Full Notification

On Friday, July 10, 2020, at approximately 9:04 PM, the Sausalito Police Department received an alert from our License Plate Recognition Cameras of a Ford pickup truck with a stolen license plate on it entering Sausalito from Monte Mar Ave. The license plate had been stolen out of San Francisco on Friday, July 3, 2020.

Sausalito Police Officers immediately responded and conducted a comprehensive search of the area. Officers located a 2019 Ford F150 pickup truck with the stolen plate on it at approximately 9:16 PM and affected a traffic stop in the 100 block of Harbor Drive. Officers removed and detained the two occupants of the Ford, Christopher Backstrom (40-year-old resident of San Francisco) and Mark Hill (41-year-old resident of Avenal).

While conducting their investigation, Officers determined that the license plate had been stolen from another Ford pickup truck. Officers performed a wants/warrants check on the 2019 Ford F150’s Vehicle Identification Number and discovered that it had been stolen from the San Francisco International Airport on Thursday, July 9, 2020. Inside the Ford, Officers located equipment commonly used to commit burglaries. A records check revealed that Hill is on probation out of San Francisco County for vehicle theft and possession of narcotics for sale. Hill and Backstrom were arrested for possession of the stolen vehicle and possession of burglary tools and booked into the Marin County Jail.

Since the City of Sausalito’s License Plate Recognition Camera program became operational on Thursday, May 18, 2017, thirty-four (34) stolen vehicles have been recovered and forty (40) individuals have been arrested for various crimes. The goal of the License Plate Recognition Camera program is to increase public safety by utilizing technology to alert Law Enforcement to wanted vehicles, enhance post-crime investigative abilities, and deter crime by increasing the likelihood of suspect identification.