Fremont city council members rejected a police plan to install surveillance cameras in low- to moderate-income areas. The proposal was aimed at helping officers battle the rise in home burglaries.
City officials requested the Fremont Police Department to come back in February with a more fully developed plan.
The neighborhoods that are being considered in the police plan include: Central downtown, Ardenwood, South Sundale and Niles.
Police said it’s not the intent of the program to focus on any one type of resident its part of a larger plan to put these cameras up around the entire city eventually.
The police department planned on paying for the 20 cameras with about $161,000 in grant money. The startup costs for the surveillance system will run about $450,000 and police will have to find a way to fund it, according to the Argus.
Some residents have voiced concern that the surveillance cameras have a feeling of Big Brother watching and they feel the city will be invading their privacy.
"You wonder whether you go over the edge with security and defense," Rick Iorillo told NBC Bay Area on Tuesday morning.
Other residents support the idea.
Mylene Stolpe helped rally her neighbors to pitch in to buy their own cameras after a rash of burglaries.
"I guess the goal is to make Fremont safe and if there are neighborhoods that need the money more than we do, then let's do it," Stolpe said.
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If the plan was approved, Fremont would have joined a growing number of cities using cameras, vehicle license plate readers or both to gather data on the comings-and-goings of motorists in its city, according to the Argus. Municipalities such as New York City, Tiburon, Vallejo and Oakland have approved similar policies.
