SAN JOSE — South Bay officials are launching a pilot program that provides technology for small businesses to connect their security cameras directly to the police department so that crimes can be monitored in real time in a move aimed at mitigating retail theft, they said at a news conference Wednesday.
The announcement from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and the San Jose Police Department comes nearly two weeks after a smash-and-grab robbery at Kim Hung Jewelry store on Aborn Road in east San Jose drew international attention. Video of the Sept. 5 robbery shows a car crashing into the storefront before more than a dozen masked figures enter and begin breaking the glass jewelry cases; one of the robbers violently shoves the elderly owner of the store to the ground.
Relatives of the store owner said he suffered a stroke after the robbery.
The new anti-theft program is funded by a $100,000 grant provided by the District Attorney’s Office and will allow about 200 businesses to be equipped with the new technology, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced.
“Organized retail theft gangs are terrorizing our community, and they’re not just destroying store fronts and stealing jewelry,” Rosen said at the press conference. “They’re destroying dreams, stealing livelihoods and making it difficult for mom-and-pop store owners to put food on the table for themselves and their children.”
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The grant will allow the small businesses to connect security cameras they already have installed to SJPD’s real time intelligence center, which will then allow police to respond to incidents more quickly, Rosen said. The cameras will also allow officers to disseminate descriptions of suspects and their vehicles to responding officers, according to a news release.
“This is a game changer,” said San Jose police Chief Paul Joseph.
SJPD’s real-time intelligence center was launched four months ago and is currently connected to more than 20,000 public safety cameras around the city, Joseph said.
The district attorney’s office is contributing another $50,000 to install concrete planters in front of small businesses who do not have security cameras or whose police departments do not have an existing network connection, Rosen said. The planters will help block cars from driving through the front.
The $150,000 funding the program came from a consumer protection lawsuit against Google, according to a news release.
“This community — our community — watched in fear as a senior was assaulted,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. “We’re taking action to assure our community that they are not alone, and we are empowering them to help prevent these cases and ensure faster and more effective investigations.”
Joseph added that SJPD is working diligently to bring the people suspected of robbing Kim Hung Jewelry to justice. No arrests have been made yet, he added.
“We will not rest until we find them, but we’re here to do even more … help protect this business and other small businesses from future victimization,” Joseph said.
Rosen added that he has “full confidence that the San Jose Police Department is working day and night to find these individuals.”
“When they’re found and the charges are filed by my office, we will prosecute them quite vigorously and send them to prison for a long time so that they never do this again, and so that everybody understands (that if) you commit a crime like this, we’re going to catch you, and then we’re going to send you to prison. Period,” Rosen said.
San Jose City Councilmember Bien Doan, who recently reached out to the family of the jewelry store’s owner, said that the owner is “doing okay at this point.” Santa Clara County Supervisor Otto Lee said that the robbery caused more than $100,000 of loss for the jewelry store, not including medical bills or compensation for emotional suffering.
“Our work together is dedicated to protecting you from harm and ensuring that we feel safe within this community,” Lee said. “We are proud to say that Santa Clara County is a safe community, but it only takes one crime, one incident for us to feel very shaken in our confidence.”
Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong added that the surrounding neighborhood is where immigrants have rebuilt their lives.
“I don’t just get to represent this incredible district. This is home, and these are my neighbors, and these are families we care deeply about, who have invested their dreams, their life savings, everything they’ve got, all their energy, all their endurance, into building a better community for all of us,” she said. “Public safety is the number one priority for all of us, and for me, it’s deeply personal.”
Retail theft has been a hot-button issue in California, with voters passing Proposition 36 in last year’s election to increase penalties for certain theft and drug-related crimes.
The DA’s Office and SJPD have also each created specialized units to track retail theft arrests and prosecutions, Rosen added, touting recent efforts that lead to the arrest of a group of serial thieves who had targeted Home Depot stores and others who stole Infiniti cars and drove them into storefronts.
“Bad actors who want to harm our city are always getting better at what they do, so our police department must do the same. We need to innovate faster than those who would do harm,” Mahan said. “This partnership is the future. It’s the way that we as one networked community prevent crime and catch criminals faster and hold them accountable.”
