The $118,200 contract calls for 19 license plate readers.
As part of the 4-0 approval on Monday, the council directed the city attorney to negotiate the terms of a 24-month deal with the provider Flock Safety before a contract is executed. Mayor Kate Colin was absent from the vote.
The city attorney is tasked with tightening language around privacy concerns.
Councilmember Maribeth Bushey, who raised questions about data sharing and monetization, said she wanted the city to "negotiate the strongest possible data privacy prevention provisions that we can obtain."
"The existing provisions seem very one-sided and there seems room there for us to do better for our constituents on that front, while capturing the needed law enforcement benefits that the system offers," Bushey said.
In the past five years, vehicle thefts in the city have increased more than 50%, San Rafael police Lt. Scott Eberle said.
From January through the end of June, there were 238 reported vehicle thefts. Only 45% of the stolen vehicles have been recovered, Eberle said.
Cities that use the Flock system have had success, he said. Vacaville has reported a 33% reduction in vehicle thefts after employing the technology, Eberle said.
"We believe with this technology, it'll greatly enhance our ability to not only solve crime, but also reduce crime and to deter crime," Eberle said.
The plan will include 18 automated license plate reading cameras, or ALPRs, that will be situated at fixed locations. The sites were selected based on a crime analysis, traffic volume and entry points into the city, An additional camera will be used at temporary locations during investigations.
The cameras will be leased and serviced by Flock staff. The price per camera is about $3,000. The city is spending $60,700 this year for the cameras, service and startup costs. The second-year cost of $57,500 will be paid with funds from the 2024-25 budget.
The new cameras will be added to the San Rafael Police Department's existing stock of eight license plate reading cameras that are on patrol cars and a speed radar trailer.
The new cameras, which are solar powered, only take still images of the rear license plates of vehicles. The cameras do not have facial recognition technology and do not take images of people or recognize sex or race of drivers, Eberle said.
The images are stored in a searchable database for 30 days, along with the date, time and location.
The cameras can flag stolen license plates, stolen cars or cars suspected in other crimes. The program is also connected to the Amber Alert system, so it will notify dispatchers if plates match a wanted vehicle.
"These cameras take the human bias out of crime-solving by just detecting objective data and detecting events that are objectively illegal, such as stolen vehicles," Eberle said.
The system has some built-in privacy mechanisms. All of the images will be owned by the city. They will be automatically deleted after the 30 days and will be unrecoverable. Officers will have to sign in and give a reason for searching the database.
The San Rafael Police Department can choose to share data with neighboring police agencies, but access will require an inquiry and approval. Data will not be shared with immigration enforcement or law enforcement agencies outside of California.
Hector Soliman-Valdez, community engagement officer for Flock, said the company does not monetize or have direct access to the data.
Soliman-Valdez said the contract presented to the council on Monday allows for the company to anonymize data. He said this is used for the machine learning software, such as when a camera takes an image of a new vehicle — such as an upcoming 2024 make and model — that has never been captured before. This allows the company to name the vehicle and make it searchable for all agencies using the Flock system.
Cities that partner with Flock also have a "transparency portal" webpage that shows data such as the department's policies and statistics, including the number of cameras, the number of vehicles detected and number of database searches.
Novato uses the same system. The city entered into a five-year contract with Flock in June 2021. The contract is paid for through a $60,000 grant, Novato police Capt. Jim Correa said.
The department placed the cameras around the Vintage Oaks Shopping Center to curb retail theft, Correa said. Organized retail theft crews have a pattern and the cameras help locate suspect vehicles, he said.
"A big part of this is really trying to connect the dots of the bigger rings of organized crime doing this throughout the region," Correa said.
The technology also helps in missing persons and domestic violence cases when the suspect's license plates are broadcast through the system, he said.
"There are a lot of uses," he said.
The Marin County Sheriff's Office uses a different type of license plate reading cameras. The agency has eight cameras assigned to the patrol division and another four to the auto theft division.
Tiburon and Belvedere also have cameras positioned at entry and exit points.
Several members of Voces del Canal, a community advocacy group, assembled at San Rafael City Hall to endorse the plan. Members said while the relationship with the Canal neighborhood and the San Rafael Police Department has been fragile, they are working together to make it better.
In their testimony, they said burglars break into homes and cars. Tools, tires, work trucks and catalytic converters are often the target, they said.
"We would like to see less crime, and if this is going to reduce crime, it's important, because we want a better city," said Veronica Duarte, a member of the group. "We want a safe city, a safe city of San Rafael."
Council members said they were encouraged to hear the community support.
"I love when I hear from the community that they need something and it's something that the city can provide," Vice Mayor Maika Llorens Gulati said. "So I think this is definitely going to help, or I'm hoping this is going to help."
© 2023 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
