PUT CAMERAS AT POT SHOPS
Concerning Josue Monroy’s Dec. 6 article:
If (Police Chief) Bernie Escalante is concerned about thugs who knock over pot shops, perhaps he should try asking the Superior Court for a proper search warrant to place cameras in pot shop parking lots, instead of asking the city to pay a contractor in perpetuity for photos of every vehicle entering town. If pot shop owners object that he’d be spying on their customers, let Escalante argue that point in court.
Monroy reports that SCPD has previously used grants to buy other war toys, but he doesn’t tell us whether any of these stocking stuffers has ever actually been used.
Instead of stockpiling toys against imagined crimes, perhaps Escalante should concentrate on the hundreds of true crimes that occur here daily, where some automation might help, namely all of the cars zipping down our streets way too fast, ignoring speed limits while endangering pedestrians and cyclists. I haven’t seen an SCPD officer or County Sheriff’s deputy write a speeding ticket in years.
Scott Marovich
Soquel
LICENSE PLATE READER COMPANY SUPPORTS PROGRAM
Hollister Police officers arrested a suspect accused of involvement in a shooting after using their newly-installed Flock Safety License Plate Recognition (LPR) cameras to identify a suspect vehicle.
On Dec. 4, Hollister officers responded to reports of a shooting. The victims stated that a silver vehicle pulled up next to their car and fired several shots into the car. Officers queried nearby Flock Safety LPRs and identified a suspect vehicle that matched the description and was near the scene at the time of the crime. With assistance from Watsonville PD and Santa Cruz Probation, officers apprehended a juvenile, who was booked in the San Benito County Youth Services Center.
“FLOCK Systems were integral to our solving this case so quickly,” said Hollister Police Chief Carlos Reynoso. “We used this system exactly as intended; to identify suspects in crimes and build a criminal case against them, and bring them to justice swiftly.
Flock Safety works with over 3,000 law enforcement agencies to solve hundreds of crimes every day.
Best,
Connor Metz | Flock Safety
PRAISE FOR GT
Two quickies:
1) In response to your editorial about the Israel-Hamas episode, threats, etc. I was saddened to learn of it, but not surprised — there’s a lot of free-floating hostility in this place…pops out in strange places. It’s troubling when they go after newspapers…Damn!
2) Geoffrey’s piece on Rebele — brilliant choice to have him do it, and a more than brilliant result! Best damned profile I’ve ever read — the bastard made me cry and I told him so.
Geoffrey makes us all look like such hacks.
Keep him around!
Onward!
Sandy Lydon
