Civic

San Francisco was once a national leader in protecting residents from government surveillance. Today, hundreds of license plate readers scan passing cars, police drones patrol the skies, and an expanding network of cameras tracks activity across the city. How did that happen? In Part 2 of Somebody's Watching You, Civic traces San Francisco's decades-long struggle to balance public safety with privacy and civil liberties. From the sweeping expansion of government intelligence gathering after 9/11 to the city's landmark 2019 surveillance restrictions and their subsequent weakening, we examine how political pressure, concerns about crime and advances in technology transformed the city's approach to policing.

Who's watching us, what does it mean for our privacy and civil liberties, and how did we get here? In Somebody's Watching You, a three-part investigative series from Civic and the San Francisco Public Press, we explore America's long-running struggle over government surveillance. How did a country founded on protections against government intrusion develop such extensive powers to watch its own people? And what happens to constitutional rights when national security becomes the justification? In Part One, we go back to the nation's founding and the fight to protect individual freedoms from government tyranny. We follow the centuries-old tug-of-war between expanding surveillance powers and demands for civil liberties, through the Red Scare, McCarthy-era investigations, FBI surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. and the targeting of anti-war activists. And we set the stage for the government crackdowns and public resistance that followed September 11, 2001, and the battles over surveillance that continue today.

This episode of “Civic” explores the history of displacement among San Francisco's technology booms and busts. Today, major job losses are coinciding with increasing rental prices and evictions — a “treacherous” paradox — and tenants are fighting back.

The League of Women Voters organized this panel discussion on money in San Francisco’s November election, held at the Internet Archive on Oct. 8. Lila LaHood, executive director of the San Francisco Public Press, moderated. panelists were Joe Rivano Barros, executive editor of Mission Local; Darius Kemp of California Common Cause; and Patrick Ford of the San Francisco Ethics Commission.

Make sense of the numerous November 2026 San Francisco and California ballot measures, with these one-minute explanations by reporters from the San Francisco Public Press and CalMatters. Visit SFPublicPress.org and CalMatters.org for more quick, no-nonsense and nonpartisan voter guides.

he November 2026 election is pivotal at the national, state and local levels. San Francisco voters will weigh local races and propositions on Muni funding, housing, the Great Highway, taxes and how City Hall and the mayor operate, along with statewide candidates and propositions. San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Lila LaHood, KALW Executive Producer Ben Trefny and CalMatters Politics Editor Juliet Williams, outlined the issues and the candidates at a public forum at the San Francisco Main Public Library on Sept. 16.

For nearly 60 years, San Francisco built a pioneering system to care for young people in crisis. What began during the Summer of Love with the nation's first runaway youth shelter and the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic evolved into a network of specialized clinics that combined medical care, mental health treatment, sexual health services and connections to housing and social support under one roof. Now, that model is being dismantled as San Francisco shifts young patients to larger primary care clinics and expands telehealth services. Supporters say the city risks losing more than two clinics, it may be abandoning a philosophy of care built around meeting vulnerable young people where they are. In this episode of Civic, we trace the history of San Francisco's groundbreaking approach to integrated youth healthcare and examine the city's plan to close two specialized youth clinics in the Tenderloin and Haight neighborhoods. Through archival recordings, former patients, frontline clinicians, nonprofit leaders, union representatives and city officials, we explore how a nationally influential model of integrated care collided with budget pressures driven by deep federal and state Medi-Cal funding cuts.

June 2026 San Francisco Public Press Election Guide Yes on D campaign Chamber of Commerce Voter Guide

After at least 19 women in San Francisco’s county jail alleged they were subjected to a mass strip search while deputies recorded on body-worn cameras, advocates, attorneys and city officials demanded answers. This investigative documentary examines what women say happened inside the jail’s B-pod — and the broader conditions women describe inside the facility, including prolonged lockdowns, overcrowding, lack of sunlight and untreated trauma. Through public hearings, legal records, interviews with formerly incarcerated women and advocates, and statements made by sheriff’s officials during oversight hearings, the story traces how a jail intended for temporary detention became a place where many women spend months or years awaiting trial.

Read the story in The San Francisco Public Press.