The city’s board of supervisors voted to approve the controversial measure, which was opposed by the EFF and the ACLU.
In a 4-7 vote, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed a 15-month pilot program granting the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) more live surveillance powers. This was despite the objections of a diverse coalition of community groups and civil rights organizations, residents, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and even members of the city’s Police Commission, a civilian oversight body comprised of mayoral and Board appointees.
The ordinance, backed by the Mayor and the SFPD, enables the SFPD to access live video streams from private non-city cameras for the purposes of investigating crimes, including misdemeanor and property crimes. Once the SFPD gets access, they can continue live streaming for 24 hours. The ordinance authorizes such access by consent of the camera owner or a court order.
Make no mistake, misdemeanors like vandalism or jaywalking happen on nearly every street of San Francisco on any given day—meaning that this ordinance essentially gives the SFPD the ability to put the entire city under live surveillance indefinitely.
This troubling ordinance also allows police to surveil “significant events,” loosely defined as large or high-profile events, “for placement of police personnel.” This essentially gives police a green light to monitor—in real-time—protests and other First Amendment-protected activities, so long as they require barricades or street closures associated with public gatherings.
The SFPD has previously been caught using these very same cameras to surveil protests following George Floyd’s murder, and the SF Pride Parade, facts that went unaddressed by the majority of Supervisors who authorized the ordinance.
EFF Write Up: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/09/san-franciscos-board-supervisors-grants-police-more-surveillance-powers
Verge Article: https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/23/23368603/san-francisco-police-private-surveillance-cameras-vote
Local Article: https://abc7news.com/sf-police-surveillance-camera-access-sfpd-privacy-concerns-crime/12245056/
Hmm... Maybe people should start putting up fake cameras everywhere to waste SFPD's time in getting access to video feeds that don't exist.
Privatization of the surveillance state, what could possibly go wrong?
This was despite the objections of a diverse coalition of community groups and civil rights organizations, residents, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and even members of the city’s Police Commission
man what the fuck. even the PIGS think the pigs went too far
Nah, it's the civilian oversight board. No one cares what they think because this is a police state and their function is purely ceremonial.
