A new batch of 480 car-surveilling security cameras are going up on the streets and highways of Oakland, in Gavin Newsom’s latest effort to crack down on Oakland crime.

It’s a sad and stunning statistic that KTVU dug up this month that the Bay Area now has twice as many freeway shootings as Los Angeles. And a great many of these freeway shootings are happening in Oakland, a number of which have taken the lives of small children.

Governor Gavin Newsom is stepping in with efforts to catch and lock up more of these freeway shooters and other criminals, as the Chronicle reports Newsom is ordering 480 car surveillance cameras to be placed on Oakland streets and highways.    

According to KTVU, 290 of these Flock Security cameras will be placed along Oakland surface streets, and 190 more cameras will be placed on East Bay state highways.

“This investment marks another step forward in our commitment to bolstering public safety and tackling organized crime and roadway violence in Oakland and across California,” Newsom said in a Friday morning press release. “With the installation of this 480 high-tech camera network, we’re equipping law enforcement with the tools they need to effectively combat criminal activity and hold perpetrators accountable.”

The cameras are similar to the license-plate readers being put up in San Francisco, but according to Newsom’s release, can also track cars “by vehicle type, make, color, license plate state, missing/covered plates, and other unique features (e.g., bumper stickers, decals, and roof racks).”

This is Newsom’s latest effort in his bid to clamp down on Oakland crime, with him having sent more state police officers to Oakland last month, as well as teams of state prosecutors to prosecute crimes in Alameda County.

There are privacy concerns, though, particularly that the data might be used to prosecute people who come from out of state to get abortions. (The Chronicle reported this week that this has already happened.) Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said the data would be stored for only 28 days, and then deleted.

But Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is on board with the new surveillance cameras. “Improving public safety and addressing quality of life issues in Oakland is my top priority,” Thao said in Newsom’s release. “This new camera network will help us stop crime and hold more suspects accountable. On behalf of all Oaklanders, I want to thank the Governor and the California Highway Patrol for their ongoing commitment and investments in the city.”

Related: CHP Announces They’ve Made 168 Arrests, Recovered 360 Stolen Vehicles In Oakland In the Last Five Weeks [SFist]

Image: Flock Safety

Over a year after many of BART's security cameras were revealed to be fake devices recording nothing, we've got an update on their installation — and you'll be shocked, SHOCKED to hear that the going has been decidedly slow.

BART's dummy camera ruse was revealed in January of 2016, following a fatal shooting on a SF-bound train at West Oakland station. When questions were raised about footage from the incident, BART ducked the queries for a bit, then issued a statement saying that “BART has committed to install a working camera system on each and every train car as quickly as possible."

We subsequently learned that about 77 percent of BART's cameras weren't operative, which meant that the financially strapped transit agency was looking at a $1.4 million bill to fix the situation.

Of course, being BART, "as quickly as possible" isn't quickly at all. It wasn't until September of 2016 that the agency even voted on the purchase for the cameras.

Now, over a year later, we learn via the Chron that BART now says that all of their 669 trains will have working cameras by July 1, a finish date characterized by spokesperson Alicia Trott as “as promised to the public.”

“More than half of the new cameras have been installed,” Trost told the Chron, “and the number changes every day.”

One thing that appears not to have changed: The lack of arrests in the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Carlos Misael Funez-Romero, the man whose possibly random slaying revealed BART's decoy system in the first place. BART police, which is the agency responsible for the investigation, have not released any new information on their work on the case since for over a year. As of publication time, no suspects have been named in his death, nor have any arrests been made.

Related: Could Riding BART Drive You Crazy?

San Francisco County jails have a problem, and it's one that goes beyond the much talked about seismically unsafe Jail No. 4 that's in need of replacement. It appears that since 2014, the surveillance systems in both County Jails No. 1 and 2 have been on the fritz — leaving a compromised security system that has not been entirely repaired despite more than a million dollars worth of work.

So reports SF Weekly, which notes that a January letter from Sheriff Vicki Hennessy states that "many of the basic security functions of the facility are still not complete." And just what, exactly, are these incomplete basic security functions? The Weekly says that "the alarm system, the security cameras, and the electronics that control the doors" all need to be replaced.

