Fremont approves installation of license plate readers

FREMONT, Calif. (KGO) -- Fremont is the latest city to approve license plate readers. The cameras will capture surveillance video and license plates at key points throughout the city, but they're not without controversy.

The cameras will scan and store your license plate if you cross paths with one of these cameras.

Some people feel it's an invasion of privacy because law enforcement officers will basically have a log of where you've been. But the police chief says it's about stopping and solving crimes.

Fremont Boulevard and I-880 is one of 10 locations where the Fremont Police Department wants to install video surveillance cameras.

Police Chief Richard Lucero says the locations chosen are key entry and exit points to the city. He says the fixed cameras will not be continuously monitored.

"It's an investigative tool and so when we have a crime we'll go back to it as a source of information to try and identify the offender," Lucero says.

The $300,000 project was approved Thursday night at City Hall but not everyone likes the idea of police knowing recording and storing where they go.

"There's already a lot of stuff on the Internet about tracking locations through phones. It just seems like another way to track you," Fremont resident Chase Tidwell says.

"We're very cognizant of the privacy interests that you've raised. And so that priority is reflected in where we've chosen to place the cameras and in the retention life of the information and who will have access to it and how we will regulate the investigative use of it," Lucero says.

Fremont PD says the information will be kept on a secure server.

The video recordings will be purged after 30 days unless they are evidence in a crime. The license plate reader data will be stored and shared with other law enforcement agencies for one year, longer if the images are evidence in a crime.

"Holding onto my license plate for a year, that seems like a little obsessive. I mean 30 days, 60 days, sure that's one thing, but for a year that just seems like it's a little bit too long," Tidwell says.

Now that the cameras have been approved, the city will vote on a vendor at the next scheduled meeting.

Other cities like Antioch and San Leandro have license plate reader technology. They vary in how long they keep the data collected on file.