Good morning and welcome to our March 2nd Rules Committee meeting.

I am your Chair Supervisor Shimon Walton.

I'm joined by Vice Chair Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, and soon to be joined by President Mandelman.

Our clerk today is Victor Young, and we are joined by Jamie Eshevery with SFGov TV, who will make sure that this meeting is publicized and that information is made to the public.

Mr.

Clerk, do we have any announcements?

Yes.

Public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda.

Where your item of interest comes up and public comment is called.

Please line up to speak on your right.

Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways.

Email them to myself, the rules committee clerk at BICTOR dot Yo U N G at SFgov.org.

If you submit public comment via email, it will be included as part of the file.

You may also uh send your written comments via U.S.

mail to our office in City Hall, one Dr.

Carleton B.

Goodlit Place, room 244, San Francisco, California 94102.

Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices.

Documents be included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk.

Items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda of March 10th, 2026, unless otherwise stated.

That completes my initial announcements.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Clerk.

Would you please call item number one?

Item number one is a hearing to consider appointing one member term ending September 7, 2026, and one member term ending September 6, 2027 to the assessment appeals board number three.

Thank you so much.

And so I believe we have candidate Elena Rivkin who is here.

And if you would come up and just tell us a little bit about yourself, why you want to serve.

Is that the appropriate place to say?

Um either one works.

Thank you.

Um good morning, Board of Supervisors and members of the rules committee has stated.

Uh my name is Elena Rifkin.

It would be my pleasure to serve on the board.

I believe my experience is well aligned with the requirements of this role.

Uh first off, I'm presently an administrative law judge with the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.

I've been acting as an ALJ since 2023.

In this role, I conduct hearings approximately 31 per week, primarily with self-represented litigants.

The topic of my hearings relates to generally unemployment and disability appeals.

Prior to becoming an administrative law judge, I was a attorney in private practice.

My focus was on real estate litigation.

Um through my practice in real estate litigation, I had uh issues related to title disputes, quiet title actions, partition actions, real estate transfers, mortgage finance related matters.

I would also review deeds, title history, ownership claims, and I advised clients on various real estate and business transactions.

I have some foundational knowledge of Proposition 19.

Um I understand how to review operating agreements as well as uh draft them.

I have a basic understanding of the state planning, including drafting trusts and wills.

I really enjoy being an administrative law judge in my present role, and I believe that my experience and my background would allow me to serve the city and county of San Francisco.

I would be thrilled to serve in this role.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I don't see any questions or comments from colleagues at this time.

Mr.

Clerk, would you please go to public comment on this item?

Yes, members of the public.

Should I speak at this time?

Each speaker will be allowed two minutes.

Are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this matter?

There are no speakers on this matter.

Thank you.

CNN speakers.

Public comment is now closed.

And I do just want to say thank you for being willing to serve this.

Um obviously our appeals board, the work is necessary, but it can also be tedious.

Um lot of information and a lot of um a lot of hours to be put into this work and so I appreciate you being willing to serve and with your professional experience.

I have no doubt you will be an asset to the appeals board.

So I would like to make a motion to appoint Elena Rivkin to seat three with the residency waiver and move to the full board with a recommendation.

Yes, on motion to appoint to C3 with the residency requirement waived.

Vice Chair Sherrill.

Aye.

Aye.

Walton aye.

That motion passes without objection.

Thank you so much.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Mr.

Clerk, would you please call item number two?

Item number two is the ordinance approving the police surveillance technology policy for electronic location tracking devices and making required findings.

Thank you so much.

And I believe we have Steven Lopez with SFPD Government Affairs Unit who is here to present this morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, Chair Walton, uh, Vice Chair, Vice Chair Sheryl, and President Mendelman.

My name is Brent Bradford.

I am a lieutenant with the San Francisco Police Department.

With me is Acting Commander, Stephen Jonas, Acting Captain Daniel Silver, and Government Affairs Manager Carl Nikita.

Today we'll be presenting the Department's 19B policy concerning our use of electronic location trafficking devices.

As part of the administrative code 19B, SFPD must seek approval from the Board of Supervisors concerning our use of electronic location tracking devices.

This policy is governed, authorized users, prohibited and restricted uses, safeguards and data control and oversight.

