Breed’s police ballot issue called a threat
Opponents are campaigning against a March ballot measure that would give the police department more power and its oversight body less, arguing it would turn San Francisco into a “surveillance state” and make officers less accountable.
Backed by Mayor London Breed, Proposition E would allow the police department to more easily set up surveillance cameras across the city, loosen rules around police chases and lessen the amount of paperwork police officers are required to submit after use-of-force incidents. It would also diminish the power of the San Francisco Police Commission.
Critics say supporters have sunk nearly $1.5 million into three separate campaigns backing the measure, with about 95% coming from just 17 super-rich donors, including tech billionaires Chris Larsen and Ron Conway and Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman. Together the three have contributed more than $1.1 million.
On Thursday, two dozen protesters gathered outside the offices of tech incubator Y Combinator in the Dogpatch to call out one of its advisors, Emmett Shear, for pouring nearly $50,000 into the Yes on Prop E campaign.
Breed put Prop. E on the ballot as part of her bid to support law enforcement as she faces pressure to address property crimes and visible public drug scenes. The mayor is in a tough re-election campaign against two main challengers, Mark Farrell and Daniel Lurie, both of whom support the measure. She has said the measure could help the city make strides in fighting retail theft and other crime and has touted a touted a 7% drop in crime last year, though some experts say it’s too soon to tell whether that is due to her policies.
Breed said in January that she’s combating crime and realizes that “we have to do more. And Proposition E is more.” But critics argue that Prop. E will “harm the vast majority of San Franciscans by subjecting them to dangerous police encounters, unaccountable surveillance and untested technology with no reason to believe it will solve or prevent crime.”
The measure concerns Assistant Public Defender Angela Chan, who served on the police commission from 2010 to 2014 and stood outside Y Combinator on Thursday. She said the measure is “a kitchen sink of bad policies” that reverse nearly two decades of work around criminal justice reform and police accountability.
“For each provision in this ballot measure, we need to do the opposite,” Chan said. “We need less surveillance, and more respect of privacy rights. We need less police pursuits in one of the densest American cities, not more. We need more independent oversight, not less. And we need use of force to be more transparent, not less.”
The Young Women’s Freedom Center, the ACLU of Northern California, the organization Black Wall Street and the Harvey Milk Democratic Club joined Chan at the rally.
Critics warned that the police chase element alone could potentially put more San Franciscans in danger. Of the 150 pursuits by San Francisco police from 2018 to 2023, 38% resulted in collisions. Of those, 15% resulted in at least one person getting hurt.
Another key piece of the proposition is reporting around use-of-force incidents.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice found that San Francisco police had an “institutional bias” against minorities and urged the department to improve collection of data on use-of-force incidents and complaints. Last year, the police department released a report showing 44% of people who officers used force on over a six-month period were Black, despite them making up only 5% of the city’s population.
Critics also pointed to the loosening rules on use of surveillance cameras and drones by the police department as likely to compromise civil liberties.
Nash Sheard, managing director of advocacy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said “unchecked surveillance” is not the solution to the city’s crime challenges.
“What’s the appropriate amount of time police should be allowed to violate our privacy and safety without accountability and oversight?” Sheard asked. “It seems insultingly simple that the answer should be no time ever, but a small band of tech billionaires have joined forces to raise over $1 million to convince us the answer is at least one year. San Franciscans know a scam when we see it.”
Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who is running for mayor, also took a strong stance against the proposition during the rally.
“This is a really aggressive, racist measure that is turning back the clock on police reform and accountability,” Safaí said. “It’s bad for San Francisco but is being sold as making San Francisco safer. What it does is turn back the clock on police reform and accountability.”