Crypto billionaire to give over $9M to SFPD surveillance unit
Cryptocurrency company Ripple Labs and a nonprofit backed by Ripple’s founder is seeking to donate nearly $9.4 million to the San Francisco Police Department’s Real Time Investigation Center, a fledgling branch of the department that uses surveillance technology like cameras and license plate readers to monitor crimes in progress.
The gifts will fund equipment purchases, including 12 new police drones, and will also cover a year and a half of a sublease for 14,000 square feet of downtown office space that Ripple is no longer using.
The Real Time unit, which employs more than a dozen officers and police staff, will move from the decrepit and seismically problematic Hall of Justice to a space at 315 Montgomery St….
