police have reportedly been accessing recordings from autonomous vehicles to help with investigations, raising privacy concerns from users of the technology.

The San Francisco Police Department has accessed tapes recorded by autonomous vehicles "several times," according to an internal document from the SFPD. Autonomous vehicle companies Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, and Cruise, owned by General Motors, are both mentioned in the document.

“Autonomous vehicles are recording their surroundings continuously and have the potential to help with investigative leads,” the document reads. “Investigations has already done this several times.”

ASIAN AMERICANS ARE LEADING THE RECALL OF CHESA BOUDIN IN SAN FRANCISCO

The document also offers guidance on how SFPD officers should interact with autonomous vehicles, including filing incident reports involving driverless vehicles and instructions not to pull over autonomous vehicles "unless a legitimate law enforcement action exists."

Waymo said its cameras only capture footage used for training its vehicles.

"Waymo’s mission is to improve road safety, and our privacy policy ensures we capture data that’s only relevant for training our tech," a Waymo spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. "We require law enforcement agencies who may seek information to follow valid legal processes, and we challenge, limit or reject overly broad requests."

Cruise shares footage and other information "when we are served with a valid warrant or subpoena" and "may voluntarily share information if public safety is at risk," a spokesperson for the company told VICE. The company works with the SFPD to handle similar incidents and has a "dedicated phone number" for police to contact.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

San Francisco police pulled over a Cruise vehicle in April, with a voice heard on video saying, "Ain't nobody in it!" as police approached the autonomous vehicle.

SFPD and Cruise have not responded to the Washington Examiner's requests for comment.