An appellate panel on Thursday denied a request by a convicted murderer regarding the use of footage from San Diego’s “smart streetlights” during his prosecution.
A jury found Kevin Eugene Cartwright, 56, guilty of first-degree murder for the Oct. 10, 2018, shooting death of Ghedeer “Tony” Radda, 49, at the victim’s G Street store, Bottom Price Flooring.
Cartwright in 2022 received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 70 years and four months.
Much of the evidence utilized by the prosecution stemmed from footage that captured Cartwright and his co-defendant entering the store, then departing the business after the shooting.
Cartwright’s defense attorney sought to suppress the footage. On appeal, Cartwright alleged that police “conducted a warrantless search” by accessing the camera footage, thus violating his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures.
But the 4th District Court of Appeal wrote in a Thursday opinion that “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’s appeal cited two cases in which police used cell-site location data and aerial photographs to track suspects’ movements, both of which were ruled unconstitutional.
But the appellate panel disagreed with comparing those cases to Cartwright’s, as those cases involved information that carried a much higher expectation of privacy, according to the opinion.
In contrast, the panel wrote, San Diego’s cameras capture “information voluntarily conveyed to anyone in a public space who cares to look – something any police officer could have done without a warrant.”
The police department’s usage of the streetlight cameras has been controversial, with privacy advocates and social justice activists railing against the installation of thousands of such cameras throughout the city.
Following a public outcry, the camera network was turned off until city leaders could craft a surveillance ordinance governing the use of the technology.
Last year, the San Diego City Council approved a proposal to install 500 smart streetlight cameras with license plate reader technology.
– City News Service