Cameras keep track of all cars entering Medina

Sonia Krishnan
The Seattle Times
Wednesday, September 16, 2009

City signs have a unique way of greeting people. In Issaquah, for instance, motorists are told they’re entering “a special place where people care.” For years, Bothell invited people to stay “for a day or a lifetime.”

In Medina, a new sign bears this warning: “You Are Entering a 24 Hour Video Surveillance Area.”

Cameras have recently been installed at intersections to monitor every vehicle coming into the city.

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Under the “automatic license plate recognition” project, once a car enters Medina, a camera captures its license-plate number. Within seconds, the number is run through a database.

If a hit comes up for a felony — say, the vehicle was reported stolen or is being driven by a homicide suspect — the information is transmitted instantaneously to police, who can “leap into action,” said Police Chief Jeffrey Chen.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

“These cameras provide us with intelligence,” Chen said. “It gets us in front of criminals. I don’t like to be on a level playing field with criminals.”

Full story here.

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