Experts say it's hard to identify when surveillance technology encroaches on a person's Fourth Amendment rights, but pervasiveness definitely plays a role
The department wants to add cameras equipped with license plate readers to 500 streetlights across the city; although the privacy advisory board rejected the proposal, the City Council could still approve itIn March, the San Diego Police Department proposed installing a network of cameras equipped with automatic license plate readers across the city — from Rancho Bernardo in the north to San Ysidro in the south.
License plate readers are used in several nearby cities, including Carlsbad and Chula Vista, but if San Diego’s camera network moves forward, the city would become the largest in the country to use cameras and plate readers as part of a single network, police officials have said. 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 would govern the use of smart streetlights and similar technologies.
When the Privacy Advisory Board voted last month to recommend that the City Council prevent the program from moving forward, board members said the department hadn’t provided enough information about various aspects of the plan, how data would be collected and safeguarded, who would have access to the information gathered, and how the effectiveness of the technology would be assessed.
“It’s a network of cameras that can look at people over space and time,” Martinez said. “And it is also able to record a level of detail that you wouldn’t normally have while viewing someone in public.”
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