Meet the District 2 candidates: Should SFPD use surveillance technology?

San Francisco expanded police surveillance technologies in recent years, including hundreds of automated license plate readers, citywide drone deployments, and a Real Time Investigation Center that uses license plate and drone data to respond to crimes, track suspects, and make arrests. The police department reported that drones have assisted more than 1,000 arrests. In 2019, the city passed a Surveillance Technology Ordinance requiring Board of Supervisors permission for new data-collecting or data-storing technologies and banning facial recognition due to research showing higher false positives for women and people with darker skin tones. In March 2024, voters passed Proposition E, exempting police drones and surveillance cameras from the 2019 policy and potentially creating a loophole for facial recognition. Privacy advocates worry surveillance will concentrate in lower-income neighborhoods and increase policing of residents.

"San Francisco vastly expanded its use of police surveillance technologies in the past few years. The police department rolled out hundreds of automated license plate readers, deployed drones across the city, and built out a Real Time Investigation Center, where officers use license plate and drone data to respond to crimes, track suspects and make arrests."

"According to SFPD, the embrace of surveillance technology has allowed them to fight crime more effectively. Over 1,000 arrests have been assisted by drones, SFPD told ABC earlier this year."

"In 2019, San Francisco passed the Surveillance Technology Ordinance, requiring departments to get permission from the Board of Supervisors to use any new technology that collects or stores people's data. The law also banned city departments from using facial recognition technology, which research has shown is more likely to issue false positives when it is trying to identify women and people with darker skin tones."

"But in March 2024, San Francisco voters passed Proposition E 54-46. That proposition exempted police drones and surveillance cameras from the 2019 policy and potentially created a loophole that would allow SFPD to use facial recognition technologies. The city's embrace of surveillance technologies has drawn concerns from privacy advocates, who worry that surveillance will be concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods and increase policing of those residents."

Read at Mission Local