A license-plate camera flagged a stolen plate on a white Lexus early Sunday, setting off a pursuit through San Leandro that ended with spike strips, a crashed car, and two attempted carjackings.
The chase began when RESET units with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office got an automated license-plate reader hit from Flock monitoring for a white Lexus carrying a rear plate stolen from within the sheriff's jurisdiction, according to a Facebook post from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. Hayward RESET units located the vehicle with help from air support and deployed Starchase as the Lexus traveled on 170th Avenue in unincorporated San Leandro, per the same post.
The driver kept going through the city of San Leandro as deputies laid down spike strips, which sent up sparks as the Lexus began losing its tires, the sheriff's office said. The car eventually became disabled at the intersection of Benedict Drive and Grand Avenue in San Leandro, where the driver struck another vehicle, causing minor damage but no injuries from the collision, according to the account.
Two Carjacking Attempts in Quick Succession
With their car disabled, the suspects first tried to carjack the occupants of the vehicle they had just hit, the sheriff's office said. When that failed, they attempted to carjack a woman in another car nearby — an attempt that also did not succeed, per the post. The woman received treatment for minor injuries and, according to the sheriff's office, will be okay.
One suspect then fled on foot into the rear yard of an adjacent residence, while the second ran down an embankment behind the same house onto Interstate 580 and tried to hide in the bushes along the freeway, the post states. Air support units tracked the suspects as they tried to escape, though a third suspect was not located.
Flock Cameras Keep Showing Up in Bay Area Chases
This is far from the only recent East Bay case in which a license-plate camera hit touched off a pursuit. The Alameda County Sheriff's Office's Real Time Information Center is reportedly integrated with more than 100 Flock Safety automated license plate readers and RAVEN drones, Hoodline has previously reported, including in a separate San Leandro case where a fleeing Ford Mustang went the wrong way on I-580 and crashed before ending in a SWAT standoff. That same reporting described an earlier San Leandro burglary suspect caught after ALPR alerts and drone tracking were used once the suspect's vehicle became disabled.
San Leandro police say they rely on the technology both after the fact and in real time, with the department's Flock Transparency Portal stating that officers use retroactive searches to solve crimes after they occur, alongside real-time alerting on hotlist vehicles. In a separate incident in January, San Leandro police said automated license-plate reader cameras helped them track a suspect's white Mercedes SUV to Oakland after a failed carjacking led to a seven-mile pursuit and three arrests, as reported by The Mercury News.
Carjacking Attempts Keep Testing the Technology's Limits
Not every carjacking attempt in the area has ended the same way. KRON4 reported that a separate attempted carjacking near Polvorosa Avenue and Doolittle Drive involved several masked suspects armed with handguns and rifles who got out of two vehicles, though the intended victim managed to get away unharmed, according to KRON4.
Flock's expanding footprint has not come without controversy. The company runs an operation of at least 90,000 cameras nationwide, scanning over 20 billion license plates per month, according to KQED, which also reported that residents and advocates have raised concerns about a creeping surveillance state, erosion of privacy, and security issues the company has faced.
No details on the juvenile suspect's identity, alleged role, or any resulting charges were included in the sheriff's office account, and it remains unclear which agency's pursuit and spike-strip protocols governed the RESET units during this specific chase.
