Watching Over

The city of San Diego has installed around 3,200 smart street lights and hopes to install 1,000 more in the near future. Before then, however, critics have asked that policy be reviewed and discussed regarding data collection and usage.

Sensors on the street lights collect audio and video footage as well as “pedestrian and vehicle movement, parking availability, temperature and humidity.” As of January, they have aided the San Diego police in the solving of nearly 250 crimes. Similar to what was seen with the Amazon’s home security system “Ring,” (see blog post here) there are clear advantages to having public video footage.

Nonetheless, some concerns that arose and are looking to be addressed through a proposed policy include: no public access to footage, no facial recognition or plate readers installed, no selling the data to third parties for profit, and regular oversight. These look to be reasonable guidelines which will prevent misuse.

“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching”- Thomas Jefferson