San Francisco County
County record. Includes every city and agency within San Francisco County.
Technology presence
What these categories mean
- ALPR
- Automated license plate readers (ALPR): camera systems that automatically capture, read, and log vehicle license plates with location and time, producing a searchable record of vehicle movements.
- Fixed cameras & RTCC
- Agency-operated fixed video cameras and the real-time crime centers (RTCC) that aggregate live and recorded feeds for monitoring. Extends the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Atlas, which enumerates real-time crime centers and camera registries but not standalone fixed-camera estates.
- Face recognition
- Software that matches faces in images or video against a reference database to identify or verify individuals.
- Drones / UAS
- Uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), commonly called drones, operated by an agency for overhead observation, imaging, or sensing.
- Gunshot detection
- Networks of acoustic sensors that detect and locate suspected gunfire and alert an agency.
- Body-worn & dashcam
- Officer body-worn and in-vehicle dashboard cameras that record encounters; public access to the footage is frequently restricted.
- Doorbell & camera registry
- Programs that give an agency access to privately owned camera footage: doorbell-camera partnerships, citizen camera registries, and private-camera integration platforms.
- Cell-site simulators
- Devices that mimic cell towers to locate or identify nearby mobile phones. They are often called Stingrays, or IMSI catchers after the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number that identifies each phone on a network. Adjacent: communications surveillance outside the visual/sensor core.
- Predictive policing
- Software that forecasts where crime may occur or who may be involved, to direct policing. Adjacent: analytics rather than a sensing deployment.
- Social-media monitoring
- Tools that collect and analyze public social-media activity for an agency. Adjacent: open-source/communications monitoring outside the visual/sensor core.
The record, by agency
San Francisco Police Department
The San Francisco Police Department began operating a real-time crime center in 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): San Francisco Police Department website
The San Francisco Police Department implemented a drone program in 2024.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Mission LocalSan Francisco Police Department
The San Francisco Police Department began installing 400 Flock Safety automated license plate readers across 100 intersections in 2024. Previously they contracted with Neology Pips.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): NBC Bay AreaCalifornia State Auditor
The San Francisco Police Department purchased Axon body-worn cameras in 2014 as part of pilot program. It formalized its BWC policy in 2016.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): San Francisco Police DepartmentKQEDSFPD
The San Francisco Police Department has been using Shotspotter gunshot detection technology since 2008.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): CNN
Northern California Regional Intelligence Center
The Northern California Regional Intelligence Center operates automated license plate readers and manages ALPR storage for agencies throughout the Bay Area.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Northern California Regional Intelligence CenterNorthern California Regional Intelligence Center
The Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, a fusion center, uses face recognition technology, often in support of other law enforcement entities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco State University Police Department
San Francisco State University Police Department uses body-worn cameras.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): SFSU Police DepartmentFacebook
U.S. Customs and Border Protection - San Francisco International Airport
The San Francisco International Airport is one of 18 airports where Customs and Border Protection is using face recognition technology as of March 2019. An executive order signed by Pres. Trump in 2019 requires Customs and Border Protection to install face recognition technology at the United States' top 20 airports by 2021.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): BuzzfeedTechCrunch
Presidio National Park Police
The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department's Twitter account includes a photo of SF-based Park Rangers wearing the Axon Body 2.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department
San Francisco County Sheriff's Department
The San Francisco Sheriff's Office uses Axon body-worn cameras in San Francisco jails.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): SF Examiner
San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority
The San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority acquired AISight predictive policing in 2012.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Slate
San Francisco District Attorney's Office
The San Francisco District Attorney's office maintains a camera registry.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): San Francisco Government Website
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026