Ready to take action?
Use The First Amendment to protect The Fourth Amendment.
ALPRs can become institutional crack:
a few early successes create the rush, ubiquitous access creates the dependency,
and soon law enforcement can't imagine policing without tracking everyone.
That's when intervention is needed.
Turn up the heat.
Let's get rid of these Orwellian nightmares before they grow roots.
Contact your elected officials and let them know that you demand all ALPRs be removed from our communities. These people work for you. They work for all of us.
Be polite. Be persistent. Ask direct questions. Tell San Francisco's decision-makers what you think about government-operated systems that create a surveillance state by allowing searchable records of all vehicle movements.
San Francisco divides authority over police surveillance among several institutions. Focus advocacy on the people and bodies that can change budgets, legislation, policy, administration and oversight.
Mayor Daniel Lurie
ACCOUNTABILITY: The Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the City's chief executive and has substantial responsibility for City administration, budgets, appointments and public-safety leadership.
Term: 8 January 2025 – January 2029
Next regular mayoral election: 2028
Office of Mayor Daniel Lurie
City Hall, Room 200
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-554-6141
[email protected]
Mayor Lurie took office on 8 January 2025 after the November 2024 mayoral election. The next regular San Francisco mayoral election is in 2028.
Welcome to the Matrix.
ACCOUNTABILITY: San Francisco Board of Supervisors: Contact the elected officials who can vote on City surveillance policy, legislation, contracts and spending.
| Official | Title | 2023 ALPR policy vote | Term expires | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Connie Chan
|
Supervisor · District 1 | ✓ YES | 8 January 2029 | 415-554-7410 [email protected] |
Stephen Sherrill
|
Supervisor · District 2 | Unknown — let us know* | 8 January 2027 | 415-554-7752 [email protected] |
Danny Sauter
|
Supervisor · District 3 | Unknown — let us know* | 8 January 2029 | 415-554-7450 [email protected] |
Alan Wong
|
Supervisor · District 4 | Unknown — let us know* | 8 January 2027 | [email protected] |
Bilal Mahmood
|
Supervisor · District 5 | Unknown — let us know* | 8 January 2029 | 415-554-7630 [email protected] |
Matt Dorsey
|
Supervisor · District 6 | ✓ YES | 8 January 2027 | 415-554-7970 [email protected] |
Myrna Melgar
|
Supervisor · District 7 | ✓ YES | 8 January 2029 | 415-554-6516 [email protected] |
Rafael Mandelman
|
President · District 8 | ✓ YES | 8 January 2027 | 415-554-6968 [email protected] |
Jackie Fielder
|
Supervisor · District 9 | Unknown — let us know* | 8 January 2029 | 415-554-5144 [email protected] |
Shamann Walton
|
Supervisor · District 10 | ✓ YES | 8 January 2027 | 415-554-7670 [email protected] |
Chyanne Chen
|
Supervisor · District 11 | Unknown — let us know* | 8 January 2029 | 415-554-6975 [email protected] |
Portraits: official San Francisco government websites. The 2023 vote column refers to the Board's 12 December 2023 approval of SFPD's ALPR Surveillance Technology Policy. Term dates are based on official Board and San Francisco election records. Contact information is from official Board pages. Alan Wong's email is shown without a phone number because current official Board pages display conflicting phone numbers for his office.
If you know — let us know (include your sources).
Do not vandalize cameras, threaten anyone, or harass dispatchers, front-line employees or other people who do not make surveillance policy.
San Francisco Police Chief Derrick Lew
The Chief of Police administers SFPD and its ALPR program. Contact SFPD leadership to ask about ALPR policy, retention, sharing, access controls, audits and the scale of vehicle observations.
San Francisco Police Department
Chief of Police: [email protected]
1245 3rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94158
Chief Lew's email and office address are published by SFPD on the Chief of Police's official page.
Questions worth asking
- How many vehicle observations does SFPD's ALPR system collect during a typical day, month and year?
- How many of those observations concern vehicles or people actually suspected of a crime?
- Which ALPR platforms and databases can SFPD personnel search?
- How long does each platform retain detections?
- Which agencies can search San Francisco-generated ALPR data?
- How are sharing settings independently verified?
- How often are ALPR searches audited?
- How many searches fail audit or policy review?
- What happens when a user violates ALPR policy?
- What is the current annual cost of the ALPR program?
- Why must investigating suspects require collecting everybody else's movements?
Don't accept a numerator without asking for the denominator.
Arrests and recovered vehicles are relevant. So are the number of innocent vehicle observations collected to produce those results. Ask for both.
Request the records
You do not need to wait for City officials to volunteer information. Public records can help establish camera inventories, contracts, invoices, retention settings, search activity, sharing relationships, audits and policy changes.
For ALPR research, useful requests include:
- current fixed and mobile ALPR inventory;
- camera installation, removal and relocation records;
- contracts, amendments, purchase orders and invoices;
- current retention settings for each ALPR platform;
- agency and user sharing configurations;
- search and access audit reports;
- records of policy violations and corrective action;
- training material and user instructions;
- communications concerning federal or out-of-state access;
- records concerning changes to sharing permissions or configuration.
San Francisco's Sunshine Ordinance
San Francisco also has a local Sunshine Ordinance intended to make City government meetings and records accessible to the public. The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force provides a route for information about those rights and complaints concerning alleged Sunshine violations.
Sunshine Ordinance Task Force
Phone: (415) 554-7724
Email:
[email protected]
Address:
City Hall, Room 244, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place,
San Francisco, CA 94102
What to ask
- How many ALPR cameras are active today?
- Which ALPR platforms and databases can SFPD personnel search?
- How long does each platform retain detections?
- Which agencies can search San Francisco-generated ALPR data?
- How are sharing settings independently verified?
- How often are ALPR searches audited?
- How many searches fail audit or policy review?
- What happens when a user violates ALPR policy?
- What is the current annual cost of the ALPR program?
- Why must investigating suspects require collecting everybody else's movements?
Show up and speak
San Francisco residents can participate through Board of Supervisors meetings, committee meetings and Police Commission meetings. Check the official meeting pages for current agendas, schedules and public-comment instructions before attending or submitting comments.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETINGS → POLICE COMMISSION MEETINGS →
Catch the bad guys. Don't track anybody else.