The city’s newly established Privacy Advisory Board voted last week to create an ad hoc committee to gather more research and public comment on the San Diego Police Department’s proposal to install hundreds of smart streetlights and automatic license plate readers across the city.
The purpose of the committee will be to ensure the board has more community input before its members decide whether to recommend the proposal to the City Council.
Thursday’s meeting was the second since the board first met in March. The eight members of the advisory board were appointed by Mayor Todd Gloria in 2022.
During the meeting, representatives from the Police Department presented the Smart Streetlights Impact Report, which included information on the purpose of the technology, where it would be located, how much it would cost and how the data collected would be safeguarded.
San Diego has had cameras tucked into streetlights before, but once the public found out, an outcry led the city to shut down all access in 2020. The city later passed a surveillance ordinance and created the Privacy Advisory Board to evaluate surveillance tech the city has or wants to buy.
Police hailed the cameras as an investigative tool and want to use them again. They are asking to install or upgrade cameras and license plate readers at 500 locations throughout the city.
San Diego Police Lt. Adam Sharki told the board during the presentation that the new technology would allow police to capture license plate numbers in search of stolen or wanted vehicles.
The cameras would also constantly record, allowing police to use video evidence in violent crime investigations, Sharki said.
The data would be stored in a secure area with access restricted to authorized investigators, Sharki said.
Police presented the plan last month during nine community meetings, where some raised concerns over privacy, racial bias and data collection and storage. Others supported the proposal.
After Sharki’s presentation at City Hall on Thursday, the board members asked questions about the program and some of them echoed the public speakers’ privacy concerns. Board Chair Ike Anyanetu said the board should use the coming months to make a decision and get more opinions on the program.
Some board members, whose specialties vary from technology to privacy to legal scholarship, questioned the constitutionality of such a program, how the data would be stored and what plans might be in store for a technology that has these capabilities, such as facial recognition.
Many of the attendees at Thursday’s meeting said that they did not trust police with the technology and that it was an invasion of privacy.
Sharki told the board that the technology would not be used for facial recognition, gunshot detection or traffic enforcement. If technological improvements or policies regarding the cameras change in the future, police will need to return to the public for comment.
The recordings and images would be secured with 256-bit, end-to-end encryption — methods used to keep data secure, said Capt. Jeff Jordon during one of the community meetings. A time limit would be set on how long the city can store data, unless it is being used in an active investigation, he added.
The city approved ordinances last year that set rules governing surveillance technology. If ultimately approved by the City Council, it would cost about $4 million to install 500 smart streetlights from Carmel Mountain Ranch to San Ysidro.
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