San Diego's Smart Camera & License Plate Recognition Five-Year Journey

Once Completed San Diego Becomes the Largest Smart Streetlights & LPR Single Network in the Country

And it took a Murder Conviction of a Retail Store Owner Being Upheld in Appellate Court Over Smart Streetlights & the Expectation of Privacy

In the first two months the Technology is Already "Making Our City Safer" & Setting Legal Precedence

San Diego PD's Network of Smart Streetlights Already Seeing Success

San Diego police officials have called its growing network of streelights equipped with cameras and license plate readers a force multiplier, and the technology has already helped crack cases.

San Diego police officials said more than 100 smart streetlights have been turned on since the surveillance network got final approval late last year, and the technology is already making a difference in cases.

The department first proposed the controversial network — made up of 500 cameras, all of them equipped with automated license plate reader technology — in March. Once installed, San Diego would become the largest in the country to use cameras and plate readers as part of a single network, San Diego police officials have said.

"Instead of casting a large net based on sometimes vague descriptions, the Smart Streetlights cameras and (license plate reader) system now allow us to be laser focused and apprehend suspects event faster," Police Chief David Nisleit said in a statement. "This investment is precision, intelligence-led policing at its finest and will deliver results."

And they've already helped crack cases, the department said Friday. Police officials said the network has been used to investigate more than 20 cases, including burglaries, robberies, stolen vehicles and four homicides.

"Having our Smart Streetlight and (license plate reader) technology is already making our city safer, with examples just in the first two months of operating that show their ability to help police locate and apprehend dangerous suspects more efficiently and with greater certainty," Mayor Todd Gloria said in a statement.   officer.com

The network, which will cost the city nearly $12 million over the next five years, prompted fierce pushback from community members before the City Council gave its seal of approval. Critics contended the cameras would be invasive, the policies governing the technology's use don't do enough to safeguard privacy, and funding for the project would be better spent on other public safety initiatives.

San Diego will spend about $3.5 million in fiscal 2024 on hardware, software, connectivity, installation and maintenance and $100,000 to replace the LED lights. The network will cost about $2 million annually over the remaining four fiscal years.

Privacy advocates have also argued that most of the data collected by automated license plate readers — information that has the potential to reveal where people shop, worship or protest — doesn't assist in crime fighting. In the last 30 days, San Diego's system has scanned nearly 1.2 million unique license plates, police officials said.

About a tenth of 1 percent of those scans — 1,457 — activated a crime alert.

Department officials have stressed safeguards are in place to ensure the technology is used in a way that protects people's rights and privacy. The cameras will be in public places where there is no expectation of privacy, and before one is turned on, the department's special projects and legislative affairs unit individually reviews the camera's viewpoint to digitally mask private property.

The cameras are not monitored in real time; instead, investigators will access the network after serious crimes or incidents occur, police have said. Videos captured by the streetlights are deleted after 13 days and license plate data is deleted after 30 days, unless the information is being used in an active investigation.

Officers and investigators must be trained before they can log into the system — so far 1,030 have done so — and a case number is created whenever someone accesses it so the agency can monitor how the technology is being used.

Per policy, the department does not share data with other law enforcement agencies, in part because it would be difficult to ensure other departments adhere to the same privacy guidelines San Diego set up for its data, such as how long data can be retained.

The network is expected to be fully operational by June.

This is the second time in recent years that City Council members have approved a network of smart streetlights.

In 2016, council members signed off on a $30 million project that pledged to use energy-saving smart streetlights to assess traffic and parking patterns throughout the city. What the public didn't know — and wouldn't know for years — was that the technology came with cameras that could be accessed by police.

The resulting outcry — based on concerns about privacy and equity — led San Diego to shut down the network and fueled the creation of a surveillance ordinance that governs the use of smart streetlights and similar technologies.

Before losing access to the technology, police had used footage from the smart streetlights to investigate hundreds of cases, including 56 homicides or attempted homicides, 55 robberies or burglaries and 55 assaults involving a weapon.

Tested by the Appellate Court & Setting Case Precedence

Last month, a state appellate court upheld a murder conviction in a 2019 case solved by using information gleaned from streetlight cameras, finding that the defendant did not have an expectation of privacy as he moved about on a downtown San Diego street. That case was among the first times that San Diego police investigators had accessed the streetlight camera footage.   officer.com

San Diego Union Tribune
Jan. 31, 2024

Murder Conviction of Retail Store Owner Upheld in Appellate Court
Police use of 'streetlight cameras' tech. did not Violate Fourth Amendment

Appeals court upholds use of San Diego’s Smart Streetlight Cameras in murder conviction

Court finds convicted gunman did not have reasonable expectation of privacy on downtown San Diego street

The case, the 2019 slaying of a business owner gunned down during a robbery, was also among the first times that San Diego police had used footage from streetlight cameras in an investigation. Police gleaned the license plate of the suspected killer, a man who wore a Halloween mask with the face of an elderly woman.

The unanimous ruling from the 4th District Court of Appeals on Friday found that police did not conduct a “search” or violate the Fourth Amendment in accessing the streetlight footage.

The ruling is the first in California to address whether police use of the streetlight cameras violates privacy rights. The appellate panel published the short ruling — barely nine pages — so that it could be used as guidance in other cases.

The court found that defendant Kevin Cartwright “did not have an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy when he traversed a public right of way in downtown San Diego in the middle of a business day.”

Cartwright was convicted in San Diego Superior Court in the death of Ghedeer Tony Radda, 49, the owner of Bottom Price Flooring on G Street.

San Diego’s use of streetlight cameras erupted into controversy after the public learned in 2020 the city had installed 3,000 of them around the city two years earlier. The idea behind the cameras was to collect data to monitor parking and traffic patterns.

