San Francisco has become a laboratory for police surveillance after early resistance; SFPD recorded 700 drone flights last month, up from 93 in February 2025
San Francisco once led the fight against police surveillance. Now it’s a laboratory for it
Crime is down. Drones are up. And the city that once banned facial recognition has largely stopped asking questions about surveillance tech.Cyrus Farivar (The San Francisco Standard)
FauxLiving
in reply to Innerworld • • •eldavi
in reply to FauxLiving • • •i wonder if lone wolf style actions are impactful anymore given the automated taxi thing from a few years ago.
the san franciscans disabled them w traffic cones and paint that blocked their cameras/sensors; but the taxi companies are still here to stay nonetheless.
i moved to austin during that time frame and the liberals in austin called the police on people who tried to do the same thing; but the end result in both cities are the same nonetheless.
FauxLiving
in reply to eldavi • • •The way to defeat this for good is through the political process. This is the real way to deal with it that will have a lasting effect.
The way to defeat this for a weekend is a free evening and a map. In case some criminal organization hacked into the cameras and their surveillance were an active danger to the people actively opposing those criminals, this would give our heros some time to restore order.
CCRhode
in reply to Innerworld • • •Yeah, it's a story set in San Diego, not San Francisco, but no science fiction fan will fail to make the connection. It's all there: hippies, repurposed freeways, drones, anarchists, gangs.
Known Space: The Future Worlds of Larry Niven
web.archive.orgScoffingLizard
in reply to Innerworld • • •