to make their homes appear occupied. These timers cycle lights on and off in various portions of the house throughout the day, and the television automatically switches on for an hour or two in the evening. 

Urena has seen cases in which the opposite occurs as well. 

“Homes have been breached because they appeared unoccupied, but there were in fact people inside who then confronted the burglar,” he said. 

Even when you are home, Urena said it is important to remain mobile, whether that involves periodically switching rooms or making noise to indicate that your home is occupied. A lot can be done to prevent such crimes from taking place at all, but many efficient methods such as Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) have emerged, allowing for a quicker resolution from law enforcement after a crime has taken place. 

Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR)

Following a spike in burglaries around Highway 9 in the Quito neighborhood in 2022, the Sheriff’s department increased the number of patrol cars in the area and caught two suspects using new license plate detection technology, cameras that instantly capture and process pictures of license plates. 

Though there is no commission in the City Council concerning home safety, the council has collaborated with both the Sheriff’s department and Neighborhood Watch Programs to promote safety precautions in neighborhoods.

“A lot of crimes are committed with the assistance of a vehicle,”  council member Mary-Lynne Bernald said. “License plates give the sheriff’s office actionable and objective leads that they can act on.” 

The city council proposed a $20,000 one-year pilot program in which seven ALPR rental cameras from automation company Flock Safety would be installed in streets around the city. The program was enacted last February and completed in August. Following the one-year plan, the City Council plans to assess the cameras next fall or winter. 

To capture high-traffic roads, the ALPRs were placed at busy intersections that lead into the city like Saratoga Avenue, Highway 85, Fruitvale Avenue and Highway 9. 

While citizens in other counties such as Fairfield and Sacramento have criticized the accuracy of their ALPR data, proponents say the ALPR system has often succeeded in capturing suspects.

For example, a suspect in Fairfield who impersonated a police officer and a perpetrator of a hit-and-run involving a bike were both caught using ALPR cameras. 

Urena described several such incidents in Saratoga as well. A few months ago, a lady in Southern California suffering from the early stages of dementia boarded a flight from Los Angeles to Cupertino. Together with the woman’s daughter, the department found her driving in Saratoga with her license plate number, he said.

Similar success stories have led Urena to conclude that the program’s benefits outweigh any of its downsides. 

“Occasionally, lighting conditions or the angle of a photo have produced inaccurate results compared to when we look at the license plate ourselves,” Urena said. “However, there have also been countless incidents where a dire situation was resolved with the cameras, so the main hurdle of the system — efficacy — has already been overcome.”

Privacy concerns from residents

The city has also implemented other systems to ensure the privacy of citizens. Though maintenance for the cameras is sub-contracted to the Flock company, which complies with the FBI’s Criminal Justice Services, only select deputies can access recorded content. Furthermore, all data is stored in a Department of Defense-approved cloud system and wiped after 30 days unless it is being used in an investigation. 

That means a car that passed by a camera two months prior would be forgotten. Data is also prohibited from being downloaded, printed or transferred unless it has been flagged as in use during an active investigation, a marking which also requires approval by deputies within the Sheriff’s Department. 

As dictated by the ALPR policy, the cameras will also be used to locate stolen and wanted vehicles. Additionally, they can locate individuals with arrest warrants, aid in rescue efforts such as AMBER and Silver Alerts or locate victims and witnesses of a law enforcement investigation. 

Though the technology allows for a quicker response to many developing crimes, the ALPR system does not negate such protocols in place following the identification of a suspect regardless of search or arrest warrants. 

Another concern for many residents is the use of residential cameras with the city-approved ALPR system. The program allows for data to be gathered from a different model of a Flock camera and processed in the same manner as the ALPR. 

In consideration of these worries, Flock Safety ensures that residents’ systems aren’t used for purposes such as immigrant identification, traffic enforcement and anything besides an active investigation. Even so, many residents have voiced concerns regarding personal safety and privacy.

“There are going to be concerns about privacy,” Urena said. “All the ALPR does, though, is take a picture of the license plate, without any drivers or passengers visible. No information is provided about the photos unless we explicitly use them in an investigation, and in those cases, all access and its purpose are recorded.” 

Though the program has only been active for five months, it has already proved helpful in capturing suspects and decreasing residential crime rates. For example, a car that was driving through Saratoga at 3 a.m. one day in the fall matched the description of a wanted suspect, and the driver was arrested for vehicle theft and drug-related charges, according to Urena. 

For residents like Corsbie who have experienced burglaries, programs like the ALPR appear to be a tool worth using.

“Burglaries in Saratoga are on the rise, and we cannot continue to let criminals invade our safe places, especially our homes,” Corsbie said. “This program will be beneficial to everyone living in Saratoga, and I have no issues with the use of this technology.”