Mar 25 2019
Crime Report, Public Safety Cameras, Piedmont Disaster Prep Guide, Hazard Mitigation Plan, Schools: Thursday, March 28
Public Safety Committee meets Thursday, March 28, 5:30 p.m. City Council Chambers. The public is welcome to participate and attend the meeting. No broadcasts are planned for the meeting. *See update and report on the meeting below under comments.
The agenda includes:
- Approval of Public Safety Committee Meeting Minutes for 1/31/19 Public Safety 2019-01-31 DRAFT
- Update on the Crime Report
- Update from the Public Safety Camera Subcommittee
- Update on Get Ready, Piedmont Guide
- Update on the Hazard Mitigation Plan
- School Liaison Update
Several highlights from last week’s Public Safety Committee meeting:
– 2018 Crime Report: crime up 10% from 2017 (195/222). Larceny (97/123) and robbery (3/10) up, burglary down (60/47). City making use of private security camera registry to assist investigations. Traffic violations up (132/149).
– City has a new speed reader that also captures license plate data. Speed data and license data not linked. License Plate Reader [LPR] data stores in different repository from that of the city ALPR readers.
– Officers deWarns and Mather and staff March retired. Lost some recent hires to other departments, three new officers hired.
– Public Safety Cameras – three neighborhood outreach meetings held (Dudley, Mountain, Wildwood) by subcommittee. Subcommittee seems to be backing away for conducting a community survey. Current 6 proposed camera locations and related policies can be found on city website: http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us
Hazard Mitigation Plan – deals with catastrophic events – earthquake, wildfire, climate change. See city website for draft plan. Open for public comment through April 11.
School Liaison Report: School Board rejected installing School Resource Officer (SRO) on school grounds.
The topic of public safety camera locations was raised at the meeting. The current proposal is to locate the 6 cameras in close proximity to license plate readers in lower Piedmont. This area is where over 50% of Piedmont crime occurs (see http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/html/govern/staffreports/2019-02-04/yearendcrimereport.pdf). Recent home invasions have shown how the public safety cameras can assist with these crimes. However, most of the home invasions have happened on the perimeter of Piedmont (Arroyo, Scenic, Estates, Tyson Circle) so concentrating the cameras in one reporting district may minimize their effectiveness in solving these severe crimes. LPRs do provide some of the “look back” that the safety cameras would provide so there seems to be some redundancy in the current proposal. But LPRs are being increasingly defeated according to the Department so that capability may be diminishing. For example, the recent home invasion occurred at 4:30 am and LPR data could likely be used to identify a suspect vehicle at that hour if the vehicle had a plate. If not, a public safety camera positioned at a major exit of that section of Piedmont might provide information on the vehicle. Optimal location of the safety cameras is currently being considered by the Public Safety Committee and the public can comment on this at the next committee meeting (5/30) or by emailing the committee at ascott@ci.piedmont.ca.us.