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Good morning, San Diego ☀️
Here’s what we have for you today:
- A first-time winner will hoist the World Series trophy this year. San Diego is still waiting for its turn.
- The Mission Beach Women’s Club is celebrating its centennial in November.
- And shoutout to reader Erica Vasquez, who was first to correctly guess the answer to yesterday’s news quiz. The answer “Perry’s” was taken from this article.
Andrew Keatts
General manager and editor
Top story
San Diego police will no longer use “other” as reason for searching the city’s license plate readers
The San Diego Police Department said it will no longer let officers list “other” as the reason for searching the automated license plate reader system.
As Times of San Diego reported in September, SDPD this year began publicly disclosing why officers searched the database of 500 ALPR cameras around the city. Stolen cars, arrest warrants and gun offenses were the most common reasons. But of the nearly 115,000 searches, officers generically listed “other” as their reason nearly 4,000 times.
On Wednesday — during a hearing in which a City Council committee voted to draft an ordinance to end the city’s contract with ALPR operator Flock Safety — an SDPD spokesperson responded to criticism from Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera by announcing the department would end the option for officers to list “other” as the reason for their search.
After the hearing, Mayor Todd Gloria issued a statement criticizing the committee’s decision.
“Automated License Plate Readers are helping San Diego police solve serious crimes, recover stolen vehicles and property, and locate missing people,” Gloria said. “Taking this proven tool away from our officers would be a serious mistake and a step backward for public safety.”
Once written, the ordinance to end the Flock contract will need a vote from the full City Council. The Council now has a majority in favor of ending the contract, after Councilmember Stephen Whitburn announced he had changed his stance. But if Gloria decides to veto the decision, the Council will need a supermajority to end the contract.
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Stories you should know about
📚 Grossmont to bring back librarians next school year, ending labor complaint: The decision comes a year after the board voted to eliminate some student-facing positions, and led the district’s teachers union to file a complaint with a state labor board.
🩰 City Ballet caps its yearlong celebration of the country’s 250th birthday with ‘American Icons’: The program includes works from three master composers who shaped ballet in America, rather than borrow from Europe.
🤳 ‘That sounds like bad news’: How Mayor Gloria’s team reacted to the news of its big trash fee error: We obtained text messages between city officials on the day they had discharged thousands of residents for trash pickup.
What else we’re reading
🏡 Home sales are slowing across San Diego — and California. (NBC 7)
🍔 The Savannah Bananas are coming back to Petco Park, if you like that sort of thing. (Axios San Diego)
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