License plate readers soon to come to Rancho Tehama
TEHAMA COUNTY, Calif. — The community of Rancho Tehama may soon have license plate readers implemented in the town to combat the ongoing concerns of public safety. Rancho Tehama Reserve recently held a meeting discussing plans to bring a private corporation to provide license plate readers to the community that can provide aid for the Tehama County Sheriff's Department and CHP in cracking down on crime.
According to Sheriff Dave Kain, the information retrieved from the readers will be sent to the sheriff's office and their dispatch center to report stolen vehicles and assist in missing person cases and criminal investigations.
"This is a great investigative tool. I think it's a great opportunity for us to interact with Rancho Tehama and have some real-time intelligence about things that are going on out there," Sheriff Kain said.
Although the license plate readers will be helpful, Sheriff Kain said it might not solve the underlining hurdle that needs to be addressed: emergency response times.
"As far as a game changer, I don't know that it is a game changer for us. It's still about the staffing that we have available to respond to those calls, and it is also, you know, something I explained to the board, is that even having the real-time location makes it difficult for us to get there, and so some of the information that may come in, that would be fruitful for us to utilize, [but] we may not be able to catch those vehicles in a timely fashion."
Rancho Tehama Reserve board member Tony Talamante said they plan to have four license plate readers placed in the community and provide space in their office to create a deputy substation for patrols in the community to help address the response times for law enforcement.
