Save Article
Matt Cagle was driving his daughter to the Oakland Zoo this week when he noticed some new eyes in the sky.
“I noticed them at the on and off ramps of 580, suddenly,” said Cagle, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California. “They look like small digital cameras with a solar panel attached. It visually struck me as an Oakland resident.”
The cameras are among more than 300 automatic license plate readers that have been installed on city streets and state highways to thwart violence and freeway crime, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oakland officials. The state-purchased cameras are part of a surge in California Highway Patrol operations in Oakland as local authorities face criticism over crime and public safety…