On November 9, 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced a project to replace the City's WWII-era mechanical warning sirens with state-of-the-art wireless, digital units. The new units are lighter, battery-powered and weather resistant. They will also include a public address feature, which will allow public safety officials to make emergency announcements from one or more of the sirens. At the time of the announcement, some of the new devices were slated to be installed at the same locations as the original 50 sirens from the 1940s. Prior to the replacement project, only about a dozen of the original sirens were still operable, according to City officials.

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