SAN FRANCISCO — A crypto billionaire known for backing public safety initiatives is offering a $9.4 million gift to help the San Francisco Police Department relocate and expand its Real-Time Investigations Center, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The proposed donation, tied to Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, would move the RTIC from the aging Hall of Justice to a more modern facility in the Financial District, according to the report. The new location would be sublet to the police department rent-free through December 2026, thanks to Ripple’s existing $2.3 million lease, which the company is no longer using.
An additional $7.25 million would come from the San Francisco Police Community Foundation, a charitable group Larsen launched last year to support law enforcement technology, equipment and wellness programs.
The Police Commission is set to review the proposal at its weekly meeting. If approved, the final decision would go to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Larsen stated the donation is intended to help an overburdened police force leverage technology to improve safety and efficiency.
“I think we can clearly see what a force-multiplier this is,” he said, noting the city’s historically low rates of crime over the last year. “The number of tools that they have is quite small, and we know that [expanding them] will have an impact.”
The RTIC has already made a measurable difference, according to SFPD spokesperson Evan Sernoffsky, who said the center helped with more than 500 arrests in 2024 and played a significant role in reducing auto thefts by 40% in one year.
“We cobbled together our current [Real Time Investigations Center] with everything we basically had lying around,” Sernoffsky said. “Little did we know how effective it would become with just the tools at our disposal.”
Currently housed in a deteriorating 1958 building, the RTIC suffers from infrastructure issues, including frequent power and internet outages, ceiling leaks, and poor signal transmission due to thick concrete walls. During a recent press conference, reporters were even asked not to charge their equipment to avoid overloading the system.
The proposed new facility would not only provide a more stable base for the RTIC, but also fund upgrades including fiber internet installation, a new video wall, a dozen additional drones and advanced software for surveillance and analytics.
The expansion comes in the wake of Proposition E’s passage in 2023, which loosened oversight of police surveillance tools and expanded the department’s authority to use drones, automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and mobile security towers.
Larsen has previously funded several public safety initiatives in the city, including a private camera network and a $1 million donation to support officer wellness.
