Plan would change how city calculates police staffing
For more than a quarter of a century, the size of San Francisco’s police force has been governed by a number that, at least in recent years, no one could quite explain.
A 1994 amendment to the City Charter required that the Police Department maintain 1,971 fullduty officers on the police force at all times. But the rationale behind that figure remained elusive in recent debates, leading to what Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee called “divisive conversations” about police staffing.
Yee is now proposing a charter amendment that he says will create a more thoughtful, datadriven process in the years to come. If the proposal makes its way to the Nov. 3 ballot and
wins approval from voters, it would remove the city’s minimum police staffing requirement and require the police brass to submit a staffing report and recommendation to the Police Commission every two years.
The Police Commission, in turn, would be required to consider the report when approving the department’s proposed budget.
“It only makes sense that we create a thoughtful process for assessing police staffing that allows us to respond to current and future circumstances,” Yee said in a statement. “It is time for us to take a more logical, forwardlooking approach to public safety.”
But the proposal has come under fire from police union officials, who said removing the floor for staffing levels is an attempt to slash sworn positions.
Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, issued a statement Wednesday calling the proposed charter amendment “reckless” and “nothing more than an open invitation to eliminate police officers and reduce safety in our neighborhoods.”
Montoya said the city has never met the current charter’s staffing obligations, and the amendment would open the door to more cuts.
“Our city already struggles with out of control property crime, open air drug markets and violent crime at levels that literally hold some neighborhoods hostage,” Montoya said.
Yee’s proposal would put in place a system modeled after a recently released study that found “severely inadequate” staffing levels at the city’s Police Department.
The report, conducted by Matrix Consulting Group, recommended the department employ 2,176 sworn officers — actually an uptick compared with the 1,911 sworn positions at the time of the study. The recommendation would add 205 more officers than the current charter minimum of 1,971.
In an interview, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said he applauds Yee’s efforts to create a methodology for staffing levels, but is concerned about eliminating a mandatory minimum.
“The report tells us we need 2,176 (officers). And if we’re going to rely on a methodology, we should rely on it,” he said. “It at least gives us a guide and a compass as to what we need to police our city.”
Marjan Philhour, a candidate for San Francisco Board of Supervisors and former senior adviser to Mayor London Breed, said she believes the city should be using “accurate and timely data to determine staffing levels,” but also questions removing the minimum.
“Supervisors keep calling for more enforcement on traffic safety, more neighborhood beat officers, more police to stop drug dealing,” she said. “If we’re asking for more, it’s important that we ensure proper staffing.”
Police Commissioner Petra DeJesus said she supports Yee’s proposal.
“This measure allows our City to take a more rational approach to determine police staffing levels instead of relying on an arbitrary number,” DeJesus said in a statement. “It ensures that our decisions can directly respond to the demonstrated needs of both the community and the department. This is good policy.”
A 1994 Chronicle article provides some explanation about the origins of the 1,971 figure. The report states that staffing levels were cemented by a courtapproved settlement in 1979 after a lawsuit accused the department of racial and sexual discrimination.
Supporters of the minimum staffing level at that time pointed to San Francisco’s ratio of police officers to residents, which was low compared with other large cities.
The 1994 article states that budget analyst Harvey Rose found San Francisco had 2.5 officers for every 1,000 people.
By contrast, Chicago had 4.4 officers per 1,000 people, New York had 3.7 officers and Los Angeles had 2.4 officers.
In February, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce released a CityBeat poll that found 80% of respondents would support an increase in police staffing levels.
The proposal will be assigned to a Board of Supervisors committee before it goes to a full vote.