Palm Springs City Council approves two-year agreement for license plate recognition cameras
Palm Springs will soon have 15 license plate recognition cameras around the city.
The city council approved a two-year cooperative subscription agreement with Insight Public Sector Inc. The motion passed with a 4-1 vote. Mayor Grace Garner was the lone "no" vote.
Palm Springs Police Chief Andy Mills had a presentation on what his department would use these cameras for.
"We find it very important for us to be very careful with the types of technologies that we ask for from council. Because it's a delicate balance to ensure that public safety aligns with civil rights in the constitution rather than opposes it," Mills said during his presentation. "We believe that this technology can enable us to strike a very careful balance to help facilitate and to ensure a public safety at a greater level, and also at the same time, be minimally invasive into the privacy of the individual."
The department says the cameras will help officers with their response to crimes.
You can watch the full discussion below:
In May, La Quinta approved the deployment of 69 license plate reader cameras across the city.
In July, the city of Coachella struck down a similar proposal, sighting concerns over residents' privacy.
Palm Springs vote means that soon, license plate readers with have been deployed in every Coachella Valley city except Coachella.
