Board President Aaron Peskin introduces police budget amendment to eliminate 4 command staff positions and shift funding to 8 frontline officers

(SAN FRANCISCO) Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin announced an amendment in July 25's board meeting to the annual two-year San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) budget that would eliminate four Command Staff positions and shift the funding for 8 frontline officers.

In the announcement, Peskin also requested Police Chief Bill Scott to appear at the Board of Supervisors' meeting to answer questions about police priorities, including the recent decision to expand the Command Staff while leaving key police districts without Captains.

A number of the senior members of the Command Staff and Captains at SFPD retired at the end of June. Scott has promoted Captains to fill in those vacant Command Staff positions and left at least four police stations without Captains since then including Central, Ingleside, Taraval and Northern Stations.

Peskin said he asked Chief Scott to appear at the Board of Supervisors' meeting in the wake of the San Francisco police arrests of over 100 people at the annual Dolores Street “Hill Bomb”. In the meantime, SFPD have failed to address the ongoing open air drug markets, massive increases in auto break-ins and violent criminal activities.

“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 before the Board of Supervisors was going into summer recess for a month.

Scott was hired by late Mayor Edwin Lee and has become Police Chief since January 2017. Scott created two Assistant Chief positions and expanded the number of Commanders from 5 to 8 when he took the office.

“In the last six years the Police Department’s highly paid command staff has grown by 40% from 9 to 15 positions while Northern and Central Police Districts, which cover some of the neighborhoods most impacted by crime, have been left without Captains for a month,” Peskin further said.

"The Chief needs to answer as to why critical staffing is being diverted away from our Police District Stations to top-heavy police brass positions, leaving rank and file officers struggling to respond to crime and looking for clear leadership,” Peskin said.

Peskin said he would introduce a cost-neutral amendment to the annual two-year SFPD budget that would eliminate one of two Assistant Chief positions and 3 of 8 Commander positions, shifting the funding to pay 8 day-to-day law enforcement officers who are trained to do the on-the-ground work in San Francisco’s neighborhoods.

Scott responded to the board that those positions were in place because of the need. The high turnover rate of the senior police officers has been a trend across the country.