How to show up in San Francisco County
Surveillance is approved by people who hold public meetings any resident can attend. This page lists the bodies that do that in San Francisco County, what we have confirmed about attending each one, and where each publishes its agendas.
We do not publish meeting dates. A schedule we cannot check often enough would eventually send someone to the wrong place on the wrong night. Each body below links to wherever it publishes its own agendas and schedule, and that is the copy to trust.
Countywide
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San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Watch this oneSan Francisco is the rare California jurisdiction where every surveillance technology has to be approved by ordinance, under chapter 19B of the administrative code. This Board passes those ordinances and receives the annual reports. It approved the city's plate reader policy as Ordinance 255-23 in December 2023, file number 231161.
- When
- Every Tuesday at 2:00 PM.
- Where
- Legislative Chamber, Room 250, City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102
- Remote
- Meetings are cablecast and streamed on SFGovTV. Remote public comment is offered at full Board meetings, as state law requires, but not at committee meetings. The call-in line is 1-415-655-0001, meeting ID 2661 563 0067, then press star 3 to join the speaker line.
- Public comment
- In-person comment is taken before remote comment. Everyone gets the same number of minutes, set by the President or Chair at the start of each item, and someone using interpretation gets twice as long. The full Board does not take comment again on a matter already heard in committee, so the committee stage is often the only chance to speak on it. Applause, signs, phones and standing in the room are not allowed. A document can be shown on the overhead during a comment.
- Written comment
- By email to bos@sfgov.org, or delivered to the Clerk of the Board or committee clerk at 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244, San Francisco, CA 94102. To be in the official record it has to arrive by the time the proceedings begin; anything later is passed to members.
- Who to ask
- Office of the Clerk of the Board, 415-554-5184, board.of.supervisors@sfgov.org (checked )
The city moved its board pages from sfbos.org to sf.gov, and the old site is now an archive. The sf.gov pages give the Board's address as City Hall Room 244, which is the Clerk of the Board's office and where written comment goes. Meetings are in Room 250, the Legislative Chamber, which is what the agendas themselves say. Because the full Board does not re-hear what a committee has heard, the Rules Committee and the Police Commission are part of the path a surveillance policy takes and are worth watching alongside this Board.
Confirmed ·
What this list does not cover yet
These are the bodies we have confirmed, not every body in the county. San Francisco County has other commissions and committees, and other school and special districts, that we have not documented yet. Several of the county's own committees publish on the same county portal linked above.
Before you go, and after
Civic action
Read what is already on the record for San Francisco County first. A resident who has read the contract changes the room.
What is documented in San Francisco County →Personal protection
Knowing which systems operate near you also tells you where your own choices still matter.
EFF Surveillance Self-Defense ↗