‘We’re going to be covering the entire city with drones:’ SFPD accepts billionaire’s $9.4M gift
by FRANKIE SOLINSKY DURYEA
June 5, 2025
San Francisco police commission accepts tech billionaire's gift, to provide cops with drones, cameras and a massive new office
missionlocal.org
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 money will go to the Real Time Investigation Center (RTIC), which was
founded shortly after the passing of
Proposition E in March 2024, allowing the SPFD to expand its use of technology for crime-detection and surveillance purposes. The RTIC has since increased the number of surveillance cameras and drones to monitor crimes, a program that has assisted in over 500 arrests according to the SFPD.
A remotely piloted drone gives the police a new view of the street below.
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.
Larsen’s prior donations via a nonprofit to install surveillance devices in San Francisco were compromised when SF SAFE purportedly misallocated his money. Former executive director Kyra Worthy is presently facing 34 felony charges.
Some $2 million of the latest donation will go toward paying for the lease of a 14,000-square-foot office space on Montgomery Street, formerly occupied by Ripple Labs. According to Chief Bill Scott, the money will cover a 16-month lease, allowing RTIC to relocate from its headquarters in the decrepit Hall of Justice until a permanent location is decided on.
The remaining $7.4 million of donated funds will go toward expanding the city’s Drones as First Responder Program. The money will come from Larsen’s San Francisco Police Community Foundation, which donated an additional $866,000 to support officer wellness and community engagement.
The city announced its Drones as First Responder program in October of last year. It allows trained officers to pilot drones around the city from the safety of RTIC headquarters. Up until now, drones have been kept in the back of police cruisers for on-site use.
Right now, these drones, which require FAA training to pilot, can only take off from two launch sites. But the SFPD told commissioners Wednesday that Larsen’s donation will add 10 take-off locations and introduce two new kinds of first-responder drones into their fleet.
“We’re going to be covering the entire city with drones,” said RTIC representative Captain Thomas MacGuire.
These new take-off locations, which have been mostly finalized, will be located primarily at San Francisco fire stations throughout the city. Scott said this arrangement will allow the drones to also support firefighters. “Whether we can provide them with thermal imaging of what the fire situation looks like, or help them find people that are in distress,” Scott said, “we intend to do everything that we can.”
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