Experts Say Mayor's Drive To Override Surveillance Law Misstates Law's Restrictions

San Francisco CA

16 December, 2021

2:01 PM

Description

By Eleni Balakrishnan, Mission Local December 15, 2021 Mayor London Breed's announcement yesterday that she wants to give law enforcement more access to surveillance technology left privacy experts and political figures baffled – the 2019 surveillance technology law she wants to amend already permits law enforcement to access such data, they said. Brian Hofer, who co-authored the 2019 legislation which aims to limit access to surveillance technology, agreed: "They've either never read the ordinance or they're being deliberately misleading." The mayor's Medium post on Tuesday said the surveillance technology law needed to be amended "to clarify that peace officers are allowed to access live-feed and in real-time surveillance technologies when necessary to maintain public safety." Surveillance technology can include cameras, facial recognition technology, and tools to gain unauthorized access to computers. To read the full article, click here. Mission Local covers San Francisco from the vantage point of the Mission, a neighborhood with all of the promise and problems of a major city. You can support Mission Local here.