hayden.ai

“Hayden AI’s platform provides cities with the ability to automate the gathering of real-time data using advanced computer vision and artificial intelligence to create a Digital Twin and knowledge graph of a city’s streets and curbs and the events that take place there,” per an April 21, 2021, profile on the website of Bootstrap Labs.

Spy cams for free?

San Diego cops installed a sweeping network of streetlight video spy cams with little public awareness until we initially broke the story here on February 20, 2019. The resultant political pushback, along with a raft of technical breakdowns, eventually led to the program’s demise, but the police department is now back for another turn at bat. But this time, the city’s surveillance disclosure law, passed in response to the first controversial installation, will require more public notice.

Key San Diego cops are currently being dispatched to sell the installation of 500 video cameras and license plate readers with a fresh high-crime spin. “The technology with smart streetlights, particularly when we had them in the past, was a game changer as far as solving violent crime throughout the city,” SDPD Captain Jeff Jordon told KGTV news on March 6. “We’ve reached some pretty low staffing levels. Some of the lowest that we’ve (been) seeing in the last 15 years. We look at technology as one way of being a force multiplier. We can’t be everywhere at once.”

Jeff Jordon: there are not enough cops, so bring on the spy cams!

But the city’s costly former spy cam network, installed by General Electric and surveillance tech provider Genetec, wasn’t glitch-free, as set forth in an internal email sent by Jordon to police higher-ups and later obtained under the state’s Public Records act “Since the January 28 training, I have been in constant contact with GE and Genetec regarding requests for evidence via the Intelligent Streetlight program,” says the February 25, 2019 missive from then-Lieutenant Jordon to department higher-ups.

“In some cases, the requests are being met with a ‘failure’ or ‘pending’ response. There are many reasons for this occurrence, which I will describe at a later date. For now, if the response following a request says ‘failure,’ it is unlikely we will be able to get video from that optical node. We have identified about 300 nodes that are not currently functioning, and we are in the process of developing corrective action that will bring them on-line.”

If the city council ultimately chooses to ante up enough taxpayer scratch, there are plenty of surveillance start-ups eager to sell them pricey new replacement schemes. Among them is homegrown Hayden AI, co-founded by Michael Byrne, a San Diego State University alumnus. “Hayden AI’s platform provides cities with the ability to automate the gathering of real-time data using advanced computer vision and artificial intelligence to create a Digital Twin and knowledge graph of a city’s streets and curbs and the events that take place there,” per an April 21, 2021, profile on the website of Bootstrap Labs.

Hayden has been out raising venture capital, and a March 1 write-up on the website of Alumni Ventures, which describes itself as “America’s largest venture firm for individual investors,” sings the company’s praises. “Ultimately, our goal is to focus on police cars and find ways to improve policing in a way that benefits both society and the police,” Chris Carson, another Hayden co-founder and the firm’s CEO, says in an interview. “I don’t think people sign up to become police officers to write tickets and monitor traffic. I look at the current system and think, ‘How ’80s.’ Somebody actually has to pull you over and handwrite a ticket? The inefficiency just doesn’t make sense to me. Instead, let’s put devices in government fleet vehicles and automate the entire process.”

How much this new world of intensive electronic surveillance would cost taxpayers has yet to be divulged. Hayden told Streetsblog.com that a proposal to employ cameras to catch drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses would “’be funded through fines and can be implemented without upfront costs to school districts or schools, making the tech essentially free to operate — at least as long as drivers keep breaking the law.”

Nathan and Toni’s fundraising adventures

Special interest money continues to arrive for county supervisor Nathan Fletcher’s 2024 campaign for state senate. The workers’ compensation lawyer’s advocacy group California Applicants Attorneys Association PAC gave $5500 on February 27. The CA-Nevada Conference of Operating Engineers PAC came up with the same on February 16. “As the largest construction trades local in North America, we are proud of our history, our skills and our commitment to each other and working families,” says the Operating Engineers Local 3 website. “Our members consist of heavy-equipment operators, surveyors, mechanics, inspectors, miners, Public Employees, state workers, and more.”

Nathan Fletcher: friend of the friends of the working man.

Meanwhile, California Works, otherwise known as the Senator Toni Atkins Ballot Measure Committee, picked up $40,000 on March 7 from the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America California Initiative Fund. The industry lobbying group, known as PhRMA, has faced heat from some members for failing to defeat Medicare drug-price regulations passed by Congress last year. As reported by Politico in December, North Chicago, Illinois-based AbbVie pulled out of PhRMA at the end of 2022.

“The decision comes as regulators begin to implement the drug-pricing provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that drugmakers spent millions in lobbying to defeat. It also comes as pharmaceutical lobbyists are doing some soul-searching about what went wrong in that fight, which ended in Medicare being allowed to negotiate prices for some drugs.” Said PhRMA spokesman Brian Newell in an email: “We can confirm that AbbVie has decided not to renew their membership with PhRMA in 2023. This does not change our focus on fighting for the solutions patients and our health care system need.”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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