San Diego police chief increases use of surveillance cameras

(TNS) – San Diego’s new police chief is using his emergency powers to quickly install more surveillance cameras in Hillcrest amid rising hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community and ahead of the Pride Parade later this month.

The move drew swift criticism from privacy activists who have long feared abuse of the legal exception, and provoked mixed reactions from the LGBTQ+ community, with members expressing both support and concern.

Last year, the City Council approved the Police Department’s proposal to install 500 streetlight cameras with license plate readers at specific locations throughout San Diego. That project will cost about $12 million over the next five years. While the pre-approved locations included streetlights in Hillcrest, the locations currently being considered were not among them.

Since then, the department has installed 440 so-called smart streetlight cameras, which have been used in about 120 investigations, police officials said.

Several dozen cameras could not be installed due to various infrastructure issues, such as light poles lacking power or buildings blocking the cameras’ view. The dispute led to a new proposal that would give the department more flexibility in choosing locations for its cameras. However, it will take several more weeks for the City Council to approve that change.

San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl argued that the decision cannot be delayed, especially if the technology is available before Pride Week, which begins Saturday. The parade is scheduled for July 20.

At a press conference Monday morning at Rich’s San Diego, a gay nightclub in Hillcrest, Wahl, flanked by a handful of LGBTQ+ community members and business leaders, said he would use an emergency clause in the city’s surveillance ordinance – the law that governs the use of technology in San Diego – to expedite the installation of 14 cameras in Hillcrest without City Council approval.

According to a memo accompanying the decision, the cameras will be installed on six major streets: Goldfinch Street, Park Boulevard, Sixth Avenue, University Avenue, Washington Street and West Washington Street.

“If we want to ensure the highest level of security and protect our community, it is absolutely critical that we mobilize the necessary resources to put the unused cameras to good and productive use,” Wahl said.

The monitoring ordinance states that if city departments want to use a previously approved technology at a new location, the council must approve the change – unless there are exigent circumstances.

Exigent circumstances have been defined by California courts as “emergency situations requiring prompt action to avert an imminent threat to life or serious damage to property, or to prevent the imminent flight of a suspect or the destruction of evidence.” It is a legal exception that sometimes allows officers to gain entry without a warrant, conduct searches, and make seizures that are generally prohibited under the Fourth Amendment.

The city’s surveillance ordinance provides a similar definition, describing exigent circumstances as “emergency situations involving a threat of death or serious physical injury to a person, or an imminent threat of significant property damage, and requiring the use of surveillance technology. This determination will be made by city staff acting in good faith based on known facts.”

Wahl said the upcoming San Diego Pride Parade, a long-standing LGBTQ event that draws hundreds of thousands of attendees each year, as well as the nearly 75 percent increase in hate crimes between 2022 and 2023 – some of which were reported in Hillcrest – are the kind of emergency that would allow the department to bypass the usual procedure.

“I don’t want to use that in a laissez-faire sense,” Wahl said. “I think that’s a very unique situation and a circumstance that I don’t want to over-extend.”

According to statistics released in March, the number of reported hate crimes in San Diego increased from 38 in 2022 to 66 in 2023. Although most incidents were racially motivated, about 30 percent, or 21 incidents, were based on bias against a person’s sexual orientation. That’s a fivefold increase from the four incidents motivated by sexual orientation in 2022.

Wahl said Monday that no San Diego neighborhood has had more reported hate crimes in the past four years than Hillcrest. In a recent incident in May, suspects in a passing vehicle fired gel bullets at people outside four Hillcrest businesses. Several people were hit, including Eddie Reynoso, the publisher of the LGBTQ San Diego County News, who took a bullet to the eye and was critically injured. Reynoso stood next to Wahl on Monday to express his support for the additional cameras.

“No one should have to look over their shoulder while working or going out in the city,” Reynoso said. “No one should have to rush home fearing for their safety. … By supporting the completion of smart street lights, we are taking an important step toward reclaiming our streets and ensuring they are as safe as they are vibrant.”

Some civic leaders and legal experts disagreed with the police chief’s interpretation of the emergency exception.

“It sounds to me like these are legitimate concerns that the police need to change their existing surveillance system,” said Seth Hall, a member of TRUST SD, the consortium of citizen groups that helped draft the surveillance law. “But it doesn’t sound like an emergency to me. … Their concerns should be addressed as part of the normal oversight process. That’s what this process is for.”

The emergency circumstances clause included in the oversight regulation has long been a concern among advocates who helped draft the oversight law, Hall said. An early draft of the regulation did not even include the emergency clause, in part out of concern that it could be used to build tunnels under the regulation’s requirements.

Saira Hussain, senior counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, echoed this view, saying that case law has established the appropriate application of exigent circumstances, and that these include emergencies such as crimes where someone could be seriously injured.

“Situations where you think, ‘OK, we need to act quickly because this is unusual,'” she said. “And here the police are basically saying the existing process that the city council approved is taking too long, so we’re going to try to claim exigent circumstances. … It’s really just an abuse of exigent circumstances.”

Some LGBTQ+ organizers also disagreed. About a dozen people gathered outside Rich’s to protest Monday morning’s decision, but were denied access to the press conference.

“Using Pride as an emergency situation feels completely dishonest,” said Frances Yasmeen Motiwalla, a member of Activist San Diego. “Pride happens every year, it’s not a surprise, it’s nothing sudden.”

Although the department is not waiting for approval before installing the cameras, the City Council will have the opportunity to comment on the additional placements in late July. Wahl said if the City Council rejects the proposal, department officials will remove the newly installed cameras.

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