California
San Francisco County
On record
Checked 21 Aug 2026- Technologies
- 2
- Systems
- 2
- Devices mapped
- 1877
San Francisco County, California. Device data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), with community reporting via DeFlock. Open the full map →
San Francisco is a consolidated city and county, and it publishes more about its own surveillance than any jurisdiction on this site. Administrative Code Chapter 19B, passed in 2019, requires a Board-approved policy before a city department uses a surveillance technology, an annual report on each approved technology, and a written report to the Board when a technology is used in an emergency without a policy.
The police department’s index under that ordinance lists twenty-nine surveillance technologies. Two of them have pages here: the license plate reader network, and the drone program that city voters authorized in March 2024.
The ordinance also produced something unusual. In 2023 the police department posted a public notice, required by the ordinance’s own enforcement section, describing an allegation that it had missed the deadline to file policies for technologies it already used, and what it did about it.
Other city departments publish their own surveillance policies under the same ordinance, including the transit agency, the fire department and the human services agency. None of those has been read. Neither has the text of the ordinance itself, which is published on a site that refused our requests. Local news coverage of this county has not been swept.
What's in use here
San Francisco voters authorized police drones in March 2024. The department has flown 7,481 times since, it publishes every flight as open data, and it had no drones at all in its 2019 surveillance inventory.
About 300 cameras heading for 400, three vendors, and plate data hosted by a regional intelligence centre that also sets how long it is kept. The department's 2024 report to the Board says it found no policy violations that year and also that it conducted no internal audits.
Who runs it
The agency is the accountability unit: who voted, whose policy applies, and who answers a records request.
| Agency | Jurisdiction | SB 34 policy | Systems |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco Police Department | City and County of San Francisco | Posted | 2 |
| 1 agency on record. A jointly run system counts against each of its operators, so this column is not a county total. "Posted" means the policy is published where the law requires it. "On file" means we hold the document. "Not posted" and "not found" mean we could not find it on the agency's own website on the date shown; they say nothing about how the system is used. An agency with a dash has not been checked, which is not a finding. | |||
Trackers
Meetings, contracts, records
Nothing listed yet. The trackers launch here, and facts appear only with their sources.
How the inventory works →What you can do
Civic action
Show up
Public comment is open to any resident, and you do not have to be an expert to use it. We have not yet confirmed where the bodies that decide for San Francisco County meet. How the inventory works explains what we check and how to check it yourself.
How the inventory works →Personal protection
Protect yourself
Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.
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