San Francisco’s plan to surveil private security cameras is ‘authoritarian,’ says tech oversight advocate

San Francisco’s plan to allow police officers access to real-time private security cameras would be ineffective at stopping crime and a violation of peoples’ rights, a surveillance technology oversight advocate said.

“We know these systems don’t work and it’s political theater, but we pay a real price, not just in dollars and cents, but with our civil rights,” Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, told Fox News.

San Francisco’s new district attorney Brooke Jenkins proposed rules that would allow the police department to tap into privately owned security cameras and camera networks to live monitor “significant events with public safety concerns” and ongoing felony or misdemeanor violations.

Additionally, the ordinance would allow police to “gather and review historical video footage for the purposes of conducting a criminal investigation.” – READ MORE