{"id":423052,"date":"2026-08-03T22:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T22:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/423052\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T22:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T22:40:10","slug":"san-francisco-makes-u-turn-on-police-surveillance-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/423052\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco makes U-turn on police surveillance: poll"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco police have expanded their use of cameras, drones and other surveillance tech<\/a> to nab criminals \u2014 and most residents of the famously liberal city are good with it, a new poll shows.<\/p>\n

Seventy-two percent of those surveyed in a poll by GrowSF<\/a>, a San Francisco political advocacy group, said they somewhat or strongly support the use of cameras and drones<\/a> after a 911 call to assist in \u201cactive investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

A strong majority \u2014\u00a066% of those surveyed \u2014\u00a0even backed real-time video monitoring of crime hotspots such as Tenderloin drug markets<\/a> \u201cto help deter crime and hold criminals accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

A majority of San Franciscans surveyed said they somewhat or strongly support the use of cameras and drones. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post<\/p>\n

Currently, police are only allowed to monitor live footage in limited circumstances. <\/p>\n

Similar numbers of San Francisco residence said they support using surveillance tech<\/a> for other uses, such as preventing illegal dumping (67%) and \u201cmonitoring areas with high drug-use\u201d to help prevent overdoses (69%).<\/p>\n

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks with media. Getty Images<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cBy many measures, San Francisco is safer, and its quality of life is stronger than it has been in decades, thanks in part to modern public-safety technology,\u201d said Steven Bacio, co-founder of GrowSF, in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe message is clear: residents want city leaders to continue modernizing the police department and deploying every effective tool available to keep them and their families safe,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

The new survey appears to reflect a sharp turnaround in police surveillance sentiment in the Bay Area city, which became the first city in the US to ban the use of facial recognition tech in 2019.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the George Floyd police murder<\/a> in 2020, then-Mayor London Breed sought to redirect funds from the police department to initiatives supporting the city\u2019s black communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

San Francisco Police Chief Derrick Lew. Getty Images<\/p>\n

A New York police drone hovers over a bomb squad investigation. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

Crime is down in San Francisco across many categories, including auto thefts and property crime, although murders have spiked this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Overall crime fell approximately 25% last year, including a 44% decrease in \u201cbipping\u201d \u2014 the car break-ins that had plagued San Francisco for years<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Police have credited surveillance tech like Flock Safety<\/a> cameras now blanketing the city with helping to quickly apprehend criminals. <\/p>\n

However, civil liberties advocates have raised alarms about the expansion of surveillance technology.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

According to DeFlock<\/a>, an anti-surveillance group, 98 cities have rejected automated license plate readers, while some 124,800 such cameras have been mapped nationwide.<\/p>\n

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