San Francisco became a lab for police surveillance after initially fighting it; the SFPD had a record 700 drone flights in February, up from 93 in February 2025
In 2019, the Board of Supervisors passed a landmark law making San Francisco the first major U.S. city to block the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement.
“Last month, the SFPD recorded a record 700 drone flights — an average of 25 per day. In February 2025, it recorded 93. Between 2024 and 2025, the cost of the department's drone program jumped by more than 1,200%.”