San Francisco

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system cut service to many East Bay and South Bay stations for a time Thursday morning. Trains on its Orange and Green lines were being turned back at the Bay Fair station.

The department bought six drones this year after voters approved Proposition E, which lets police use surveillance cameras and drones to pursue felony and violent misdemeanor suspects. The drones facilitated three arrests in July.

Supporters say the ban would be the first to target software that allegedly played an outsized role in increasing the cost of housing — not just in San Francisco but across the country.

A new lawsuit says the city has ignored its law that requires elected official approval for facial recognition use for at least four years, allowing officers to use whatever surveillance techniques they choose.

Interim CIO Michael Makstman, in place since Jan. 1, has been made permanent and will lead the city-county’s Department of Technology. Makstman has been with San Francisco more than six years and was previously its CISO.

CISO, San Francisco

After years of sanctions from California, a San Francisco coding boot camp and its CEO have run afoul of federal authorities who accuse them of deceiving students and profiting from dodgy loan agreements.

Voters were projected to approve a ballot measure that will ease restrictions on vehicle pursuits, allowing for the use of more surveillance technology and reducing oversight from the Police Commission.

Two years in, officials are calling San Francisco’s Text Before Tow program — which lets residents sign up to get a text if their car is about to be towed — a success. Only 130 texts have gone out to participants, but more than half resulted in a vehicle being saved from an impending tow.

It’s a move happening statewide. In October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation requiring all new school buses purchased after 2035 to be zero-emission vehicles.

CISO Michael Makstman explains what it takes to secure San Francisco, how the city is approaching generative AI and the importance of sharing information in the Coalition of City CISOs.

The company leading the robotaxi race wants to expand driverless ride-hailing to Los Angeles and 22 Bay Area cities in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties — even as San Francisco is suing to rein in its expansion.

Officials and residents alike are putting new investment behind water transportation. The cost of the ferry is now comparable to BART for most East Bay locations and cheaper than driving across any of the area’s major bridges.

Despite criticism, the city passed legislation for a 15-month surveillance pilot program that greatly expanded the powers of police to temporarily monitor live video feeds from privately owned cameras.

The guidelines direct city employees to fact check AI-generated content and disclose when they use the technology, which can write and summarize emails and other documents as well as generate images and videos.

Artificial intelligence is having an impact across disciplines and campuses in Bay Area, where both students and professors are applying the technology and learning about its implications for their fields.

City and county of San Francisco CIO Linda Gerull has set her retirement for Dec. 29. Chief Information Security Officer Michael Makstman will serve as the interim director of the Department of Technology.

After dozens of fires caused by combusting batteries used in electric scooters and bikes in recent years, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is set to consider imposing new restrictions on the rechargeable devices.