Unless you’re the police department, then it's business as usual reports The Examiner’s adamcshanks.
To privacy advocates, it’s the dawn of a new era in San Francisco, where police will have broad discretion to tap into every corner store and home security camera to track and monitor San Franciscans.The Board of Supervisors approved by a 7-4 vote a controversial policy that will allow police to tap into the vast array of private security cameras without a warrant.
The Police Department claims that access to private cameras is both an important tool for public safety and already common practice. The policy has the support of Mayor London Breed and was sponsored by Supervisor Aaron Peskin. Several business organizations in San Francisco have, between them, hundreds of security cameras to which they could provide cops the keys, privacy advocates argued. Privacy advocates also questioned whether a lack of footage is really a barrier to preventing crime, and pointed to headline-grabbing incidents in which police were seemingly handed every bit of evidence on a platter, only to fail to make or attempt arrests.
The new city policy was the result of months of negotiation between Supervisor Peskin and Mayor Breed, who had threatened to bring competing ballot measures forward. “It feels to me like we’re yet again giving away more power for, in this case the Police Department, to surveil our activities when we’re expressing our opinion against the government,” Ronen said.
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