After long sounding the alarm that San Francisco public safety was suffering due to a dire shortage of police officers, Mayor London Breed’s administration is starting to see signs that ranks of city law enforcement might finally be turning a corner.
The Police Department’s latest class of recruits is the largest the city has seen in three years and job applications have hit a five-year high, according to Breed’s office. Twenty-eight people are enrolled in the most recent Police Academy class that started six weeks ago, compared to just six who are in the previous class that will soon graduate, officials said.
Breed visited the latest Police Academy class Thursday in Diamond Heights and spoke to them about her personal history growing up in public housing in San Francisco’s Western Addition, where she said her neighborhood did not have “a trusting relationship” with police. But times have changed, she said, recounting how she recently has seen children in the city say they aspire to join the police force someday.
“That fills me with hope and joy and a lot of pride, because that didn’t happen when I was growing up in San Francisco,” Breed said. “My hope is that we are starting to see change, despite the challenges we need to still deal with. My hope is that the department won’t continue to be politicized, but be supported and elevated.”
Breed told recruits she has seen “a newfound excitement and desire” for police who patrol city neighborhoods and develop close relationships with their communities while “dealing with some of the problematic people” she said have cast San Francisco in an “unfortunate light.”
San Francisco’s police staffing shortage has become a rallying cry among the city’s political moderates who argue that getting more officers on the streets is an essential step to reduce open-air drug markets, lessen property crime and create a more welcoming environment for tourists and office workers downtown. The idea is resisted by some progressives who contend that the city can’t arrest its way out of the drug crisis or other social ills and should instead focus on addressing the root causes of crime.
The city is still about 600 officers short of the 2,182 recommended in the most recent city-commissioned staffing analysis, according to the Police Department. But Breed’s administration is hoping that its efforts to attract more recruits will help close the gap.
With Breed’s backing, city supervisors this year agreed to raise police officers’ starting pay and add retention bonuses, a move expected to cost $166.5 million over a three-year period. Supervisors also approved a request from Breed for $25 million to fund police overtime work in the fiscal year that ended in June. Breed on Wednesday signed the latest two-year city budget, which provides for $14.6 billion in annual city spending — including funds to hire 220 more police officers.
Police Chief Bill Scott told the police recruits Thursday that Breed had “basically put it all on the line for this Police Department.”
“She depends on us, but she believes in us,” Scott said. “Timing is good right now to be a San Francisco police officer. It really is. You guys came in at the right time.”
Scott told reporters that the Police Department had made an effort to speed up its hiring process so it was more competitive with other cities. He also said “a lot of things … are starting to swing in a good direction for policing in the city,” pointing to Breed’s staunch support for his department and the Board of Supervisors’ recent 10-1 approval of a new contract for officers.
San Francisco leaders still have political disagreements about police staffing.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin is seeking to amend the police budget to reduce some high-ranking staff positions and use the savings to hire more rank-and-file-officers. He announced his intent to do so Tuesday and said supervisors could consider the matter when they return from their annual monthlong recess in September.
Specifically, Peskin is looking to eliminate one of two assistant chief positions and three of eight commander positions. The funds could be used to pay for eight rank-and-file officers, he said.
Scott pushed back firmly on Peskin’s idea when he appeared at supervisors’ meeting Tuesday. But Peskin doubled down in a fiery Thursday news release, saying he wanted Scott to return to the board and answer questions about why his department had expanded its top command staff roles while leaving some lower-ranking captain positions vacant.
Peskin also pointed to the Police Department’s recent arrest or citing of more than 100 people at the annual Dolores Street “Hill Bomb” skateboarding event — and contrasted it to the constant presence of open-air drug dealing in the heart of the city.
“I want to publicly ask the Chief why he has the resources to conduct mass arrests but can’t use the same coordinated police resources to close down drug supermarkets, address the brazen selling of stolen property on our streets or even have his officers follow up on violent thefts like cell-phone robberies when the alleged thieves are leaving a clearly traceable digital trail,” Peskin said in his news release. “If we can arrest kids with a massive show of police resources, we should be able to arrest scores of drug dealers on the streets of the Tenderloin, the Mission District, and other highly impacted communities. San Franciscans are demanding — and we deserve — answers.”
Scott reiterated his opposition to Peskin’s proposal in remarks to reporters on Thursday. He compared the idea to the defund the police movement that took hold nationally in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by a Minnesota police officer in 2020.
“You can look into that crystal ball called the past and see what dismantling police departments have done to organizations across the country,” Scott said. “This is not the time for that, in my opinion.”
Scott also said the jobs being targeted by Peskin are filled by people who “are there for a reason.” Moving their work to a lower level could worsen the department’s staffing situation, he said.
“Why would I want to take a job and do twice the work now for less pay, less rank?” Scott said. “We’re gonna have to push the work somewhere. The work doesn’t just disappear.”
Supervisor Matt Dorsey, a close moderate ally of Breed’s and a former police spokesperson, hopes to make a more aggressive move to expand police staffing. He wants voters to decide on a ballot measure in March that would re-establish a minimum staffing level for the Police Department — set at the 2,182 officers recommended in the staffing analysis — and set a goal of reaching that level in the next five years.
It’s not yet clear if Dorsey has enough support from his fellow supervisors to get them to send that measure to voters. If his colleagues won’t put the measure on the ballot, he could also qualify the measure by launching a signature-gathering campaign.
Reach J.D. Morris: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @thejdmorris
