Balancing Public Safety & Civil Liberties in the Age of Innovation

Since the passage of Proposition E in 2024, San Francisco has expanded its use of technology in public safety, including drones, automated license plate readers, and the city’s new Real Time Investigations Center. As these tools become part of everyday policing, they’ve prompted conversations about how the city can pursue safer streets while protecting privacy and civil liberties. How should new technologies be evaluated and overseen? What transparency and accountability measures make sense? And what can San Francisco’s experience teach other cities considering similar approaches? Join us for a thoughtful conversation about technology, public safety and civil liberties—and what responsible innovation looks like in practice. Featuring: Chief Derrick Lew SFPD Barry Friedman Professor, NYU School of Law; founding director, Policing Project Marisa Rodriguez CEO, Union Square Alliance Moderated by Megan Cassidy San Francisco Chronicle Speaker photos courtesy of the speakers; cameras image by Jürgen Jester from Pixabay; drone image by Alexandru Manole from Pixabay. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs.