The San Jose City Council has voted to spend $250,000 on using license plate readers around the city in an effort to stop the rising number of smash-and-grab retail thefts plaguing the Bay Area, according to reporting by KPIX.
The funds are a part of a larger COVID-19 federal relief package of $18.3 million allocated to the city through the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act.
The move was announced after a spate of robberies in the last couple of weeks throughout the city and other major Bay Area cities.
By using license plate readers, authorities will be able to "better deter and make arrests in armed 'smash-mob’ burglaries and robberies, auto thefts, and drive-by shootings," San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo wrote in a memo about the decision, as reported by the station.
"Where culprits are attempting to evade the license plate readers, all the better because that’s a very clear warning, when we see folks covering their license plates, that those are drivers that should be pulled over," Liccardo wrote.
Whatever information is collected by the readers will not be shared with immigration officials, the memo added.
The readers will likely be a stationary model that can be transported to areas of the city where crime is high, San Jose Police Asst. Chief Paul Joseph told the station.
"We absolutely are going to take into account crime all throughout the city, and not just in any one particular spot," he said.
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