Skip to main content

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.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Even More Fatally Flawed And Still Unfit for Purpose or The Great Distraction

Subject: RIPA Advisory Board – More Fatally Flawed and Still Unfit for Purpose   I wanted to wait until I came into possession of the actual 2025 Annual RIPA Report, before writing this, but I found myself between a rock and a hard place. My strongest motivator was fear; fear of reading a newspaper or web-account of the RIPA results or seeing a TV Broadcast that is ruled by lies and/or happy talk. I remember last year too well.  I also feared that, as was the case with the reports from the last few years, the RIPA Report, to which the press has early or immediate access, would not become available to me for several days.  Because of that, I decided to write this.   “Racial Discrimination is an inference that may be drawn from Racial Disparities.” In the absence of other inferences, or plausible explanations, our choices become limited.   There is an abundance of racial disparities to be found in RIPA data. I am unaware of any adverse disparity that has...

Self-Inflicted Wounds are quite useful

April 6, 2014 Richard Hylton 13166 Jane Court San Diego, CA 92129 HyltonRichard@gmail.com By Email On the day that preceded the presentation of Vehicle Stop Data, by the SDPD, an email was circulated with this leading sentence. Update:   After reviewing the year-long   data   on race released by SDPD, there are major differences between what the   data   showed at 8 months versus at the end of 12 months. We don’t know why the numbers are so different (e.g. the number of stops per month fell significantly between January and December), but this underlines the need for a thorough, independent analysis of the   data   that can be communicated to the public. In light of this development, we have updated the ACLU’s comments below. The above was shocking and surprising, since it came from a writer who knew that a significant –some would say dramatic- fall-off in data collection rates had occurred in the fourth quarter. Evidence of the ...

Deception

Background The United States Department of Justice has an opinion and position that is at odds with that of the San Diego Police Department. It holds that: "The guarantee to all persons of equal protection under the law is one of the most fundamental principles of our democratic society. Law enforcement officers should not endorse or act upon stereotypes, attitudes, or beliefs that a person’s race, ethnicity, or national origin increases that person’s general propensity to act unlawfully. There is no tradeoff between effective law enforcement and protection of the civil rights of all Americans; we can and must have both." In 2011, during litigation, Vehicle Stop data for the prior two years was sought. The City of San Diego, in sworn and other statements or filings, denied having any Vehicle Stop Data and convinced the court of that fact. In January 2013 I learned that the City had committed perjury. Following that I obtained and distributed Vehicle Stop...