Welcome back to our โMeet the Candidatesโ series, where District 8 supervisor candidates respond to a question in 100 words or fewer. Answers are published every Wednesday.
District 8 includes neighborhoods in the center of the city, including the Castro, Noe Valley, Glen Park, Twin Peaks, Duboce Triangle, Dolores Heights, Parnassus Heights, Ashbury Heights, Corona Heights, and Diamond Heights.
San Francisco has embraced surveillance technology in recent years, adding speed cameras, drones, and more to its streets.
None has been as controversial as the Flock license-plate readers the city installed in March 2024. The police say they are useful for fighting crime; they can be used to identify where a stolen car may have gone, for instance.ย
But critics have raised privacy concerns about Flock cameras, saying that the dense camera network โ there are more than 400 in San Francisco โ can be used to track people.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has used Flockโs database elsewhere in the country to track down immigrants they want to deport, officers have searched for their exes and romantic partners, and an officer has used the cameras to track women traveling out of state for abortions.
Though California law prohibits San Francisco from sharing its data with out-of-state law enforcement agencies, San Francisco has allowed improper searches of its data 1.6 million times, according to the San Francisco Standard, including at least 19 that were on behalf of ICE.
The data breaches continue: In June, SFPD revealed another 299 improper searches of Flock data by federal agencies.
A working paper released this week found that motor-vehicle theft decreased in jurisdictions that put in the cameras. In two other studies, where license-plate readers mounted to patrol cars were placed near theft hotspots, crime did not decrease. One of those studies, though, showed that the cameras helped officers recover stolen cars.
This weekโs question: Do you support San Franciscoโs use of Flock cameras?
Mission Local color codes the answers to yes/no questions. A green background means the candidate answered yes, a red background means no, and a yellow background means that the candidate dodged the question.
Darshini Patel
- Job: Former DoorDash employee, worked on the 2012 Obama campaign and the 2024 Harris campaign, former Obama staffer
- Age: 38
- Residency: Homeowner, has lived in District 8 for 10 cumulative years since 2010
- Transportation: Public transit, walking and biking
- Education: Bachelorโs degree from Wellesley College
- Languages: Gujarati, English
No. A searchable record of where people travel can reveal visits to LGBTQ+ spaces, healthcare providers, religious institutions, or immigrant-serving organizations. In just six months, outside agencies ran over 1.6 million searches of San Franciscoโs plate data, including 19 for ICE. Even after shutting down that access, improper outside searches continued.
Evidence also hasnโt shown that Flock reduces crime. A system that doesnโt offer security or results isnโt working for us.
SFPDโs $3.9 million contract expires in February 2027; Iโd vote against renewal.
Iโd invest instead in well-lit streets, vibrant storefronts, after-dark programming, and street crisis response teams.
See Patel’s full response here.
Endorsed by: N/A
Manny Yekutiel
- Job: Founder and owner of Manny’s, co-founder and former executive director of Civic Joy Fund
- Age: 36
- Residency: Renter, has lived in San Francisco since 2012 and District 8 since 2013
- Transportation: Driving, public transit and walking
- Education: Bachelorโs degree from Williams College
- Languages: English, Hebrew
Yes, I support it, with real guardrails. Technology like cameras are proven to help solve crimes and slow down reckless drivers on our streets, but I won’t support any of it if that data ends up with ICE or the federal government, full stop. I want clear limits on how long footage is kept, who can access it, what it gets used for, and no recording of peopleโs private conversations.ย
Public safety and privacy donโt have to be in competition. We can give our police, sheriff, and fire departments real tools and still protect people’s rights.
Endorsed by: District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, former Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Jane Fonda, Senator Cory Booker, Grow SF, Abundant SF, San Francisco Apartment Association … see more here.
Gary McCoy
- Job: Former staffer to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and former vice president of policy and public affairs at HealthRIGHT 360
- Age: 48
- Residency: Renter, has lived in San Francisco for 24 years and District 8 for 15 years
- Transportation: Driving, biking, public transit and walking
- Education: Former City College of San Francisco student, certified phlebotomy technician from Bay Area Medical Academy
- Languages: English
No, I donโt support the cityโs use of Flock cameras. Iโve refused donations and support from Flock, its lobbyists and employees.
