From zooming in on license plates from yards away to simply searching vehicles by description, officers say the technology could be a game changer for public safety.

ROBSTOWN, Texas — Criminals in Robstown may want to think twice before breaking the law.

The City of Robstown is rolling out new high-powered surveillance cameras and license plate readers designed to track suspects, solve crimes faster, and even help prevent crimes before they happen.

One of the mobile camera systems is already operating near the intersection of Highways 77 and 44. Even from several yards away, the camera’s zoom capability is impressive.

As drivers move through the streets of Robstown, police say they’ll soon be passing through a growing network of cameras not just monitoring traffic, but helping officers solve crimes and track suspects in real time.

Sgt. Arturo Gonzalez said the image quality is a major advantage.

“The quality of the picture is very, very good,” he said. 

Those video feeds go directly into the Robstown Police Department, allowing supervisors to relay critical information to officers in the field.

“If someone broke into the vehicle here I can zoom in to the vehicle,” Gonzalez said as he demonstrated.

Police Chief Mike Tamez said the department will now have eyes across the city. The system includes seven stationary cameras and 21 license plate reader cameras, many placed along major routes into and out of town.

“We’re employing technology throughout the city that’s going to help increase crime solvability and crime prevention and really have a deep impact on how we police the citizens of Robstown,” Tamez said.

The license plate readers don’t just capture plates they can also search simply by vehicle description.

“If someone says it was a red F-150 with a Marine Corps sticker, we can literally search that image through the system and find that vehicle,” Tamez said.

The technology cost approximately $200,000, paid for through grants and asset forfeiture funds — not taxpayer dollars, according to Tamez. While the department had been working toward this upgrade for some time, a fatal drive-by shooting last November highlighted how valuable the system could be in future investigations.

“100 percent yeah, they’ve proved way — worth the money we spent, they’re doing great,” said Tamez.

Tamez also addressed privacy concerns, emphasizing that strict policies are in place regarding how the cameras are used.

“If we can see someone down a public roadway and we do have every right as a police organization to point that camera down a public roadway, as long as we don’t veer off to the left or right, to look at people’s houses, we can capture that all day long.”

Robstown isn’t alone in using this kind of technology. The City of Corpus Christi has operated a network of more than 1,082 cameras for over a decade, a system police say has helped solve crimes and improve public safety. 

The Corpus Christi Police Department sent 3NEWS the following statement regarding their camera systems:

This system is used to monitor traffic patterns and accident, weather events, public event monitoring like BUC Days and Beach to Bay and crime prevention and solving. For a while we were encountering several juggings at different banks throughout the city. Using the city cameras, we were able to see what vehicles were being used in the commission of the crime. They are especially useful in identifying suspect vehicles or people.Â