Last year, Oakland installed nearly 300 advanced surveillance cameras across the city to track the movement of automobiles. Now, city leaders are taking steps to expand the reach of this monitoring system.
A new proposal from the police department would integrate privately owned security cameras into OPD’s surveillance system, which currently features 290 automated license plate readers, powerful surveillance cameras that capture details from vehicles including the license plates, which can be run through databases to determine if a vehicle is stolen or wanted for any reason, and where that vehicle has been.
For years, merchants and residents have been able to share their surveillance camera footage with OPD by registering their cameras on a city website. But until recently, Oakland didn’t have an operating system that could easily incorporate these devices. Officers had to go and request footage after a crime happened…