Mayor Larry Klein said the city is working to balance public safety with privacy concerns as it continues using the cameras.<\/p>\n
\u201cALPRs have become an active solution. It\u2019s not perfect, but hearing from some of the jewelry store owners tonight, it makes them feel safe,\u201d Klein said in the meeting. \u201cIt makes their customers feel safer, changing their procedures and working with them, all that, but we will never have enough police officers to monitor and catch every stolen vehicle coming into the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunnyvale first implemented the license plate reader system as part of broader effort to address property crimes and organized retail theft, including a series of violent robberies targeting jewelry stores<\/a> last year. The incidents drew widespread attention and heightened concerns about public safety, prompting calls for stronger crime prevention tools.<\/p>\n \u00a0Sunnyvale jewelry store owner Pavlinder Sigh said police warned him about a second attempted robbery days after an initial incident and wouldn\u2019t have been able to do so without the ALPR system.<\/p>\n \u201cSunnyvale PD called me and let me know, \u2018Six cars are on the way to you. Get prepared,’\u201d he said in the meeting.<\/p>\n Public safety officials said the cameras helped identify suspect vehicles, track movements across jurisdictions and respond more quickly to crimes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is difficult to quantify the level of hurt that families go through when they are victims of these crimes,\u201d District 6 Councilmember Eileen Le said during the meeting.<\/p>\n Critics, however, said the technology poses broader risks to privacy and civil rights, warning it could enable mass surveillance and be misused despite safeguards.<\/p>\n Mariya Genzel, a Mountain View resident affiliated with Blue Turn Indivisible, a grassroots civic action group, said the debate is often framed as a tradeoff between safety and civil rights.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not agree that privacy and safety are in opposition,\u201d Genzel told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cIf you frame it that way, our safety actually loses \u2014 it\u2019s just an illusion of safety that tools like this can sometimes appear to provide.\u201d<\/p>\n The debate in Sunnyvale reflects a broader trend across Santa Clara County, where cities and the county are taking different approaches<\/a> to automated license plate readers.<\/p>\n Mountain View<\/a> turned off its system earlier this year after an audit found unauthorized federal access to city data. Los Altos switched off the national and statewide \u201c\u201dlook up\u201d setting after discovering it had been turned on without the town\u2019s knowledge. Campbell ended it partnership with Flock, according to Councilmember Sergio Lopez. San Jose<\/a> has restricted the use of the technology as a crime-fighting tool, including limits on how long data can be stored and who can access it. The city is also fighting multiple lawsuits<\/a> over the system.<\/p>\n Sunnyvale officials said the system doesn\u2019t use facial recognition and doesn\u2019t collect personal identifying information. The system uses ALPR cameras to capture images of vehicles, including license plates, the make, color and location data, which can be searched by law enforcement during investigations.<\/p>\n
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