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San Diego is fifth-most surveilled city in America, study says

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Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement San Diego is the fifth most-surveilled city in the country, according to a that looks at the prevalence of public surveillance cameras and other devices, such as license plate readers.San Diego trails behind Atlanta; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and San Francisco, in that order, said Comparitech, a British tech research company that recently compared the number of police-used surveillance cameras in major cities around the world with other crime rate, safety survey and population data.For every 1,000 San Diegans, the study says, there are nearly 2.5 public surveillance cameras, for a total of 3,600 devices.AdvertisementThat is likely an undercount, considering that San Diego police officials said they recently installed surveillance sensors on about half of a planned 8,000 “smart” street lights.Worldwide, China dominated all countries with eight of the top 10 most surveilled cities, Comparitech said.In the United States, San Diego has more cameras per 1,000 people than Boston, which had 2.23 cameras per 1,000 people, but fewer than San Francisco, which had 3.07 per 1,000. Washington D.C. had the third most at 5.61 cameras per 1,000 people.The study focused on public closed-circuit television (CCTV) — commonly known as video surveillance. That includes license plate readers, smart street lights and law enforcement’s body-worn cameras.Comparitech, which is internationally known and cited for cybersecurity research, also has kept an eye on facial recognition systems because of their increased use and controversy, said Comparitech researcher Paul Bischoff.Comparitech researchers focused its recent study mostly on fixed street cameras, not on police officer body cameras. Law enforcement’s use of body-worn devices has created its own controversy, experts say, because some people expect the cameras to help provide oversight of law enforcement.The study does not deal with private residential surveillance methods, such as Ring LLC, the Amazon-owned doorbell surveillance company. Ring has partnered with several local police departments in recent years.Bischoff said researchers got their data on the number of CCTV cameras in cities from police reports, press releases and news articles.While San Diego’s numbers haven’t reached the astronomical levels China’s has, the city’s surveillance network is growing rapidly in part because nearby tech companies want to market to their own region, Bischoff said.“There’s very little regulation around facial recognition, with CCTV surveillance,” Bischoff said. “We could reach a point where you can’t even walk outside in a major city without your location and identity being actively monitored, which is sort of a scary, Big Brother kind of prospect.”Bischoff said Comparitech did not extensively research any one city, beyond counting cameras and considering population.That’s where studies like Comparitech’s take surveillance data out of context, said San Diego Police Captain Jeffrey Jordon, who works on special projects in the police chief’s office.These studies do not take the frequency of a system’s use into consideration, he said. San Diego police don’t constantly watch live feeds from surveillance cameras like some major cities do, he said, and they don’t use license plate readers as much as some do.Jordon said it’s important to note how the surveillance data is being used.Surveillance technology, such as the Smart Streetlight Program, has helped San Diego police review 164 crimes since August 2018, Jordon said. Roughly 4,200 San Diego street lights have had surveillance sensors installed.“I can’t tell you whether crime is decreasing in areas we have them, but I can tell you they’re invaluable on the cases we’ve used them on,” Jordon said. “In 60 percent or so of the cases, they’ve either helped or been critical.”Jordon noted that these smart street lights have not implemented facial recognition technology; they capture video of what occurs on the street, similar to high-definition TV.Comparitech is not the only research team concerned about San Diego’s rapidly evolving web of mass surveillance., a study on border region surveillance published Wednesday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, provides an in-depth scope of surveillance methods employed in San Diego County and 22 other counties along the U.S.-Mexico border.EFF and University of Nevada journalism students spent a year on the project, reporting on the growing surveillance methods. From California to Texas they found 36 local government agencies using automated license plate readers, 45 outfitting law enforcement officers with body cameras and 20 government agencies flying drones, not counting the federal sensor towers and surveillance blimps also along the border.San Diego required the most work, because there were so many law enforcement agencies using surveillance; the EFF had 30 students working on the data in San Diego county, said EFF researcher Dave Maass.San Diego’s proximity to the Mexico border, its coastline and its military presence were all reasons why there is so much surveillance, Maass said.“We can’t just look at San Diego Police Department and assume that’s the extent of surveillance for the entire county,” Maass said.Bischoff and Maass shared similar concerns about facial recognition’s lack of oversight.The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) collects and analyzes data for regional planning purposes. Its board represents a group of government agencies and law enforcement departments.SANDAG oversees the Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS), a database system that contains crime information, mugshots and warrants—along with a myriad of other information, such as statistics and crime-solving tools— for the 80+ local, state and federal agencies.Facial recognition technology is one of those tools.Called TACIDS, for Tactical Identification System, it is frequently used by multiple police departments in the county. Officers use mobile devices to take photos of people and run it through the ARJIS database, which contains roughly 1.8 million booking photos, according to SANDAG.SANDAG policy says the primary uses including criminal identification, locating missing people, detecting fraudulant IDs.Among the SANDAG success stories was a case where San Diego Homeless Outreach team used it daily to connect homeless people with service providers.In another case, a police officer was able to identify an overdose victim to summon the victim’s family to a hospital emergency room.What public surveillance is supposed to be used for and how law enforcement actually uses it is a major concern, Maass said.On the one hand, Maass said, it is good that San Diego doesn’t live monitor all of its video feeds, but on the other hand, it’s troubling that there is little oversight of how video surveillance is handled.“They’re not just using it when they have probable cause or suspicion,” Maass said. “They’re using it on homeless people, they’re using it on people who are overdosing at the hospital. There’s not necessarily always a crime involved. I think that’s really worrisome.”Jordon said he continues to work to reduce public distrust of the surveillance technology used by the police department. The city has held 11 public meetings since June to explain the technology’s use and address citizen concerns. Get our essential investigative journalism Sign up for the weekly Watchdog newsletter for investigations, data journalism and more. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Show Comments Load More Advertisement Get our essential investigative journalism Sign up for the weekly Watchdog newsletter for investigations, data journalism and more. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Advertisement Advertisement STORY TIPS Blow the whistle Are San Diego County institutions, and people in positions of trust, living up to their duties, their promises, the law and the expectations of the public? 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Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement San Diego is the fifth most-surveilled city in the country, according to a that looks at the prevalence of public surveillance cameras and other devices, such as license plate readers.San Diego trails behind Atlanta; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and San Francisco, in that order, said Comparitech, a British tech research company that recently compared the number of police-used surveillance cameras in major cities around the world with other crime rate, safety survey and population data.For every 1,000 San Diegans, the...

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San Diego is fifth-most surveilled city in America, study says

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