Aside from covering all electronic location tracking devices, this policy will also apply to our use of Star Chase, a Prop E pilot technology.

Next slide, please.

Lock electronic location trafficking devices reveal location and movement by electronic signal.

The department utilizes the following devices.

GPS tracking devices, radio frequency identification tracking devices, radio frequency beacons, and Star Chase, a vehicle mounted GPS tacking system, which is in its pilot use.

These pieces of equipment are subject to the same policy limits and safeguards.

These devices are only to be used for the following purposes.

Execution of a valid judicial warrant or recognized warrant exception, such as consent searches or exigent circumstances, vehicle pursuit mitigation consistent with SPD General Order 5.05 and administrative code 92 96.2.

Additionally, theft abasement operations this could be used in.

Use of this technology outside these parameters is prohibited.

These devices shall not be used in the following manner.

To monitor, harass, intimidate, or discriminate based on protected characteristics, to enforce prohibit uh prohibit I'm sorry, pro to enforce prohibitions of gender affirming care, reproductive care, or related travel, any civil immigrant enforcement purpose consistent with San Francisco Sanctuary City Ordinance and or the California Values Act for non-law enforcement related purposes.

Starchase has an additional restrictions that tracking must cease and the device must be removed once the target vehicle is apprehended.

Use of this technology is limited to lawful purposes and defined scenarios.

Role-based access is for authorized personnel only.

Sieges compliant security, encryption, and audit logs.

SAPD is a sole custodian of all collected data.

Data sharing is strictly limited to lawful, criminal and administrative processes in compliance with state and local laws.

Use of this technology is subject to chain of command supervision.

All members who utilize the technology must complete training on authorized and prohibited uses.

Misuse of the technology is subject to review by the Internal Affairs Bureau, the Department of Police Accountability, and Chapter 19 B enforcement.

Corrective actions must be reported as required by law.

When used within policy limits, StarTrace provides the following benefits.

It provides officers with an alternative to high-risk vehicle pursuits.

It allows officers to disengage while maintaining location awareness.

And it supports safer apprehension methods, reducing safety risks to the public.

Again, our primary objective is always maximizing public safety and risk reduction.

Next slide.

Starchase launching system was deployed for the first time by the Department's citywide plainclothes team on December 18th, 2024.

From December of 2024 through December of 2025, Starchase has been successfully deployed 17 times.

The cases in which StarCase has been deployed cover a variety of criminal activities include street level robberies and auto burglaries as well as stolen automobiles.

Having the ability to use technologically technologically advanced tools such as the Star Chase allows the police department to successfully apprehend subjects while not placing the public in risk while initiating high-risk vehicle pursuits.

A case I like to highlight occurred on September 12th of 2025.

A member of the real-time investigative center known as the Arctic received an alert of a stolen vehicle through our flock license plate reader system.

Based on this alert, another member of the Real Time Investigative Center was able to then deploy a drone to the area and monitor the stolen vehicle with the driver having no clue that any of this was occurring.

The drone unit maintained visual of the stolen vehicle, and while putting the vehicle description and location for patrol units to be on lookout for, a patrol unit in a neighboring district that was equipped with a vehicle mounted star chase DART, recognized the location of the subject was traveling, and pre-positioned itself to assist with the apprehension of the suspect.

Once the patrol unit recognized there were sufficient units were on scene for a safer apprehension, officers attempted to pull the vehicle over.

The suspect vehicle attempted to flee from the officers but did not know that Star Chase Dart had been successfully deployed onto the stolen vehicle.

The vehicle fled the area, having no idea Star Chase was deployed or that that vehicle was now being monitored.

With the assistance of outside agencies, the driver of this vehicle was successfully placed under arrest in the city of Oakland.

The owner of the vehicle was reunited with this truck.

I believe this case highlights the use of Star Chase as a pursuit alternative and also highlights the coordinated efforts made by our officers on a day-to-day basis to keep the city straight.

I believe that uh in conclusion, if any uh questions or anything regarding the presentation, I'd be more than happy to answer.

Thank you so much.

I don't see any questions from colleagues, but I do have a few questions.

So for clarity, what what is a theft abatement operation?

A theft abatement would be like uh it could be an auto-burglary theft abatement that runs kind of a variety of different things.

Um they have uh you have planned events, it could be retail theft, different kind of criteria.

