SFPD Blue

Engardio, Chris Larsen and the San Francisco Police Officers Association

The fourth largest donor to Supervisor Joel Engardio’s anti-recall campaign comes in at $50,000 donated. That donor is the San Francisco Police Officers Association (SFPOA).

A friendly journalist told me recently that I need not ponder too long over such a large contribution to Engardio from the SFPOA. “Joel was always a ‘law & order’ candidate,” she said. I suppose I could have just left it at that. I had it on good authority that there was a simple explanation.

However, I just had this nagging feeling, a little voice telling me, “Nope, that’s not it.” I ignored that little voice while I was researching the rest of the Engardio donor leaderboard for Substack essays like this one — Chris Larsen Redux — and this one — Follow the Money.

I did find some interesting additional information on Chris Larsen, CEO of Ripple Labs. Back on June 5, 2025, Mission Local News published a story, written by Frankie Solinsky Duryea, entitled ‘We’re going to be covering the entire city with drones:’ SFPD accepts billionaire’s $9.4 million gift.

Of course, that billionaire is Chris Larsen.

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.

Frankie Solinsky Duryea, Mission Local News, ‘We’re going to be covering the entire city with drones:’ SFPD accepts billionaire’s $9.4 million gift (June 5, 2025)

In case you’re curious, the SF Board of Supervisors approved the gift later in June.

OK, so that fact stuck in my head — Larsen loves cops, cops love Larsen. Doesn’t really explain the $50,000 from SFPOA to Engardio.

So, I kept digging and found another interesting story — a guest commentary by:

Jennifer King

Jennifer King is director of Consumer Privacy at the Center for Internet and Society, Stanford Law School, jenking@law.stanford.edu.

Jael Makagon

Jael Makagon is a privacy attorney in San Francisco, jael_makagon@berkeley.edu.

Jennifer King and Jael Makagon wrote the commentary for CalMatters, which published the piece — The fallacy behind private surveillance cameras in San Francisco — on August 9, 2020. Here is an excerpt asking the primary question they were posing:

Recently The New York Times published an article about a San Francisco tech executive named Chris Larsen and his efforts to fund a private network of surveillance cameras around the city.

Since 2012 Larsen has spent nearly $4 million of his own money installing more than 1,000 cameras blanketing 135 city blocks. Larsen’s partners in this effort are the city’s Community Benefit Districts with whom he works to install cameras on private property and control access to footage.

Why fund this multimillion-dollar network of surveillance cameras capable of picking out the dimples on a person’s face and tracking individuals over several blocks?…

Jennifer and Jael grapple with big, fundamental questions about what we lose in our community, let alone American society, when we sacrifice liberty to create a technological police state out of a public/private partnership with Chris Larsen. Spoiler Alert: they don’t like the idea much. Neither do I.

However, I still was failing to put 2 and 2 together. You’ve probably all jump ahead of me on this. At least I was now on firm footing that the connection was right there in front of me. I had a thought, let me look and see if there is any pattern to how this individual, Mr. Larsen, and this Police Officers Assocation (SFPOA), have given their cash to Joel Engardio’s anti-recall campaign.

And guess what?

[SFethinc.org, screen-capture from Engardio’s “Stand with Joel” anti-recall campaign]

And I looked a little further, and guess what?

[SFethinc.org, screen-capture from Engardio’s “Stand with Joel” anti-recall campaign]

No tampering on my part, this is just the way these contributions appear in the report that I pulled. Check it out yourself if you like at SFethics.org.

Here’s how it works. Chris Larsen spends $4 million on as many as 1,500 cameras on 135 blocks throughout San Francisco and operated by quasi-public Community Benefit Districts so Larsen and whomever can spy on everyone at their leisure. And when that wasn’t enough for the SFPD, they got a new drone center with drones and cameras and all of the rest of it and at cost to Larsen of $9.4 million.

You know the old saying, “$4 million here and $9 million there and pretty soon it adds up to real money.” It also adds up to real, albeit pretty shady, political influence.

Here is how it also goes. Chris Larsen decides to go in heavy to support his favorite embattle Supervisor, Joel Engardio. He tells his friends at the SFPOA, and they join him in also giving Joel a check. When Larsen throws down $50K on March 6th the SFPOA throws in $25K on the very same day.

When Larsen throws in another whopping $100,000 to support Joel on July 2nd, he tells the SFPOA, and they throw in $25K on the very same day.

I suppose someone will try to tell me that it might be a coincidence. But I don’t believe in coincidences… john

Recall Engardio!