Nelson: License plate readers are another tool for a safer, more vibrant Willow Glen

Last August, someone rode a bicycle down Lincoln Avenue and threw rocks through six shop windows and doors, mine included.

It cost me $750 to replace the glass. The person responsible was never caught. Since June, downtown Willow Glen has logged roughly 30 reports of vandalism and theft, and while most haven’t resulted in major losses, they add up. They wear on the people who own these small shops and the neighbors who walk past them every day.

I don’t think the answer is choosing between “more cops” and “no cameras.” San Jose can’t put an officer on every block of every business district, and it shouldn’t have to. What we should be asking is how we give the officers we already have better tools to do their jobs well, tools that help them solve the case in front of them instead of just writing up a report after the fact.

That’s why I think license plate reader technology deserves to be part of the answer, not as a debate over whether to have it, but as a tool we make full use of.

This isn’t a new or untested idea. The technology is already in use in more than 5,000 communities nationwide, and courts have upheld its constitutionality more than 30 times, most recently in a federal ruling this past January. It reads license plates on public roads and flags vehicles already connected to a reported crime, whether that’s a hit and run, a stolen car or someone casing a business corridor like ours. When there’s a match, it alerts law enforcement in real time. That’s the difference between a case that goes cold and one that gets solved, and between a victim who gets answers and one who doesn’t.

Here’s what I keep coming back to: We all want the same thing for this neighborhood. A downtown people want to walk through after dark. A business district where shop owners aren’t budgeting for broken glass. A community where people feel safe letting their kids walk to get ice cream.

None of that happens by accident, and none of it happens with just one tool. It takes officers on patrol, a business association that shows up, neighbors who look out for each other and technology that helps investigators do more with the resources they have. License plate reader tech isn’t a replacement for any of that. It’s part of the toolbox, the same as a patrol car or a well-lit street.

My neighbors at Icicles, Ume Tea and Sushi Arashi have all had their own break-ins this year. Footwear etc. now schedules two employees to close instead of one, just in case. I don’t think anyone in Willow Glen is asking for a surveillance state. We’re asking that the tools already available to law enforcement, tools that have helped other California communities solve real cases and protect real victims and survivors, be used to their fullest, responsible extent here too.

I’ve replaced my door once. I’d rather see us build the kind of neighborhood where I don’t have to do it again.

Eric Nelson is the owner of SplashWorks in San Jose.