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Menlo Park will work to forge an agreement with technology company Flock Safety for the expanded adoption of the somewhat-controversial automated license plate readers (ALPRs) to help catch suspects in crimes.
In a 3-1 vote Tuesday night, Oct. 8, the City Council authorized executing an agreement for Flock to provide and operate 35 fixed ALPR cameras in Menlo Park for at least two years.
First-year costs are pegged at $133,000 — of which $20,500 would be covered by grant funding, according to a city staff report. Ongoing annual costs would amount to $112,500.
Mayor Cecilia Taylor, Vice Mayor Drew Combs and Council member Jen Wolosin voted for working toward an agreement with Flock and amending the city’s public-safety code accordingly. Council member Betsy Nash dissented. Council member Maria Doerr was absent.
The council’s decision this week followed up on the one in May that already moved the ALPR proposal forward as a program that could be renewed after the two-year run. Also, Menlo Park’s 2024-25 budget adopted in June accounted for the potential launch of the program.
Sharon Heights residents Maya Sewald and Derek Marsano, whose neighborhood had called for the expansion of ALPRs after that area endured a rash of burglaries early this year, urged the council Tuesday to advance the technology’s use throughout the city.
“Crime is a major concern not just in Sharon Heights but in all of Menlo Park,” Sewald said, addressing the council before its vote.
“We continue to be concerned by ongoing burglaries in our community,” Marsano told the council. “The wave of crime that we’ve seen beginning earlier in this year has abated somewhat. But there are still continued incidents, and we continue to be very concerned about safety in our homes.”
Marsano noted that neighboring municipalities such as Atherton, Woodside and Portola Valley have more extensively taken advantage of ALPRs and argued that not similarly doing so would be an incentive for criminals to keep trying their luck in Menlo Park.
“We’re cognizant of the fact that nearly all of our surrounding communities have employed this or similar technology and are having good results in both deterring crime and also apprehending suspects after a crime has been committed,” he said. “We think that without this technology in an area in which we are surrounded by communities that have deployed the technology we are simply inviting more crime into our neighborhoods.”
Lizbeth King, who lives near Sharon Heights, concurred.
“We need to fortify our police force with every mechanism we can that the surrounding communities already have, so there is not a hole in what has become a web of protection on the Peninsula,” King said, addressing the council.
‘We need to fortify our police force with every mechanism we can that the surrounding communities already have, so there is not a hole in what has become a web of protection on the Peninsula.’
Lizbeth King, menlo park resident
King also vouched for the efficacy of ALPRs as her private street has a stationary camera reader that traced robbers who broke into her home while her family was present during the holidays late last year.
“I was robbed on 12/28/23 and was home in bed with my whole family,” she said in an email to The Almanac. “We provided the footage to MPPD. It is also directly linked to all local police departments through Flock.”
King told this publication that her family gave money to her homeowners association to buy the device for her street in the spring of 2023. She believes her street’s reader is the city’s first and only fixed ALPR currently.
“The camera in my neighborhood was able to track down the criminals who invaded my home and track them on their route to the East Bay,” King told the council. “So I say to you that not only will it be a deterrent, but when used and used appropriately by our police force, which I can advocate that they have done it, it’s effective.”
Right now, Menlo Park police has mobile ALPRs on three patrol vehicles. The department has had that technology for the past decade.
Menlo Park resident Randy Avalos, however, contended that the use of ALPRs could lead to a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures and sets warrant requirements.
“Because Flock data records place and time, movement may be deduced, which constitutes a search, which then requires a warrant,” Avalos told the council. “So we should require a warrant for using the system. If that’s not tenable, then the system should not be used. A warrant requirement provides a reasoned check-and-balance that is fundamental to law and governance.”
In voting against the ALPR expansion, Nash cited privacy and other concerns.
“We still have not seen data that ALPRs reduce residential burglaries or crime in general,” Nash said. “They are an investigative tool. Meanwhile, we have seen the bad guys finding easy ways around these cameras. Second, I continue to worry about residents’ privacy rights and the security of data captured and shared with this technology.”
Police Chief David Norris told this publication in an email that he is committed to a continuous review of the ALPR program “to ensure its usefulness is in line with the city’s investment.”
The city seeks to ensure that the program remains “an objective, useful and fairly applied tool that balances privacy needs with the safety of our residents and daily visiting population,” Norris also said.
The signing of the agreement with Flock and a meeting to launch the program are expected in the coming weeks, the chief said. “Our goal is to be up and running as soon as practical.”
As for where the ALPRs would be placed, he said, “we will be doing our very best to cover as many ingress and egress points as possible and coordinating with camera locations in our neighboring jurisdictions to eliminate duplication. Exact locations will not be publicly provided though when they are installed they will be plainly visible to the public.”
In other business Tuesday, the council approved authorizing the city to apply for continued grant funding from the state Department of Education for the Belle Haven Child Development Center.
Menlo Park would become eligible to receive up to $2.3 million in direct reimbursements from the state to offset the costs of the center’s operations based on a maximum enrollment of 96 children in fiscal year 2025-26, according to a city staff report.
