Tesla cars are now used like CCTV cameras by Oakland police

Tesla’s Sentry Mode features that record what is happening around the electric cars have often been used to help solve crimes, but Oakland Police is going a step further.

After a wave of break-ins targeting Tesla vehicles in California in 2018-2019, Tesla came up with a new feature called ‘Sentry Mode’.

It takes advantage of the existing cameras around its vehicles, which were meant for Tesla’s self-driving features, and delivers a surveillance system that records what happens around the vehicles when parked.

There were several cases of vandals who keyed Tesla vehicles or broke windows that were caught thanks to Sentry Mode.

We reported on the case of Alan Tweedie’s Tesla Model 3 being keyed badly by a woman for seemingly no reason while he was at his daughter’s soccer game.

The Tesla Sentry mode video of her keying the car went viral and she ended up turning herself in.

The feature also helped solve crimes unrelated to the Tesla vehicles by simply recording things happening around the vehicles.

In general, the police will contact the Tesla owners and ask them to share the footage.

The SF Chronicles is now reporting that the Bay Area police is going a bit further than that and towing people’s Tesla vehicles in order to get the footage:

In Oakland and beyond, police called to crime scenes are increasingly looking for more than shell casings and fingerprints. They’re scanning for Teslas parked nearby, hoping their unique outward-facing cameras captured key evidence. And, the Chronicle has found, they’re even resorting to obtaining warrants to tow the cars to ensure they don’t lose the video.

In one example, they reported that a Canadian tourist had to plea with a police officer not to tow his Tesla to get the footage.

Sgt. Ben Therriault, president of the Richmond Police Officers Association, admits that getting a warrant and towing a vehicle might be a bit extreme, but they generally try to get the owner’s permission to get the footage first:

Therriault said he and other officers now frequently seek video from bystander Teslas, and usually get the owners’ consent to download it without having to serve a warrant. Still, he said, tows are sometimes necessary, if police can’t locate a Tesla owner and need the video “to pursue all leads.”

The report mentions three instances in the last two months where the police requested to tow Tesla vehicles in order to get the footage from them.

The police is basically using Tesla like they do CCTV cameras.