Security News > 2022 > July > San Francisco cops want real-time access to private security cameras for surveillance
San Francisco lawmakers are mulling a proposed law that would allow police to use private security cameras - think: those in residential doorbells, medical clinics, and retail shops - in real time for surveillance purposes.
The new proposal - championed by Mayor London Breed after November's wild weekend of orchestrated burglaries and theft in the San Francisco Bay Area - would authorize the police department to use non-city-owned security cameras and camera networks to live monitor "Significant events with public safety concerns" and ongoing felony or misdemeanor violations.
Obtaining video footage from private security cameras has real public-safety benefits and would help police officers arrest drug dealers and looters in real time, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott told lawmakers on Monday.
He pointed to a survey [PDF] of 372 likely voters, commissioned by the ACLU, that found 60 percent of San Franciscans oppose letting the police use private cameras to monitor people.
In a joint letter [PDF], 17 organizations including the ACLU of Northern California, EFF, social justice center GLIDE, and the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, urged the Board of Supervisors to oppose or "Significantly amend" the policy, which they say will "Allow the SFPD to engage in unprecedented live surveillance" via thousands of private cameras.
If lawmakers don't toss the surveillance expansion outright, the groups want the supes to at least set limits on what the cops can surveil, how long they can retain the data collected from private cameras, and with whom they can share the video footage.