Today’s newsletter is presented by Kaiser Permanente.
Hello, Navajo and College Area!
Whenever I cover San Diego’s Automated License Plate Readers, I always think of the Tom Cruise movie, Minority Report. Unfortunately, whenever I think of that Tom Cruise movie, I immediately think of the part where Cruise’s character has to replace his eyeballs with someone else’s to avoid retinal scans.
I then get the chills because I don’t like anything eyeball-related.
Once the chills dissipate, I immediately get taken back to the time I interviewed a woman who pulled her eyeball out during a mental break. During our interview, she offered to show me her glass eye…here come the goosebumps again.
So, needless to say, over the past few weeks I have thought a lot about Minority Report as my colleague, Tessa Balc, and I have covered the city’s automated license plate reader program.Â
On Wednesday, a city council committee voted to end the surveillance program. And while the full city council will have the final say, it made me wonder how many cameras are in the Navajo and College Area and what the community thinks of the technology.
According to the city, there are 27 cameras spread throughout Navajo and the College Area – a small fraction compared to what my colleague Tessa found in Downtown and Southeastern San Diego.
The vast majority of the cameras are affixed to light poles in College Area, with 15 total. Grantville has seven cameras, San Carlos and Lake Murray have a total of four, while Del Cerro does not have any.
Over the years of covering ALPRs and other surveillance tools, I have heard some of the same objections and praise for the tools. Some say the cameras, and importantly the data they collect, are an invasion of privacy and open the door for misuse and profiling. Others say they help solve crimes, and so what if they catch someone on a trip to the grocery store if they have nothing to hide?Â
I want to hear from you. Where do Navajo and College Area residents stand on the issue?
Dorian Hargrove
Mission Times newsletter host
Navajo, College Area story spotlight
Aztecs, snakebit during inaugural Pac-12 season, try to overcome poor play and a contagion to draw fans back to Snapdragon
By Mark Nero • Times of San Diego
SDSU, at 2-4, welcomes rival Fresno State Saturday, after suffering a 52-point blowout by Oregon State. It’s not the Pac-12 debut the Aztecs had hoped for.
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