CHULA VISTA, Calif. — You may not see Chula Vista’s new automatic license plate readers as you’re driving down some of the city’s most popular streets, but they see your car and your license plate.
“We're expecting to see some great successes probably pretty quickly,” said Sgt. Anthony Molina with Chula Vista Police. He says the readers will help officers quickly spot stolen cars and vehicles leaving the scene of a crime.
So far, the city has installed 81 of the 150 automatic license plate readers that were unanimously approved by the city council last October.
CBS 8 was at that meeting, where residents overwhelmingly spoke in favor of the program, but some did express privacy concerns.
Police said the readers do not track people, but instead, capture license plates and enough of the car to identify the make and model. That information can then be used to help detectives solve crimes.
“I can tell you, especially with even looking at my past cases being an investigator, there's so many cases where this type of data can help solve these crimes,” Molina said.
Including missing person cases, which brought Maya Millete's sister to that city council meeting to support the readers. Maya vanished without a trace in 2021.
“It's my sincerest belief that if Chula Vista and the surrounding cities had the license plate readers activated at the time of her disappearance, the investigators would have had a greater chance locating her,” a tearful Maricris Drouaillet told council members.
Police aren't saying exactly where the cameras are located, but they've been strategically placed at popular ingress and egress locations around Chula Vista, especially near freeway on-ramps.
Officers hope their mere presence will help deter crime.
“As criminals start to pay attention to this and realize we're looking for all sorts of ways to hold them accountable for what they're doing. The we hope they stop doing it here - or altogether," Molina said.
The city hopes to have the rest of the cameras up in the next month or two.
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