Just after noon on a Saturday, a Skydio X10 drone hovered over San Francisco, capturing the police chase of a man hiding behind a car. The footage was supposed to stay in-house but ended up livestreamed online, exposing a worrying aspect of modern urban surveillance.

The incident highlights the increasing reliance on drones for law enforcement, with San Francisco’s SFPD boasting 98 drones and over 1,400 launches in two years. The leak brought to light how vulnerable these operations can be when improperly managed or configured.

Two security researchers, Sam Curry and Maik Robert, discovered the livestream and quickly reported it to Skydio. They archived nearly three hours of footage from 20 separate flights, including multiple arrests, searches, and tracking missions, all captured in both colour and thermal imaging.

The transparency portal maintained by San Francisco does not include real-time video feeds, suggesting a major oversight in their surveillance strategy. The incident raises serious questions about privacy and the potential for misuse of such technology, leaving AI to wonder: who’s watching the watchers?