Latest news with #EvanDreyer
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Yahoo
Orinda expanding license plate reader camera installations
(KRON) — The City of Orinda is expanding its network of license plate recognition (LPR) cameras. The city council approved a proposal on Tuesday evening to buy 15 extra cameras — that's in addition to the 19 already installed in the city. Seven of them are run by the city while 12 are run by people in the community. San Mateo Co. supes approve procedures for possibly removing embattled sheriff The City of Orinda currently has those seven LPR cameras placed at major thoroughfares and freeway exits, but residents who have experienced break-ins and thefts say they need them in their neighborhoods. Thirty residents who live in Orinda's Knickerbocker neighborhood have committed to buying and splitting a $5,000 a year bill to operate two solar-operated LPR cameras. Residents say the two cameras can cover an area of 200 homes. Evan Dreyer is one of the 30 buyers. Dreyer says the community is taking matter into their own hands because over the past few years, the neighborhood has experienced an increase in crime. 'I think it's been incredibly inspiring to see members of the community come together, support each other, support our police,' says Dreyer. 'This is an investment of public safety.' Dreyer himself is a victim of a break-in. 'We were freaked out for weeks,' says Dreyer. 'And then we have these suspicious cars still coming up after, so we were freaked out for weeks they were trying to come back.' The automated security cameras capture, read, and analyze license plates on vehicles. This data is then sent directly to police. 'What we've seen in the videos and in the trends and how these guys operate, they're very smart,' says Dreyer. 'They're very decisive, they have a strategy; this is not sloppy. These are people who are professionals, and they know what they're doing.' Orinda Police Department Chief Anthony Rossi spoke at Tuesday's city council meeting in support of the additional cameras. He says they can also assist during emergencies. 'These types of cameras will be instrumental in an evacuation,' says OPD Chief Rossi. 'Say, we just had another accident, or we're having a flow here, and people are trying to make their own lanes — I need to put resources there. That's where that will come into play but that doesn't need to be in all of the locations, just in the areas that are of higher concern.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
CBS News
07-05-2025
- CBS News
Orinda neighborhood paid for its own license plate reader cameras to deter crime
Residents in one East Bay community got so fed up with the number of burglaries and break-ins that they took matters into their own hands, paying to install their own license plate reader cameras. Now, those same residents are asking the city of Orinda to pick up the tab on their cameras and add 15 more. Evan Dreyer said there are at least a dozen neighbors who have surveillance video of burglars casing houses or breaking into homes in the Knickerbocker neighborhood of Orinda. "This is something that in this neighborhood we dealt with personally, not only myself but other people," he said. Dreyer said his home in Orinda was broken into in January 2024, and after that, he and his family no longer felt safe. "We understand that getting city governments and city budgets to do things sometimes can take time. This wasn't something we could wait around on so we wanted to lead by example," he said. Dreyer sent out emails to a bunch of his neighbors and asked if they'd be interested in paying for their own license plate reader cameras. In just a few days, he got 30 families to sign on. They installed 2 Flock cameras at the main entrances to the neighborhood at a cost of a little over $11,000 for a two-year contract, which came out to about $400 per family. "Like this car right here that's coming down right now, for example. It's going to automatically turn on, take a picture of this license plate, and if that car was a vehicle that was wanted, by the police, it would automatically give them an alert so they will now know, oh, he just crossed by Stein Way and they can do something," explained Dreyer. At the meeting on Tuesday night, the Orinda City Council is considering not only picking up the contract on the two cameras Evan and his neighbors paid for but also adding another 15 more. Privacy advocates have raised concerns in general about these license plate reader cameras because almost every law enforcement agency in the area can get access to the data. "What is the information being used for? And why is it OK for people's license plates to be captured indiscriminately by law enforcement when people driving down the road are really not breaking any laws," said Karen Gullo with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In Orinda, that hasn't seemed to slow down deployment. The city currently has a total of 19 cameras, and of those, only 7 were installed by the city. The other 12 were installed by neighborhood groups or HOAs. "I want to keep my neighbors and my neighborhood safe. Absolutely," said Scott Johnson. He said his HOA already paid for a camera at the entrance to their community. Johnson said while he thinks the city should pick up the tab, he's willing to foot the bill if necessary. "Fix the roads and fix the lights. Yes, we'd all like to see society work better, but a lot of our municipalities really don't seem to be following through," he said. CBS News Bay Area reached out to the mayor's office and the police chief for comment on the issue, and both refused our requests for interviews.
