surveillance was actually the subject of an extraordinary piece over the weekend in the "new york times" by jon quang, calling "feeling safe in the surveillance state." if you have not read it, i commend it to you. for me, personally, i think this is the difference between wanting safe and secure communities on the one hand, and not wanting to live in a surveillance state on the other. and don't get me wrong, i dont think san francisco and our government is anywhere close to being a surveillance state, but having these use policies and having a public transparent discussion and vetting of them i think will help actually make our community safer. when i first became a supervisor almost 20 years ago, i had a high degree of skepticism about the need of certain surveillance technologies. but fast forward 20 years, as barack obama said about same-sex marriage, my thinking has evolved around the use of some of those technologies. and today i've been seeking funding -- actually obtained funding last year for more security cameras in chinatown. so this is not about preventing this technology. it would not pr