Ripple Labs’ Chris Larsen needs to provide the San Francisco Police Division $9.4 million to fund its police surveillance unit and change into the sublandlord of its new base of operations.
The reported multi-million greenback reward, which requires approval from town’s board of supervisors, is to be given to the police division’s “Real-Time Investigations Center.”
Ripple Labs will retroactively fund the surveillance-focused unit’s relocation from the reportedly “decrepit” San Francisco Corridor of Justice to a lavish high-rise on 315 Montgomery Avenue, which the cryptocurrency agency will sublet totally free.
The inside of 315 Montgomery Avenue sourced from Vornado Realty Belief.
From this sum, $1.6 million will present the unit with a high-tech “video wall” and different laptop tools. An extra reward can even cowl the price of card readers, transferring in, and extra facility prices.
AUTO BURGLARY CREW BUSTED: Final month, officers noticed an auto break-in crew in San Francisco. With the assistance of SFPD drones, officers in our RTIC had been capable of find and monitor the suspect automobile by Twin Peaks. Drone pilots watched the automobile and coordinated with officers… pic.twitter.com/wuwsHsKdOl
— San Francisco Police (@SFPD) Could 28, 2025
San Francisco police using drones.
Nevertheless, surveillance coverage specialist Matthew Guariglia advised Mission Native that he’s involved in regards to the police’s rising energy to spend on surveillance.
He mentioned, “Not only do you not have control over what technology police use and how they use it, you also can’t even claim the reins that says that, ‘We can control how much money the police department gets.’”
XRP founder suffered $150 million hack
Larsen is the billionaire co-founder of Ripple Labs, a cryptocurrency agency behind the token XRP. He’s a vocal advocate of increasing the surveillance capabilities of San Francisco’s police and spent $250,000 to again a sequence of proposals that did precisely that.
No quantity of drone surveillance, nevertheless, might cease him from being hacked for $150 million price of XRP after the password-storing agency, which held the passwords to his accounts, was breached.
On the crypto aspect of issues, he despatched $100 million price of XRP to crypto change Coinbase final January. Whereas it’s unclear what occurred to those funds, the act of sending crypto to an change is seen as an indication that it’s being offered.
The US Securities and Change Fee has additionally been dropping circumstances in opposition to Ripple Labs, and the 2 entities reached a $50 million settlement final month. That is regardless of lobbyists representing Ripple Labs nearly ruining relations between US President Donald Trump and the crypto agency.