SJPD arrest man for alleged sexual battery, pulling 15-year-old girl into car
SJPD arrest man for alleged sexual battery, pulling 15-year-old girl into car
San Jose police say a man is in custody on suspicion of sexual battery after allegedly targeting a 15-year-old high school student as she walked to school.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - San Jose police say a man is in custody on suspicion of sexual battery and kidnapping after targeting a 15-year-old high school student as she walked to school.
Police say the incident happened early Wednesday morning. Authorities did not disclose which high school the girl attends but said their investigators in the downtown area continue to gather evidence for their investigation.
San Jose teen approached by man
What we know:
According to police, the teenager was approached by a man who pulled her into his vehicle and sexually battered her. The legal term for sexual battery means unwanted touching of someone's intimate body parts.
The girl reported the incident to school officials.
Suspect located with help of license plate reader data
Dig deeper:
Investigators said they used license plate reader data and a police helicopter to locate the suspect’s vehicle and arrest the man.
The city of San Jose finished installing its network of 500 license plate reader cameras across the city late last year.
But San Jose and many Bay Area cities have faced questions in recent months about whether the data they collect from those cameras may end up being accessed by federal law enforcement for immigration purposes.
At a news conference this morning, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan expressed sympathy for the victim and gratitude to officers and the city’s license plate reader technology.
Mahan said of license plate readers, "They have been an incredibly powerful tool, [and] one of the big reasons we've had a 15 percent drop in crime."
In response to questions about privacy and security concerns regarding federal agencies accessing the cameras' data, the mayor said: "We put in place very strict data controls... we don't share with third parties. There's no facial recognition. Just the plate at any given time. We have no data that shows we shared any of our camera data with immigration enforcement."
In an email to KTVU, San Jose police said, "The use of technology helped turn what could have been a lengthy investigation into a six-hour resolution, ensuring no additional children were harmed. Without these tools, investigators may have spent days or even months tracking down surveillance footage, witnesses, and other leads, potentially placing others at risk."