Fremont, CA, police say a powerful new weapon to fight crime is working. With the help of private surveillance cameras, burglaries are down by 30 percent in Fremont. Now, city officials want to install high-def cameras and license plate readers to track criminals coming from out of town.

These new cameras may have helped police find the man who broke into a Fremont home after knocking a security camera down last Wednesday. The act was captured on video surveillance footage, but he managed to get away with the crime.

If the Fremont Police Department gets its way, these kinds of crooks would be captured on video one more time before leaving town.

“If we can get a witness who can give us a partial plate and we can check video at some of the major exit points of the city and try to find that vehicle we can often be successful within hours,” said Fremont Police Public Information Officer Geneva Bosques.

That’s why it’s asking the city council to approve a project that would put about a dozen hi-def cameras similar to these and license plate readers near the freeway, mostly along 880. It would cost $300,000 dollars.

Police say the cameras would only be used for investigative purposes and they would capture exactly what you would see driving behind a car.

When raising concerns over a violation of civil liberties, Bosques said there is no expectation of privacy when you’re driving a vehicle on a public street.