SFPD in trouble over buying and using drones illegally

The San Francisco Police Department is in hot water after internal documents showed it knowingly broke the law by buying and using drones to catch criminals without proper authorization.

The SFPD knew it should have waited to buy and deploy the new crime-fighting technology but ignored warnings within its ranks that it should have held off on the purchases.

The "first call for caution came months ago from one of its own policy experts," according to emails shared with the San Francisco Standard.

About a week before the March primaries, the SFPD started planning what drones to buy if voters passed Proposition E , which would expand crime-fighting tools for law enforcement. Despite the measure passing, a department analyst noted that Proposition E did not give the department carte blanche authority to add drones to its arsenal.

"Prop. E does not supersede state law," wrote Asja Steeves, SFPD policy division manager.

A 2021 law requires law enforcement to get approval from elected city officials before using any new surveillance tools. Steeves also warned that rushing to buy and use the drones without going through the proper procedures could put the department in the middle of a political storm.

“If we want to stay out of the political fray and buy drones in order to use them in efficient ways that help the department, we may want to wait until after the election to start the AB 481 approval process," she wrote to colleagues.

Steeves's warnings were ignored.

Instead, the SFPD started openly touting its new tools, and, in an August press conference, Democratic Mayor London Breed and SFPD Chief Bill Scott cited an increase in the number of arrests of suspected car burglars as a sign the public was right in trusting them with their new powers.

But civil liberty advocates said the fact that the SFPD jumped the gun on buying and using drones only shows it shouldn't be given any leeway and should be held to more scrutiny.

Matt Guariglia, a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation , said that the SFPD trying to quietly correct a mistake it knew it was making speaks volumes.

“This email from Feb. 28 is kind of a smoking gun,” he said, referring to Steeves’s warning. “Their own policy person told them ahead of time to pump the brakes on the drones because they’d need prior approval, yet they immediately started buying these drones despite that warning. Everything they did afterwards was in violation of state law.”

The department rejected the narrative and said everything it did was above board. Yet, it is trying to seek retroactive approval for drone purchases and usage.

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John Lindsay-Poland, a writer who advocates demilitarizing the police, told San Francisco supervisors at a hearing earlier this month that the SFPD's actions not only violated the law but also "set a bad example for the community" and that it "puts at legal risk the prosecutions in which drones were used."

To make the usage of the police drones legal, it must pass through the council's Rules Committee and go before the full board for a vote.