The city has contracted two companies to do the work, notes the paper, at what is currently an unknown cost.

Although no one has escaped from either jail since the security systems have started failing, not having video of what goes down inside raises a host of other concerns. For example, this long gap in proper surveillance casts further shadow over incidents like 2015's "apparent suicide" in County Jail No. 2 (the infamous case of jail guards forcing prisoners to fight took place at County Jail No. 4).

Well, at least we now know that the cameras aren't fake.

Related: Public Defender: SF Jail Inmates Are Made To Fight While Sheriff's Deputies Bet On Them

When it was revealed earlier this month that a majority of BART train surveillance cameras are decoys, we all did a bit of a collective face-palm. BART officials, for their part, seemed shamed by the lack of security footage of the fatal January 9 shooting that occurred aboard a crowded train and announced their intention to replace the fakes with real cameras (at some point). Well, we now learn that the actual likely reason BART officials are publicly scurrying to install working cameras is that they fear this entire incident may jeopardize the public's willingness to approve a planned $3 billion bond measure to fund the agency.

The thought being that if the public views BART negatively, it will be less likely to vote in favor of additional funding. In other words, it's all about the money.

“It’s damage control,” state Senator Steve Glazer (of Orinda) told the Chronicle. “They have to convince the public that everything is going well when they go to the ballot.”

Senator Glazer is not the only who thinks this is more about money than anything else, as one BART insider who wished to remain anonymous told the paper that officials within the agency "are really freaking out” that the decoy camera scandal has tanked public confidence in BART and thus could result in the transportation bond failing.

BART was awarded a $3.8 million Homeland Security grant in 2010 to install live-streaming cameras on trains, however the Chron helpfully informs us that "[much] of the equipment is still boxed up in storage, though."

In the meantime, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost wants you to rest assued that the agency puts your safety first.

“BART has committed to install a working camera system on each and every train car as quickly as possible," Trost said in a statement last week. "Staff is already working on funding options, a procurement plan, and deployment strategy. Our riders and employees' safety is BART's top priority."

Don't you feel so much better?

Previously: Fatal Shooting Shames BART Into Installing More Actual Cameras

Yet another tourist was robbed of his camera in San Francisco this week in what looks to be a trending crime.

Police report that the would-be photographer was walking on Mason Street near Broadway at around 2 p.m. on Tuesday when a group of three men, described as being in their late teens or early twenties, attacked him, robbing him of his camera equipment. CBS San Francisco notes that the man, who is in his fifties, was punched in the face during the course of the robbery.

The assailants had a car waiting for them in which they fled the scene. As of yet, no arrests have been made.

Sadly, the incident marks yet another episode in a string of San Francisco tourist camera thefts over the course of the past year. Most notably, in one recent case a tourist was shot in the shoulder after attempting to chase down the men who stole his camera near the famously scenic section of Lombard Street. Those individuals also had a getaway car in place, although they were later apprehended by authorities.

Crime may not pay, per se, but camera theft is lucrative, and all the more so when the cameras stolen belong to television news crews. The armed robbery of such groups — even when live on the air, to recall an instance at Pier 14 this July — is such an assumed risk in Oakland that some crews now bring security guards with them when reporting in the East Bay city.

Previously: [Update] Tourist Robbed, Shot In Chest Near Crooked Section Of Lombard Street

Photo by Erik Wilson.

While tourist Nathalie Rollandin was shooting the honey-kissed sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge last week, a nearby rogue seagull wasn't having any of it. The crafty bird snatched her GoPro camera and flew away. The bird later dropped the camera at the St. Francis Yacht Club, but not before shooting picturesque scenes while soaring above the bay.

"A San Francisco sunset I will hardly forget," Rollandin said.

UPDATE: Could be a viral campaign, as some commenters have pointed out. Oh!

UPDATE 2: Yes, and here is the AdAge piece confirming the company's marketing push. Brilliant job, btw.