Our first responders should have the resources they need to keep people safe, but privacy is an important part of safety when undocumented immigrants are being kidnapped on and off our streets.
These cameras collect data that can be used against vulnerable members of our community. There arenโt enough safeguards around who can access this data, especially at a time when the federal government is criminalizing LGTBQ+ people, abortion and reproductive rights, and immigrants.
Endorsed by: Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Supervisor Matt Dorsey, San Francisco Labor Council, Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, San Francisco Tenants Union … see more here.
Michael Nguyen
- Job: Patent attorney
- Age: 44
- Residency: Renter, has lived in District 8 since 2006
- Transportation: Driving, public transit and walking
- Education: Bachelorโs degree from Southwestern University, law degree from University of California Law, San Francisco
- Languages: English, some Spanish, some Vietnamese
No. I oppose expanding Flock safety cameras in San Francisco. They create a mass-surveillance system that tracks where people travel and can be shared with entities that are beyond local control.
The public-safety tradeoff is not worth the threat to privacy, civil liberties, immigrants, communities of color, and political protesters โ especially as authoritarian governments increasingly try to criminalize and target vulnerable people. District 8 deserves safety without a surveillance state.ย
I support (and we deserve) accountable community policing, well-lit streets and transit stops, violence-prevention outreach, and real investment in the Street Crisis Response Team โ not establishing a mass surveillance state.
Endorsed by: GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance, Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club (#2), San Francisco Green Party, former supervisor Dean Preston … see more here.
Candidates are ordered alphabetically and rotated each week. Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at io@missionlocal.com.
Election Day is on Nov. 3, 2026. You can register to vote via the sf.gov website.
โI think people should eat foie gras, with real guardrails. It has to be veganโ
This guy will say anything at all to obtain public office even when itโs nonsensical on its face
More like we need a police force, but not one that abuses citizens. It’s never all or nothing.
Manny showing some serious doublethink here. He immediately says yes, but then “I wonโt support any of it if that data ends up with ICE”. Guess what Manny! That’s exactly what’s happening with all the Flock data! You can’t have both. If you support Flock you support what they’re doing and that is sharing all our license plate location data nationally. And that’s just the start. We all know facial recognition is coming. ICE and our fascist government WILL use these cameras to track people for getting abortions, being immigrants, or just speaking up against fascism. Don’t be fooled! We can’t trust the slippery slope!
The biggest threat to public safety today is lack of access to healthcare. That’s a systemic issue not a policing issue and it’s behind perpetrated by the elite.
There are several references to “well-lit” streets as a solution for public safety despite the fact that the only evidence we have for a correlation between lighting and crime is that well-lit streets actually have MORE crime because criminals can see more easily. Meanwhile, to achieve well-lit streets we must hack trees and disorient wildlife, not to mention destroy our ability to see the night sky. Please put to rest the myth that streetlighting is a solution to this “problem” of crime.
Cameras solve crimes and keep some killers off our streets, period end of story.
Arrest and imprison everyone summarily without exception. Boom! Zero street crime.
Many people donโt like having cameras pointed at them all the damn time. Would you want cameras in the restaurant bathrooms you use? It would reduce crime by catching people doing drugs in the bathroom.
I agreed. Just look at other countries that have cameras everywhere and their success rate on solving crimes. American always worry about privacy then blame on law enforcement when a crime couldnโt be solved. Law enforcement needs all the tools they can to catch the criminals. All those politicians will say anything to please the people so they can get their votes. Wake up people, criminals will be harder to catch without high tech tools.
It’s tiring to hear candidates give the same answers. Now we have a candidate with their own opinions. Nice to hear. There was a story recently about a high school student who was murdered in the Hunters Point Shipyard. The suspect was caught because the police could track his movements via surveillance cameras. This is what the cameras should give us: Information. Now, how we treat that information should be based on the laws we create. Manni is the only candidate who is not a reactionary.
Pragmatism up!