In 2019, the Board of Supervisors passed a landmark law making San Francisco the first major U.S. city to block the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement. The measure was hailed as a victory for anti-surveillance activists and a signal of the city’s leadership on civil liberties amid growing tech encroachment.
But then crime exploded during the pandemic, “bipping” became common slang, and a rash of flash-mob-style robberies went viral on social media. Public safety in San Francisco became a top story for Fox News and the top issue for voters. The fury was enough that for the first time ever in San Francisco, the district attorney, Chesa Boudin, was recalled in 2022.
Now, with residents more fed up with crime than fired up about privacy, San Francisco has become a city where police surveillance has exploded, major crime categories are falling, and few are making noise about the issue.
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Last month, the SFPD recorded a record 700 drone flights — an average of 25 per day. In February 2025, it recorded 93. Between 2024 and 2025, the cost of the department’s drone program(opens in new tab) jumped by more than 1,200%. An increasing number are being used for Drone as First Responder, or DFR, programs, in which the devices are deployed to crimes before any human personnel.
For a point of comparison, SFPD’s drone fleet of 98 devices is more than double that of the Los Angeles Police Department, which has nine(opens in new tab) drones and just received approval to add 24(opens in new tab). Los Angeles has nearly five times as many residents as San Francisco.
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SFPD data show about 51,000 major crimes in 2023. A year later, the figure was down more than 25% to fewer than 37,000, and last year it dropped again to about 28,500. Larceny, including shoplifting, fell by nearly half from 2023 to 2025. Car theft dropped more than 54%, and burglaries declined by more than 33%.
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He highlighted that in 2022, there were 23,454 auto burglaries(opens in new tab) in San Francisco compared to 5,380 last year.
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The post San Francisco Once Led the Fight Against Police Surveillance. Now It’s a Laboratory for It appeared first on American Renaissance.
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