A lawsuit alleges that surveillance technology was utilized at high-profile city events in violation of the approval process required by a San Diego city ordinance.
The complaint, filed Monday in San Diego Superior Court, says surveillance technology was deployed at Comic-Con and the Pride Parade without those uses going through the public review and approval process required by the Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology ordinance, or TRUST.
City residents Seth Hall, Lilly Irani and Mat Wahlstrom are the plaintiffs.
Representatives with the city did not immediately respond for comment on the lawsuit, which alleges that Hall, Irani and Wahlstrom have been “subjected to the use of surveillance technology at one or more locations that were not disclosed in a Surveillance Use Policy approved by the San Diego City Council prior to the commencement of the use.”
Just before this summer’s San Diego Pride Parade and Pride Festival, San Diego police announced the installations of additional “Smart Streetlight” cameras with automated license plate recognition technology at various Hillcrest locations as a safety measure amid a rise in hate crimes.
Privacy advocates criticized the plan, saying the police department was invoking the “exigent circumstances” section of the TRUST ordinance in order to avoid the standard approval process. In a statement, the advocacy groups said the police ” lack justification to claim that this recurring event is an emergency that justifies an unauthorized expansion of surveillance streetlights.”
The use of Smart Streetlights in San Diego has sparked debate after what was initially billed as a traffic management tool was later publicly revealed to involve camera technology utilized by police. The camera network was shut down amid the ensuing uproar, but was revived last year with City Council approval.
SDPD began deploying cameras to 500 locations last December, though infrastructure issues such as power problems or objects blocking the view prevented installations at 42 locations, according to police.
Earlier this year, Mayor Todd Gloria’s office issued a public statement that claimed Smart Streetlights and license plate readers were instrumental in solving more than 200 criminal cases this year, including an incident in which a man allegedly attempted to kidnap two children from a Mission Valley mall. Gloria called the cameras “essential tools for our police officers.”
