New network of car-tracking cameras helps arrest alleged road rage shooter

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is hailing the July 1 arrest of a San Pablo man, who allegedly shot into another car during a road rage incident, as its first to be aided by a new network of hundreds of cameras around Oakland and the East Bay.

“The CHP is excited to have this new technology located on freeways in the Bay Area,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee. “Our investigators will utilize this technology to identify and apprehend those who engage in criminal activity and put California’s motorists at risk.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in April that the CHP had contracted with Flock Safety, a Georgia-based crime safety tech company, to install a network of 480 of the company’s cameras around Oakland and the East Bay. About 290 were expected to be set up on Oakland’s surface streets and 190 along the East Bay’s state highways.

Around 6:40 a.m. on July 1, officers responded to a CHP call that a freeway shooting had happened just west of the Treasure Island on-ramp on westbound I-80. The victim wasn’t hit with a bullet but was cut by glass flying inside the vehicle. He later received medical care and told detectives the shooting happened after a merging conflict on the Treasure Island on-ramp and gave a description of the alleged shooter’s vehicle, according to the California Highway Patrol’s Golden Gate Division.

Detectives from highway patrol’s Special Investigations Unit reviewed camera data and put out an alert for other law enforcement agencies to keep an eye out for the alleged shooter’s vehicle — a 2016 Honda Accord — and its license plate. By 10:20 a.m., Contra Costa County Sheriff’s deputies had found the vehicle in Richmond and stopped the driver. In the vehicle, they found a pistol believed to have been used in the shooting, and the driver was later booked into the San Francisco County jail on charges of attempted murder, assault with a firearm and shooting a firearm from a vehicle.

“Through new state-of-the-art technology and the deployment of officers, California is doubling down in our efforts to keep our communities safe,” Newsom said.

The cameras not only identify license plates, but they also can track vehicle type, make, color, license plate state, missing or covered plates and other features, like bumper stickers, roof racks or decals. The network of cameras can be set up to alert authorities when footage of a suspected crime-linked vehicle is captured by one of the cameras. Data is retained for 28 days and only disclosed to California law enforcement, according to Newsom’s office.