there is a misty human form standing not far behind her.
Again, this is not the case.
As mentioned prior, it's understood that the flash from the camera basically stops movement. So, the shutter opens, the camera moves just a tiny bit, just a couple degrees. That's enough over a distance to create those streaks in the dark. Then the flash hits and it captures everything else without the smear depending on the particular camera model. The streaks may happen before or after the flash, but either way the streaks are independent of the frozen images during the fraction of a second that the flash happens. With the stationary light shining on the plaque, the movement causes the light to streak upwards, just as it does for all of the surrounding lights in the background. It all boils down to movement during the shutter closing, quite common in darker/night time photos.
