CIty Council -
I’m writing with a brief request for consideration of the upcoming license plate reading cameras to be placed on Cotton.
This year, the MP police department has visited one of the Cotton Street residents nearly 10 times (!) to see if he has video footage that would help with their investigations (at the Cotton and Hillview merge) around a home invasion and burglaries - this tells me of the strong need for ALPRs in this very specific area.
2 reasons ALPRs are needed in this area:
1.
Cotton Street acts as the straightest cut-through between Valparaiso and Middle [between Alameda and El Camino]
And further with no sort of pop-out, speed bumps or barriers such as on Sherman for example, Cotton receives far more traffic than any other street in the surrounding area.
In turn, it would seem this familiarity leads to more robberies as a result of thieves knowing the street and targets (indeed, Waze directions will regularly take people down Cotton).
2.
We have seen more activity in this specific area of Menlo Park in the last year, and ever since I’ve moved here.
Unfortunately this year we have seen a a home invasion/robbery in the middle of Cotton between Valparaiso and Santa Cruz while the family was home at night (terrifying), large number of stolen bicycles (I believe the detective said $30k worth two weeks weeks ago), and vehicle break-ins where wallets and such were stolen. Separately a couple of blocks away a friend had his new truck stolen from his driveway 2 nights ago.
I’m quite concerned about the spike in this activity, and am hopeful that cameras will act as a deterrent as well as assisting in finding the individuals responsible. Again, I am requesting cameras specifically in the Cotton area of Valparaiso and Santa Cruz). Until then, I am sharing via neighborhood email lists about these robberies to make everyone aware.
Thank you in advance for your assistance
Please let me know if you would like to talk about details, I would be happy to share more about the experience on this street.
Regards,
Norman Harris
1111 Cotton Street
650-331-9339