So it's kind of a broad spectrum.

But like what's an example?

Like what do you do in those operations?

Like with the like a vehicle theft one, sir?

What whichever one you want to give a um?

Right.

So like a uh if you want to look at the auto-burglary theft abatement was a pronounced one in the city for a long time.

So in those uh scenarios, officers would kind of target the high crime areas where those crimes are happening more than others.

Um and additionally, they'd be looking at history of flock, the LPR system of those cars that were their suspect vehicles that they're coming in and kind of uh saturate those areas to uh kind of uh mitigate the auto-burglary epidemic that we're having at one point.

So that's one of the examples of the theft abatement.

It's kind of using as many resources we can and targeting a specific crime, usually with a defined train objective.

And being at SFPD is the sole custodian of data, how we ensure that this data is only available to PD?

It's secure.

Right, absolutely.

So we would share only with other law enforcement agencies at a city or state level, not with a federal, not when you're not dealing with an ICE sharing or anything that would impede upon someone's right for reproductive rights.

It would just be through a law enforcement agency, and we'd have to have uh make sure the commanding officer of that unit that's doing the sharing is making sure all those uh criteria are met.

And how do we know that the data is secured?

How do we know that is what?

Secure.

Uh it's uh through the star uh star chase system, there's a three-year detention.

Everything is held on their server or and it's just for us.

So we could always uh one of our officers uh or lead officers could go pull that information, but Star Chase is not shared with anything else.

It'd have to come through SFPD to an outside agency.

Does Star Chase does not share our info?

And but Star Chase alone with PD has the same information?

Correct, sir.

And then so how are we guaranteeing that no one else's civil rights are violated through the surveillance?

Like I understand, you know, obviously perpetrators, uh, their information is captured and how do we ensure that regular everyday residents who are going on about their business, how would you uh how do we ensure that their civil rights or their right to privacy is not violated?

Right, absolutely.

So the criteria for a star chase deployment, um, it wouldn't be for like an infraction, right?

So if a vehicle rolls through a stop sign, that's not a charge a star chase uh candidate.

Uh we're looking at uh immediate apprehension or things that would normally uh be authorized by a warrant, but because of the the speed of the the uh exigency of the things we are using the star chase as that kind of that middle buffer thing.

Um I could assure you that no one would go out in an infraction scenario and try to deploy the star chase.

It would be the criteria would that car chase, I'm sorry, would that car flee from us?

Would we pursue it?

If the answer is yes, then we can use Star Chase as that mitigating factor to prevent that that pursuit.

I guess my question is more so while we may have a particular suspect or someone who is committing a crime and the technology is working, obviously there are other things that will be picked up and and pursuit or while you are surveilling someone.

Someone may be in their backyard and join themselves, someone may be on the street and join themselves.

How are we ensuring that because the surveillance will pick up things that are not intended?

Well, speaking earlier on the how are we protecting those those regular residents going on about their day-to-day that might somehow get caught up in the surveillance?

Right.

In this instance, the starchase itself is just a uh a GPS or a tracker.

So no one else outside of that would be in would be uh involved or would have their civil rights even touched just because we're looking for this specific tracker.

Um is that answering the question for that?

Definitely.

That's clear.

Thank you.

I don't have any more questions at this time.

Do we have anyone here for public comment?

Members of the public who wishes to speak on this item should align them to speak at this time.

Each speaker will be allowed two minutes.

Are there any speaker uh general public or public comment on this matter?

There is no public comment on this matter.

Thank you.

CNO speakers, public comment is now closed.

President Mendelman.

Thank you, Chair Walton.

Um thanks uh to the Department for the presentation.

Um obviously, uh since I um uh I am a co-sponsor for this, I um believe this uh technology is important and the policy is important.

Um to get this to the full board, uh I'd like to make a motion that we um uh forward it without recommendation.

Thank you so much, uh President Metalman.

Yes, on the motion to uh refer without recommendation.

Vice Chair Cheryl.

Cheryl I, Member Mandelman.

Aye.

Madam Aye.

Chair Walton.

Aye.

Walton aye.

That motion passes without objection.

Thank you.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Mr.

Clerk, do we have any more business before us today?

That completes the agenda for today.

Thank you so much.

We are adjourned.