The San Francisco Police Commission unanimously accepted a nearly $9.4 million donation Wednesday night to expand the police department’s drone program and add 10 new drone take-off sites.

“This is by far the largest one-time donation I think we’ve ever considered,” said police commissioner Kevin Benedicto. The Board of Supervisors will vote on the gift later this month.

The donation was proposed last week by Ripple Labs, a San Francisco-based crypto company run by billionaire Chris Larsen, and the San Francisco Police Community Foundation, a nonprofit that Larsen founded in 2023. Larsen has been a long-time proponent of increasing the SFPD’s use of technology and donated $250,000 to the passing of Prop E.

    • ieatpwns@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Can you not use a net-gun type of device to lock up the props? I feel like that could be easier and less noticeable by the fcc

      • MightBeFluffy@pawb.social
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        12 hours ago

        You can use a net-gun to take out a drone. It might be a bit impractical if the city is swarmed with drones

    • Nik282000@lemmy.ca
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      14 hours ago

      Pretty much everyone owns a microwave and old satellite dishes aren’t so hard to find.

    • Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works
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      15 hours ago

      The only thing I know about jammers comes from Burn Notice. He called in a fake bomb threat to force SWAT to use their signal jammer.