Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Privacy And Data Governance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee forwards COIT's surveillance-technology summary under Admin Code 19B to full board
Summary
The Committee on Information Technology presented its aggregate surveillance-technology report under Administrative Code section 19B; the Rules Committee unanimously recommended the report be sent to the full Board of Supervisors.
The Rules Committee on April 21 voted to forward the Committee on Information Technology's (COIT) aggregate annual surveillance-technology report to the full Board of Supervisors.
Eddie McCaffrey, director of COIT, and Julia Kreschel, COIT privacy analyst, told the committee the report covers submissions from November 2, 2023, through November 1, 2024, representing 23 departments, 11 general technology categories, 46 policies and 51 technologies. McCaffrey described COIT as an IT-governance body that supports policy and budget matters for city departments; Kreschel said the report is produced under Administrative Code section 19B, the city's surveillance-technology transparency requirement enacted in 2019 and amended in December 2024.
Kreschel said most departments reported no substantive policy changes; some reports reflected changes in authorized job titles (impacting 10 policies) or changes in specific technologies (impacting five policies). All annual surveillance reports are posted on the COIT website, she said. Kreschel also reported the Recreation and Parks Department submitted a report that included two complaints and one concern from the public regarding camera placement in Alamo Square; Recreation and Parks replied to the complainants and received no further response.
Committee Chair Shamone Walton asked about a slide referencing facial-recognition technology. Kreschel replied it is a mandatory reporting element in the code: departments must report whether facial-recognition data was received, even if inadvertent, but San Francisco's ordinance prohibits authorized use of facial recognition.
Kreschel summarized: "Privacy policies are essential to the responsible collection and use of personal data, and this increases the trust in public sector data use." After brief Q&A and no public comment, the committee voted unanimously to send the resolution accepting the annual surveillance report to the full Board with a positive recommendation.
The action implements Administrative Code section 19B's reporting requirements and follows recent amendments intended to reduce administrative burden by allowing departments to submit a single report for multiple surveillance policies and to move to a biennial cadence for some reporting. The committee's recommendation will appear on the full board agenda for consideration.
