City and county information-technology officials presented the Committee on Information Technology’s aggregated annual surveillance-technology report at an April Rules Committee meeting and the committee voted to forward the report to the full Board of Supervisors with a positive recommendation.

Eddie McCaffrey, director of the Committee on Information Technology (COIT), and Julia Kreschel, COIT privacy analyst, summarized reporting submitted by departments between Nov. 2, 2023, and Nov. 1, 2024. Kreschel said the submission set covered 23 departments, 11 general technology categories and 46 policies covering 51 discrete technologies. She said 26 policies reported no changes and that most reported updates were shifts in authorized job titles; five policies reported changes in the particular technologies in use. The Port’s use of drones was listed as having both job-title and technology changes.

Kreschel said only the Recreation and Park Department reported complaints or violations: two complaints and one public concern related to camera placement in Alamo Square; the department responded to the complainants and reported no further response. Kreschel described Administrative Code Chapter 19B as established in February 2019 to create transparency around government use of technology and said amendments passed in December clarified requirements and reduced administrative burdens for departments.

Committee members asked one question about facial recognition: Chair Walton asked why the slide referenced facial recognition when San Francisco does not use it. Kreschel replied that the law requires departments to report whether facial-recognition data was received, even inadvertently, because the ordinance forbids use of facial recognition.

Chair Walton moved that the committee send the aggregated report and resolution to the full board with a positive recommendation. Vice Chair Cheryl and Board President Mandelmann voted “aye,” and the motion passed without objection.

All surveillance reports summarized by COIT are posted on the departments’ websites, COIT staff said. COIT staff also said the chapter’s recent amendments allow departments to submit a single report covering all Board-approved surveillance-technology policies and to report every two years instead of annually for certain operational efficiencies.