Lies, Damned Lies and Smart Street Lights

When you Google "San Diego Grand Jury Smart Street Lights" the following appears at the top of the displayed list:

In the Grand Jury's investigation, no objective data was presented that the use of Smart Streetlights by the San Diego Police Department presents any abuse of privacy issues. The Smart Streetlight technology is non-discriminatory.

Lies are sometimes omissions. Most people know that technology is usually non-discriminatory, but that the application of technology can be discriminatory and often is. I suppose that is why the people who made the above sentence available did not bother to tell us, the Googlers, that around 80% of the supposedly smart things were placed where the populations are predominantly Black or Brown people. The San Diego DA's position is also telling; that office speaks about everything except about where the Smart Street Lights have been placed, i.e. the ethnic composition, of the neighbourhoods, and of those who were prosecuted using the technology: Lies, damned lies and omissions.

Indeed, we have an analogous situation with respect to the use of Body-worn cameras. The SDPD manages not to activate them, disproportionately, when they are in encounters with Black and Brown people. In that instance, we have an incurious group of City Auditors with olfactory handicaps examining why it is so. It is strange how that always happens.

When Smart Street Lights were first proposed and introduced, almost nothing was disclosed about their police use. However, deeply embedded in their promotion was a reference to "public safety", the catchall.

This is how they, the City Officials said it:

City officials announced a partnership between the City of San Diego and General Electric (GE) that will upgrade streetlights to reduce energy costs by 60 percent as well as transform them into a connected digital network that can optimize parking and traffic, enhance public safety and track air quality.

The deployment of 3,200 smart sensors will be the largest city-based deployment of an “Internet of Things” platform in the world. The nodes can use real-time anonymous sensor data to do things such as direct drivers to open parking spaces, help first responders during emergencies, track carbon emissions and identify intersections that can be improved for pedestrians and cyclists.

Additionally, the City will be replacing 14,000 streetlights with more energy efficient versions, which will reduce energy costs by $2.4 million annually. These streetlights include technology that allows for dimming and brightening in public venues manually or automatically, depending on natural light conditions.

When the feces made contact with the oscillator, the "inglorious incurious"; as I came to call the members of the city council (because of it) claimed that police use, a/k/a the enhancement of public safety use, was not disclosed to them. Of course, they did not ask, despite the common knowledge of the tight-lippiness of the SDPD.

Now, in response to Grand Jury findings, the city is fabricating wild stories intended as responses that are meant for presentation to the Superior Court. These wild stories, the propagation of, some of, which are being overruled by wiser heads; stories like these pictures show:

Of course, there has been no dramatic rise in crime in the City of San Diego, and this Finding 3, found in someone's nether region, appears to have been quashed. But wiser heads are not necessarily honest heads, so the fact that the bastards had the audacity to craft the putrid tripe should be cause for pause.

I have paused, because wiser heads are often overruled, especially by the other types.