“Dear PoPville,
Around a half dozen times this evening, most recently around 1 AM, I’ve heard a prerecorded loudspeaker warning mentioning something about a parking lot “For your safety the parking lot is being video recorded” and “you’re being video recorded.”
Some sort of warning triggered by a motion sensor I guess, and seems to be brand new. There are going to be a lot of complaints I’m sure, it’s really loud and not especially close to where I live.
My best guess on the location is somewhere around the intersection of Connecticut and Wyoming. Maybe unrelated but Louis DeJoy (postmaster general) lives about there (or at least used to) and there were frequent protests at his building in the run up to the last election because of perceived issues with voting by mail. [To clarify, I thought of DeJoy because 4 years ago there was at least one “wake up” protest in front of his building at 7 AM on a Sunday, which woke me up too! So I know I’m in earshot of his building.]
Now I’ll try to go back to sleep!”
Update: “Heard it a couple more times around 4 AM, 7:30, and again just after 9 AM!
I found the culprit – it’s an anti-loitering setup at the 7-Eleven at 19th and Wyoming, also in earshot of where I live. On the one hand I’m happy they’re finally doing something about loitering there, first time I’ve seen them make an effort in 10 years! On the other the noise from the system itself is a nuisance. So DeJoy is off the hook (this time haha) but I’m sure this will be of interest to other folks in my neighborhood.”