News & Commentary

For the third time in five years, California rejected a bill that would have greenlit government use of facial recognition across the state.

Companies and legislators are using misleading test scores to justify the expansion of facial recognition into our communities. That flawed approach understates the threat this dangerous technology poses to civil rights.

Over the last year, the ACLU of Northern California conducted a high-level analysis of the types of places captured by law enforcement in geofence warrants across San Francisco. The study revealed a troubling violation of our right to be secure in our homes and to be free from unreasonable search without probable cause.

A State law that took effect in 2021 gave counties the authority to establish civilian oversight boards to assist supervisors in overseeing sheriffs’ offices. However, the law does not require counties to create civilian boards. That’s why the ACLU of Northern California is helping to educate community members about the fact that this law exists. And we are supporting individual counties that wish to create them.

In Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer,’ there is a scene where government agents creep outside a gathering of UC Berkeley-affiliated activists to write down the license plates of those parked outside the event. Instead of learning from this history, the City of Berkeley has taken a step towards repeating it.

For decades, the ACLU of Northern California has fought back against discriminatory and dangerous state surveillance in San Francisco. Read a chronicle of our movement.

How could San Francisco, a purported “progressive” city, authorize deadly police robots? And how do we stop this policy, or something similar, from returning?