Remember when San Francisco banned facial recognition technology in 2019? The city patted itself on the back as a civil liberties trailblazer — the first major American city to tell Big Brother to take a hike. It was a proud moment for anyone who believes the government shouldn't be building a digital panopticon on the taxpayer's dime.

Fast forward to 2025, and the vibe has... shifted.

Drones are buzzing over neighborhoods. Surveillance tech budgets are expanding. And the city that once made national headlines for pushing back against police monitoring tools has largely stopped asking uncomfortable questions about how that technology gets deployed, who it watches, and what happens with the data.

The justification? Crime is down. And look, we're not going to pretend that's not a good thing. Safer streets matter. But here's the thing about civil liberties: they're not supposed to be seasonal. You don't get to champion privacy protections when crime is the political boogeyman and then quietly shelve them the moment the stats look better.

What's particularly frustrating is the lack of public debate. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors — never shy about grandstanding on issues that generate good press — has been remarkably quiet about the surveillance creep happening under their watch. Where are the hearings? Where's the transparency about what tools SFPD is using, what data is being collected, and how long it's retained?

This isn't an anti-police argument. Effective policing is essential, and technology can absolutely be part of that. But effective policing and unchecked surveillance are two very different things. Every dollar spent on monitoring infrastructure is a dollar that should come with clear rules, oversight mechanisms, and sunset provisions.

San Francisco doesn't need to choose between safety and liberty. But it does need elected officials with the backbone to demand both. Right now, we're getting safety theater with a side of mission creep — and nobody at City Hall seems to care.

The city that once led the national conversation on surveillance is now sleepwalking through it. Wake up, San Francisco.