Tesla’s Sentry Mode, designed to protect against theft and vandalism. But the feature is now being used in a different way, where police departments are seizing Teslas parked near crime scenes in order to access footage that may have been captured by Sentry Mode.
Imagine being on vacation, only to find your car hooked up to a tow truck by the police. This is exactly what recently happened to a Canadian tourist from Calgary visiting Oakland, California.
The ordeal began when the owner parked his car at the La Quinta Inn, a hotel near Oakland International Airport. Unbeknownst to him, a violent incident had occurred nearby involving a man who was later found dead from gunshot and stab wounds. When the Oakland police arrived on the scene, they noticed the Tesla parked nearby and immediately recognized the potential of its Sentry Mode to have recorded the crime.
Without being able to locate the owner, the officers filed a search warrant to tow the Tesla to a secure location where they could extract any footage that might be stored on the car’s USB drive.
This action was taken without the owner’s knowledge or consent, purely based on the possibility that the car’s cameras might have captured evidence critical to the investigation.
“I know that Tesla vehicles contain external surveillance cameras in order to protect their drivers from theft and/or liability in accidents. Based on this information, I respectfully request that a warrant is authorized to seize this vehicle from the La Quinta Inn parking lot so this vehicle’s surveillance footage may be searched via an additional search warrant at a secure location,” officer Kevin Godchaux wrote in the search warrant affidavit. (via San Francisco Chronicle)
Fortunately for the owner, he returned to his car just in time to see it being prepared for towing. When he offered to provide the footage voluntarily, the police released his vehicle, avoiding what could have been a lengthy and frustrating ordeal, especially if he was planning on leaving town soon.
This case is not an isolated one. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland police and other law enforcement agencies in California have increasingly begun to target Teslas parked near crime scenes, citing several recent cases where Teslas were towed for possible evidence captured by the onboard cameras.
