Students call on City Council to set parameters for smart street light data use

SAN DIEGO — UC San Diego students are pushing back against the use of smart street lights in the San Diego area, joining a growing group of community members who have spoken out against the technology.

Student Alisha Saxena, chief of staff of local affairs for the university’s student government, addressed members of the San Diego City Council during a committee meeting last week.

“We’ve been following the issue of smart street lights and we’re baffled,” Saxena said. “We’re baffled by the lack of information which the public has received on this potentially far-reaching program, we’re baffled that members of this City Council, as reported by the Union-Tribune, were seemingly unaware of law enforcement’s access to this data — access which was not included in the original proposal, which the public approved.”

The street lights were approved several years ago and now exist in the thousands across the San Diego area. The smart street lights have the ability to capture video and audio, along with a wide range of other data.

Police began using footage from the smart street lights in recent years to identify and locate criminal suspects, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.