Yorba Linda’s City Council has extended an agreement to operate 36 automatic license plate reader cameras installed throughout the 20-square-mile city for an additional five years at the original pricing for a total of $504,000.
The cameras were installed earlier this year and “have already aided law enforcement in several incidents,” according to a report to council members from Assistant City Manager Dave Christian.
An early contract extension was offered by Georgia-based Flock Group, Inc., “in an effort to incentivize and retain customers,” Christian reported. Fullerton and Buena Park are among 13 Orange County cities contracting with the Flock Group for the license plate readers.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department asked the council to consider purchasing the cameras “in order to improve the public safety services they provide to the community,” Christian noted in an earlier report to council members.
“Specifically, the cameras would enhance (law enforcement) ability to find stolen vehicles, find ‘persons of interest’ and conduct investigations,” Christian said. He added, “What really makes (the Flock) product unique is the user interface software.
“Within the software component, law enforcement can receive hotlist alerts and create custom alerts for plates under investigation,” Christian said. The Flock Group camera systems are live in more than 600 cities in 38 states and are used by more than 210 police departments.
“It should be noted that all data will be transmitted in encrypted form directly from the cameras to the cloud stored where it can be accessed only by law enforcement for a period of one year,” Christian said. The cameras are powered by solar energy and are not wired to a power source.
Sheriff’s Department and city staffers worked with the Flock Group to identify various locations in the city that best capture the ingress and egress of vehicles. Most are mounted on existing city-owned poles.
Only one resident spoke in opposition to the cameras when they were first approved Dec. 20 on a 5-0 vote. There was no opposition expressed to the five-year extension, which was part of 15-item consent calendar approved on a 5-0 vote Oct. 17.
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Forty-one Yorba Linda signalized intersections are part of a countywide synchronization project in cooperation with the Orange County Transportation Agency to update a 2009 plan to improve travel times, reduce delays and congestion and increase the number of successive green lights drivers experience in their daily commutes.
Included in the new council-approved pact is the creation of a countywide signal synchronization baseline by retiming some 2,500 county signals along regionally significant corridors to avoid crossing conflicts and ensure signal timing is based on current traffic volumes, according to a report to council members prepared by Tony Wang, the city’s traffic engineering manager.
Jim Drummond is a longtime Yorba Linda resident. He gives his opinion on local issues weekly. Send e-mail to jimdrummond@hotmail.com.
