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What’s the Deal With: Those flashing blue light poles in Bellingham?

The 'mobile surveillance units' use AI to identify suspicious behavior

By Sophia Gates Staff Reporter

Flashing blue lights seem to signal caution, or perhaps the presence of first responders.

That’s on the right track. The lights mounted on poles around Bellingham are meant as a warning: The area is monitored. 

One of the LVT units in the Washington Federal Bank’s parking lot off Cornwall Avenue. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)

LiveView Technologies manufactures the “mobile surveillance units,” consisting of boxy white carts, lights and cameras. The units, which are custom built for each order, can come with a range of features including loudspeakers to broadcast alerts or even classical music. 

Customers can access live feeds any time, but the cameras also use artificial intelligence to identify suspicious behavior. 

Matthew Deighton, spokesperson for LVT, stressed AI does not decide whether to send out security teams but merely flags footage for the teams to review. LVT does not use facial recognition technology, he said, and footage is automatically erased after 30 days unless customers deem it necessary to save. 

Two of those units are in Washington Federal Bank’s parking lot off Cornwall Avenue. 

WaFd spokesperson Brad Goode said the bank had them installed earlier this month to address a loitering problem at that location. He noted WaFd also surveils its Ballard location with LVT. Anecdotally, Goode said, bank staff have seen a dramatic decrease in loitering since the units went up. 

In an interview late last year, Fred Meyer President Todd Kammeyer described LVT units as a tool to help mitigate the impacts of the recently cleared homeless encampment at the chain’s Bakerview Road location. 

The units monitor parking lot activities, but also serve as deterrents to crime, he said. 


Bellingham has about 10 LVT units around the city.


WTD is published online Mondays and in print Fridays. Have a suggestion for a "What's the Deal With?" inquiry? Email us at newstips@cascadiadaily.com.

Sophia Gates covers rural Whatcom and Skagit counties. She is a Washington State Murrow Fellow whose work is underwritten by taxpayers and available outside CDN's paywall. Reach her at sophiagates@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 131.

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