Children’s Health Defense (CHD) is suing the City of Los Angeles after the city failed to provide materials pertaining to LA’s “smart city” initiatives.
While some of the city’s departments released the documents, several major departments failed to do so, violating the California Public Records Act.
Those departments include the Information Technology Agency, Bureau of Street Lighting, LA World Airports, Bureau of Street Services, Bureau of Engineering, and the LA Police Department.
“What the City of Los Angeles wants to do is [build] a full-scale smart city, and all of this is laid out in the strategy documents,” said attorney Gregory Glaser to The Defender.
Most of the information behind the “smart city” remains unknown.
As little is known about the endeavor, LA residents have raised concerns that smart city technology may violate their rights.
The Bureau of Street Lighting previously allowed telecom companies to use light poles as mounting sites for private 5G systems, infringing citizens’ Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizures and surveillance.
Reporting from The Defender:
The city is currently beta testing capabilities on these ["Smart Lightning Netword"] nodes that include a wide range of functions, from surveillance cameras to deter crime, to small cell 5G, to digital banners that provide real-time public information. The city has also reported attaching gunshot sensors to streetlights to “wirelessly detect gunshots and other noises.” Glaser said he found this deeply concerning because, “First, ‘other noises’ includes conversations. Second, ‘streetlights’ use the word ‘street’ to imply they are limited to public streets, but in reality the streetlights can monitor a radius that includes people’s private homes."
