Proposition E on the San Francisco March 2024 ballot, sponsored by the group Safer San Francisco and championed by SF Mayor Breed, seems to violate 2021 state law (Assembly Bill 481). The ballot initiative purports to allow SFPD to use drones (unmanned aerial vehicles or UAV’s) in vehicle pursuits or active criminal investigations.
But since the adoption of AB 481, which became state law in January of 2022, drones are controlled military equipment and can only be used by CA law enforcement agencies after the governing board of the city or county votes to approve the use and an associated use policy. San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors did not include drones in their annual military equipment review and approval. A local ballot intitiative cannot alter state law when the state law governs charter counties by statute and AB 481 does so.
Prop E has many noxious elements, including the voiding of the existing police pursuit policy developed by the SF Police Commission, authorizing the addition of facial recognition capabilities to city-deployed cameras and drones, and giving literally any new surveillance technology, no matter what it is, a one year ramp or testing period without any Board of Supervisors approval process or policy defining acceptable uses in place. SF voters should vote it down.
But it also violates state law. Here is our press release.