[via UA]

Custom car connoisseur Steve Nelson had his sweet Honda Accord stolen from in front of his house Saturday morning in the city of Lathrop. How rude. "We are pleased that the crooks ignored our surveillance cameras, we just hope that someone out there recognizes the thieves or their car," Nelson said. KTXL (via NY Daily News) has more:

The couple woke up early Saturday to the sound of their dog, Pismo, barking at some thieves lurking in their driveway, KTLX Sacramento reported.

"I opened the door, my car backed out of the driveway," Nelson told the station.

Nelson's cameras caught the heisters sneaking out of their car and then pulling away in his customized ride.

"It had a supercharger and a couple other after-market parts that are expensive, but not too many people have, so I have a feeling that's why they took it," Nelson told KTXL.

And here's the grainy, nighttime footage. Brazen behavior, for sure. Good luck on catching the creeps, Steve!

If you're like us (and we bet you are) you've got umpteen million friends instagram-ing and otherwise digitally enhancing their lazy photographic masterpieces. Camera phones are great for tweeting pictures of that cute thing your cat did, of course, but for the amateur iPhotographer in your life that is secretly itching to get their hands dirty with a roll of film and a hard shutter button, why not buy them what they really want: an actual camera with some film in it.

Lomography, the company known for bringing back the cult cameras your cool dad used to shoot hot beach pics of your mom with, recently opened a Gallery Store near Union Square at Sutter and Grant, which is as good a place as any to find something for the budding film snob in your life. A classic Diana camera, like the one on the left, will run you a mere 50 bucks before film and accessories. And that's a bargain compared to the sheer joy you will experience when your friend, the rehabbed hipstamatic fiend, invites you to their show opening at some Valencia Street gallery.

Added bonus: In addition to regular free workshops, the exposure geeks and film nerds gather monthly at the Lomography store to drink free beer and talk about cameras. It's like the gift that keeps on giving.

Extra rolls of film make excellent stocking stuffers, by the way, especially since it'll take a few to get a feel for a camera that is infinitely less forgiving than one's telephone. Other analogue-friendly spots to check out around town: Photobooth on Valencia Street for even more antiquated photography techniques, and the ever-present Adolf Gasser Photography on 2nd Street in SoMa stocks camera equipment of all kinds.

Our experience with the cameras in the Lower Haight has been, well, mixed. When they went up, one of the locals told us we couldn't take photos of the cameras. Not inspiring. On the other hand, nobody's been shot at Haight and Webster in some time. So...readers. Thoughts? Are they worth it? Is their presence preventative in some way? Or is this similar to the no-liquids rules at the airport - good theater, but fundamentally worthless?

Photo from Flickr user andreaskristensson, used under a Creative Commons license

And speaking of cameras...

While Chicago has seen crime rates plummet to their lowest numbers in over four decades due to the windy city's Big Brother program, San Francisco's attempt at panopticon-ish camera security is failing. Ever since the 68 city-funded cameras started rolling, our city's surveillance program has resulted in a single arrest. That was over 19 months ago.

Why the lag, you ask? Well, for starters, "choppy" video streaming, above, at 16th and Mission streets. According to the Chronicle:

Run on a modest budget, Mayor Gavin Newsom's surveillance camera program has produced footage that is disjointed and less clear than the nearly seamless and sharp quality of video that the devices are capable of delivering, a Chronicle review found.

The difference can be dramatic, leaving police with less potential evidence. A review of videos taken last year by four cameras at 16th and Mission streets found a striking problem with the cameras' frame rate, or the number of images produced per second.

On average, the Mission District-perched cameras didn't even average one frame per second, making it difficult, if not impossible, to snap, trap and prosecute our city's most randy mischief makers. (Check out the undramatic footage here.)

If this bill becomes a law, then you'll be seeing scary "Photo Enforced" signs popping up around this intersection in a year or so. It will look a little something like this crudely Photoshopped image. Get up to speed on this issue by clicking here or here or here or here or here or here or here or here. Other coverage is here and here. Keep up to speed by checking out the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition website.

Let's stay safe out there!