In San Francisco, a city known for its progressive values, residents are increasingly backing the expanded use of surveillance technology by law enforcement. This shift in public opinion is revealed by a recent poll which indicates that a significant majority of San Franciscans support the deployment of cameras, drones, and other surveillance tools to catch criminals.
According to the survey conducted by GrowSF, a political advocacy group based in San Francisco, 72% of respondents expressed either strong or moderate approval for the use of cameras and drones in response to 911 calls. This support underscores residents’ desire for effective tools to aid ongoing criminal investigations.
Moreover, the poll highlights that 66% of participants favor real-time video monitoring in crime-prone areas such as the drug markets of the Tenderloin district. They believe this measure could significantly help reduce crime and hold offenders accountable.
Currently, San Francisco police are permitted to monitor live video feeds only under specific, restricted conditions. However, public sentiment appears to be shifting towards an openness to broader use of this technology.
The poll also reveals that a similar proportion of residents supports utilizing surveillance for other purposes, like combating illegal dumping, with 67% approval, and monitoring high drug-use locations to prevent overdoses, garnering 69% support. This reflects a growing acceptance in the community towards leveraging technology to tackle different social issues.
The GrowSF poll suggests San Franciscans broadly support giving cops more leeway in catching suspects: 66% support giving police tasers, while an overwhelming 75% are in favor of police dispersing drug markets.
The new survey appears to reflect a sharp turnaround in police surveillance sentiment in San Francisco, which became the first city in the US to ban the use of facial recognition tech in 2019.
In the wake of the George Floyd police murder in 2020, ex-mayor London Breed sought to redirect funds from the police department to initiatives supporting the city’s black communities.
Crime is down in San Francisco across many categories, including auto thefts and property crime, although murders have spiked this year.
Police have credited surveillance tech like Flock Safety cameras now blanketing the city with helping to quickly apprehend criminals.
However, civil liberties advocates have raised alarms about the expansion of surveillance technology.
A number of cities nationwide have pushed back on the growing use of Flock technology, canceling or declining to renew contracts over concerns about privacy and police surveillance.
According to DeFlock, an anti-surveillance group, 98 cities have rejected automated license plate readers, while some 124,800 such cameras have been mapped nationwide.