Police first learned of the cameras in 2019 and started accessing them on a limited basis to solve crimes. The investigation into Radda’s slaying was the 10th time San Diego police had used the cameras.

Critics blasted the existence of the massive camera system as an invasion of privacy and also raised racial equity concerns. The uproar led then-Mayor Kevin Faulconer to shut down camera access until the city passed an ordinance covering the cameras and all other surveillance by police. That ordinance took years to craft. It passed, but it remains a controversial work-in-progress.

With the ordinance in place, the city is bringing back the streetlight cameras — just a few at a time, with an eye toward a network of 500 of them.

In 2022, a jury convicted Cartwright of murder and other crimes, and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Cartwright appealed, arguing that using the footage amounted to a warrantless search by police in violation of the Fourth Amendment protection against improper search and seizure.

Security footage helped police identify their suspect as a man in a mask — an elderly woman’s face with gray curly hair — accompanied by a woman in a long purple wig. They had arrived together in a gold Yukon SUV.

In its ruling, the appellate court found that when Cartwright drove downtown and parked, the vehicle’s movement and location were visible to anyone, and he could not assert an expectation of privacy.

The panel also noted that the images obtained from the streetlight cameras were “remarkably similar” to images caught in private security cameras behind another store in the area.

“We note this to demonstrate that Cartwright could not maintain an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in the downtown, urban public spaces when any number of private businesses may have maintained similar cameras that capture similar images,” the court wrote.

In rejecting Cartwright’s case, the appellate panel said his case differed from a U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court found that police use of cell-site location data — obtained without a warrant — to reconstruct a suspect’s movements invaded an expectation of privacy.

The appeal court also said the local case differed from a Baltimore case in which police conducted aerial surveillance and combined it with traditional surveillance data to track a person’s movement retroactively.

Baltimore police used software to integrate the surveillance images and data. But in San Diego, the court said, the city’s camera program stands alone and captures information “voluntarily conveyed to anyone in a public space who cares to look — something any police officer could have done without a warrant."  sandiegouniontribune.com

San Diego Police Department
Press Release
Friday, Feb. 23, 2024

Since Early January, Smart Streetlight & ALPR Info Has Assisted in 22 Major Crimes & 11 Suspects in Custody

Smart Streetlight, License Plate Recognition Technologies Advancing Investigations

OVER 100 CAMERAS OPERATIONAL SO FAR HAVE AIDED POLICE IN KEEPING SAN DIEGO SAFE

San Diego – Following final City Council approval in November, the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) has begun installing and using Smart Streetlight cameras and Automated License Plate Recognition
(ALPR) technologies, and they have already assisted in solving crimes.

SDPD’s five-year agreement with Ubicquia Inc., paired with Flock Safety’s ALPR technology, included the installation and maintenance of an initial 500 locations citywide. Since late December, over 100 of the 500
cameras have been installed, with new installations occurring almost daily.

The San Diego Police Department already produces clearance rates for solving crimes above the national average. Instead of casting a large net based on sometimes vague descriptions, the Smart Streetlight cameras and ALPR system now allow officers to be laser-focused on who committed the crime. This investment is precision, intelligence-led policing at its finest and will deliver results,” Police Chief David Nisleit said.

The cameras and ALPR can only operate in conjunction with an LED streetlight. If an LED streetlight is already in place, the technology can be easily connected to the streetlight without modification. If a
designated location is not LED-equipped, SDPD works collaboratively with the City’s Transportation Department to replace it with an LED light. Installation of all 500 cameras is anticipated by June, weather
and other infrastructure issues permitting.

“We’re honored to partner with the City of San Diego and Ubicquia on this groundbreaking deployment of public safety technology,” said Garrett Langley, CEO and Founder of Flock Safety. “Every city is different, but all need public safety solutions that align with the character and citizens of their community. This new method of positioning LPR and video security technology through the UbiHub streetlight technology shows that Flock Safety is committed to constant innovation to serve every community.

We are honored to work with the San Diego Police Department. We have been impressed by the City’s consultation process and SDPD’s commitment to protecting and serving the citizens of San
Diego amid staffing shortages. They have shown that video provides an effective investigation aid that has helped solve murders, robberies and assault cases. We are delighted to be a part of this
initiative that will make San Diego safer,” said Stephen Patak, Chief Revenue Officer for Ubicquia.

PRIVACY SAFEGUARDS

Once the cameras are installed, SDPD’s Special Projects and Legislative Affairs Unit (SPLA) individually reviews each camera’s viewpoint to digitally mask private property, so it is not recorded by the cameras
before they are fully operational. The department is working to provide various training opportunities to officers and investigators to ensure they understand the responsibilities of access to the system.

Safeguards in place for the system include:

• Officers and investigators must take the required training before access is granted.
• A case or event number is listed when searching the system. The SPLA Unit is constantly auditing the system to ensure compliance.
• Video captured by the streetlight cameras is deleted after 13 days, and ALPR data is deleted after 30 days. Streetlight camera video and ALPR data are only maintained if they are being used in an investigation.
• The “hotlist” ability for officers or investigators to enter license plates suspected of or associated with a crime can only be entered by members of the SPLA Unit and only remain on the “hotlist” for 72 hours.

SDPD has taken steps to better inform the public about the new technologies, including publishing use policies and other related materials in accordance with the Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology Ordinance to its technology website; creating a searchable map of locations of the streetlight and ALPR cameras; and collaborating with Flock Safety to create a “transparency portal” on the ALPR data being collected.

EARLY SUCCESS STORIES
Since early January, Smart Streetlight and ALPR information has assisted SDPD officers and investigators with more than 22 homicide, robbery, burglary, assault and stolen vehicle investigations. 12 stolen vehicles so far have been recovered, with 11 suspects in custody from these investigations.  sandiego.gov