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Tipped off by a newly installed license-plate-recognition system, Palo Alto police arrested Tuesday a group of men at Stanford Shopping Center who they say were involved in an armed carjacking in Berkeley.
The Police Department was tipped off by a newly installed license plate recognition camera that a stolen vehicle has entered the city at about 12:47 p.m., according to a news release from the department. The vehicle, a black Corolla, was stolen at gunpoint in Berkeley on Monday by three men armed with a black semi-automatic handgun, police said.
While looking for the vehicle, Palo Alto police received another alert from the camera system at 1:04 p.m., showing that the Corolla was near Stanford Shopping Center. Patrol officers and undercover officers ultimately found it in a parking stall on the east side of the mall. It was backed up into the parking spot next to another vehicle, a white Infinity G-37, and the occupants of the two cars were having a conversation, according to the police.
The two cars pulled away as soon as they saw marked police cars approach and they drove together through the parking lot of Stanford Shopping Center, toward El Camino Real. As they reached the Pistache Place exit, officers pulled over both vehicles. Police said the driver of the stolen Corolla tried to flee by driving up onto a sidewalk but then crashed into the passenger side of an occupied police car that was blocking the way.
Police said both vehicles had “minor damage” and no one was injured.
Over the course of the investigation, police found a loaded semi-automatic Glock handgun with a high-capacity magazine on the back seat of the Corolla, according to the news release.
Palo Alto officers also learned from the Berkeley Police department that the vehicle that had brought the carjacking suspects to the scene of the crime was a white Infinity. And they discovered that the gun was reported as stolen from Fresno at some point over the past few weeks.
Palo Alto police booked the driver of the Corolla, a 19-year-old San Francisco resident, for six felonies: vehicle theft, possession of a stolen vehicle, carrying a loaded firearm, carrying a concealed firearm, convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and convicted felon in possession of ammunition, as well as one misdemeanor of resisting arrest for attempting to drive away from the vehicle stop.
Police also booked the passenger, a 20-year-old Oakland resident, on a charge of possession of a stolen vehicle.
Police credited the new camera system, which went live in late July, with facilitating the arrests. The City Council approved the installation of automated license plate recognition cameras last year, and six have already been installed. The Police Department plans to install another 14 in the coming weeks, according to the news release.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Police Department’s 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.
Interesting the police spokesperson makes no mention that yesterday the PAPD, also using license plate readers, wrongly stop another car, demanding at rifle point that the driver and passenger get out, then handcuffed them.
People with guns are a menace, but so are license plate readers that trigger police to make what could be lethal mistakes.
If this had happened to me or my daughter, I would not only be angry, but sue the pants off the police and City.
Electronic license plate readers and inaccurately reported rental car thefts can also pose a problem.
Hertz settled a huge lawsuit last year to compensate customers who were pulled over at gunpoint and improperly jailed for wrongly reported rental car thefts.
Nice to see some license plate reader early arrests to get the word out on the street to keep away from Palo Alto.
@Comment Would definitely hope that all reader-based contacts are being monitored and reviewed during this initial period. BTW, it’s my understanding that police almost never take out their rifles – are you sure it wasn’t sidearms?
Most modern cars have GPS sensors and can be easily traced by rental agents and law enforcement.
License plate recorders are useful for recording traffic violations and tracking older stolen cars.
Thieves today prefer to steal newer, high-end vehicles with GPS.
Stories like this just underscore the fact that the Bay Area is a region not a collection of islands with borders preventing free passage.
I am pleased to see that there is cooperation between various police departments across the Bay.
A stolen car was hauled away from my street that was stashed there and sitting on the sidewalk. I had called that car in since it was on the sidewalk. Depending on where you live relative to freeway offramps there will be more instances of strange activity. We also have people who park here to leave their cars while in vacation. Why not at their own homes? After three days those get called in. If near your home then be happy that the police have all of the tools to sort out strange activity. And yes – thieves often steal license plates.
@Comment the PAPD said they would check to confirm the make and model of the car match the license plate before pulling folks over. You are claiming otherwise. They are also required to file a use of force report every time they point a firearm at someone. If what you said really happened the person who was wrongly pulled over should complaint to the police (which will be reviewed by our auditor) and also report it to PA Weekly Online and PA Daily Post.
More details on the original crime, and the suspects https://www.berkeleyscanner.com/2023/08/17/uc-berkeley-crime/berkeley-carjacking-suspects-caught-palo-alto-alpr-cameras/
Great to see the license plate readers being used so effectively to catch criminals that carried out an armed carjacking. And with only 6 of the 14 installed, so far. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that the ACLU’s misplaced “4th amendment” opposition to these readers is an attack on both police effectiveness and the people that they serve.
As @Mondoman said, the word should get out quickly to the criminals that if they bring a stolen car into Palo Alto, they will likely be caught.
Some Council members approved the readers on the condition that they show results. They are largely a deterrent, but it is good to see that they also enable arrests for serious crimes. It is also telling that the reader Ickes up the stolen car at the Stanford Shopping Center, while like so many merchants, are seeing huge increases in property theft.
Policing is an incredibly difficult job, and we need to be vigilant against abuses. But, the police need these tools and support, or this city is at risk of ending up in the same state as San Francisco.