Rules Committee forwards COIT's 2023 surveillance-technology reports to the full Board

Chair Supervisor Hillary Ronan and the San Francisco Rules Committee on March 25 recommended that the full Board of Supervisors accept the Committee on Information Technology's (COIT) 2023 annual surveillance-technology reports.

COIT privacy analyst Julia Crucio told the committee the annual reports are submitted under Administrative Code section 19B0.6 and cover 44 reports from 23 city departments. The compiled reports address a wide range of technologies, including automated license plate readers (ALPR), biometric processing software, drones, RFID, security cameras and social-media monitoring systems.

"There were a couple of departments that indicated violations or complaints," Crucio said, adding that both departments took immediate corrective action. She identified an ALPR data-retention error at the Municipal Transportation Agency and an internal audit at the Department of Public Health that led to adjusted security-camera procedures.

Suhail Varsi, IT PMO director at SFMTA, explained the ALPR problem arose from a vendor misconfiguration that treated every capture as a separate "hit" instead of computing a delta to determine parking-duration violations. "No ticket was issued because of that violation," Varsi said, and the agency corrected the vendor configuration promptly.

The committee recorded no public speakers on the item. Chair Ronan moved to forward the reports to the full Board with a positive recommendation; Vice Chair Shamone Walton and Supervisor Asha Safaie voted aye and the motion passed without objection.

The clerk said items acted on at this meeting were expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda of April 2, 2024. The matter will return to the full Board for formal acceptance and any further questions from supervisors.