"Neighbors of a CVS in North Berkeley have complained that a dystopian security system is tripping for mere passersby and keeping them up at night. Credit: The Associated Press/Rogelio V. Solis If you live near the North Berkeley CVS, you may have heard the store's safety system this summer. One neighbor said she could hear it while walking her dog a block and a half away."
"At first the announcements were very loud and continued during the night, the neighbor whom the alarms woke from 500 feet away wrote to the council in March. Based on some of the announcements it appears to me the major reason for the installation of the system is to keep the homeless people who often camp out along the wall of the CVS from staying there."
Neighbors near the CVS at 1451 Shattuck Ave. reported motion-activated security systems broadcasting robotic voices and flashing lights that disturbed residents, waking some through sealed windows. The automated alarms aimed to deter thieves but alarmed passersby and left the area feeling dystopian and exhausted. Complaints prompted Councilmember Shoshana O'Keefe to draft a proposal to ban many motion-activated alarms, sending it to the Public Safety Policy Committee. The CVS location stopped using that particular system in August, and Berkeley's municipal code currently lacks explicit restrictions on similar installations.
Read at www.berkeleyside.org
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