San Fernando Valley gets 100 automatic license plate readers – NBC Los Angeles

A San Fernando Valley community will receive about 100 automatic license plate readers to combat rising crime, Los Angeles officials announced Thursday.

L.A. City Councilman John Lee said he has allocated $500,000 to install 100 readers, called ALPRs, in his 12th Ward to help police identify and locate vehicles linked to crime .

“We stand on Rinaldi Street, which runs through the entirety of Council District 12 and is literally a line that shows you where crimes are most likely to occur in my district,” Lee said. “Last year (the Los Angeles Police Department's Devonshire Division reported) there was a 103% increase in residential burglaries in homes and communities north of this street.”

The license plate readers are installed at various strategic locations in Lee's northwest San Fernando Valley district and are typically mounted on light poles. If the cameras detect a license plate that is associated with crime, the police are automatically notified.

Mobile ALPRs are already installed in about 1,500 LAPD patrol cars, and about five dozen of the devices are scattered throughout the city.

Dominic Choi, interim chief of the LAPD, said the mobile units stationed at the department's south office have already helped “solve a number of murders.”

“This technology is critical as we continue to explore innovative ways to fight crime,” Choi said Thursday. “Studies show that motor vehicles are involved in approximately 75% of all crimes nationwide.” Whether it’s robberies, burglaries, human trafficking, murders, drive-by shootings, their mode of transportation is a vehicle. That’s why it’s so important that we get information quickly to investigate and solve these crimes and even prevent them.”

Authorities noted that the readers are not used to issue tickets or other traffic citations and insisted that information collected by the signs be closely guarded. Critics of such programs have described such record readers as an invasion of the public's privacy.

Lee said since efforts began to install 100 readers in his district, they have already helped solve two robberies.