Interim Police Chief Paul Yep honored for leadership to keep San Francisco safe with historic low crime rate and high police hirings

SAN FRANCISCO — Paul Yep, one of the most-respected law enforcement and police leaders in the Chinese community, served as the 6-month Interim Police Chief in 2025 and was recognized by the Board of Supervisors for his leadership and accomplishment in the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) with historic low crime rates and record high police hiring since the pandemic.

Yep, who retired in 2023 as a Commander after serving 28 years in the SFPD, was first appointed by the newly-elected Mayor Daniel Lurie as Chief of Public Safety at the Mayor's Office in January 2025 and subsequently appointed as Interim Police Chief in June 2025 to lead the SFPD until December 20, 2025 when permanent Police Chief Derrick Lew was officially sworn into the office.

Presently Yep serves as a Special Advisor in the SFPD to assist Lew in transition. District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey honored outgoing Interim Chief Yep at the Board of Supervisors on January 6, 2026 for his leadership and accomplishment leading the SFPD.

"Today I am honored to recognize our interim Chief Paul Yep with this special commendation and to thank him for his exceptional service to the city and county of San Francisco," said Dorsey at the Recognition of Commendations ceremony in the Board of Supervisors' meeting. "Paul's career reflects a deep and lasting commitment to the city he loves and the communities that have helped to shape him."

Dorsey looked back at the recent history of SFPD and said, "Those of you have heard me advocate for police full staffing. As I have been on that issue since I got here. You have heard me talk about the disproportionately large generational cohort of police officers reaching retirement age. These are the Bill Clinton era cops hired back when the federal government helped localities fund police hiring in the 90s."

"Virtually all of them are reaching retirement age now and San Francisco is no exception," Dorsey continued. "Although Paul Yep's tenure as SFPD Chief was brief, it came at a pivotal time with a number of high ranking retirements. At a moment when SF needed him most, Paul Yep's experienced leadership in overseeing a generational change of the guard at SFPD was significant and vitally important in ways that will benefit our city for years to come."

Dorsey had served as the Director of Strategic Communications for two years at SFPD immediately prior to his appointment as District 6 Supervisor.

He recalled during those days in the midst of COVID pandemic, Yep was the Commander overseeing police recruitment and worked with him to ensure recruitment advertising expenditure would also reach out to the ethnic and LGBTQ community based news partners to support them and assist SFPD recruit officers from all communities. "He believes, as I do, that real community engagement must also include community based journalism," Dorsey said.

During Yep's role as Interim Police Chief, "he continued to make meaningful progress on public safety citywide measured crime categories fell to historic lows reflecting the dedication of officers on the ground and the more effective use of voter approved tools," Dorsey said. "Partnerships with state, local and federal agencies were strengthened. For the first time since the COVID pandemic, SFPD saw a net increase in officers patrolling SF streets and neighborhoods."

Mayor Lurie attended the meeting to join all Supervisors to recognize Yep's excellence in serving the City. "I remember getting to know you [Yep]. We would go on walks in Chinatown and through your old district and we literally couldn't go a half a block without people calling captain, captain, or you know, just saying Paul, we miss you," said Lurie.

Lurie addressed Yep, "You came in during a very time of transition for the department. You not only gave me a lot of strength and support, you gave this department strength and support when it needed it . You are a bridge to this next generation of leadership here that is all around and this department is in incredible shape and a lot of that credit goes to you and to your leadership."

"I could go on and on," Lurie added. "But it is an honor to be able to call you not only Chief but also a dear friend, someone that really helped make San Francisco in 2025 the safest in many respects on record since the 1950s." "This recognition is well deserved."

"Chief [Yep] stepped in to this role at an uniquely important moment for the police department having been through a significant period of reform that was hard, but also now dealing with increasing demands from the public for a renewed focus on that basis of safety and having to balance all of the competing claims made on your department that would be challenging at any time, I think especially over this last year," said Board President Rafael Mandelman. "We are very very grateful that you have stepped forward."

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood remembered the short time working with Yep as Police Chief. He was impressed by Yep's quick responses and actions.

"When there was a string of burglaries in the Fillmore. You [Yep] and I work together and you immediately put in police ambassadors that haven't been seen in the Fillmore in years,” Mahmood said.

District 5 also covers the Tenderloin neighborhood. "In the Tenderloin where a community has been asking for beat officers for years and there's been no increase. You [Yep] work with Captain Sullivan and I don't know how you all did it so fast for what people have been asking for so long,” said Mahmood. “It just showed that you listened. You listened to the needs of the community, listened to the needs of the district and some of the most vulnerable communities in the entire city.”

District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill echoed Mahmood's remarks on Yep's "speed" of taking actions. "Speed to action is incredibly important and you had that in spades and thank you," said Sherrill who acknowledged Yep and the Command Staff for a quick response to an incident at the Planned Parenthood Health Center on Bush Street.

"You took something that easily could have been held up in bureaucracy," Sherrill said. "We got to see and you made it happen quickly. That's real leadership."

"I think that you [Yep] have demonstrated since your return back to the department that you really were doing this in the best interests of our city," said District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan. "You have also demonstrated that it has always been your intention to nurture the next generation of leadership within the department." "All these were work because of your leadership and that you have done that selflessly."

District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen thanked Yep for his support during her first year as an elected Supervisor. "You [Yep] were coming to District 11 multiple times to walk and talk with the merchants and also coming to support our events in District 11. Your leadership and your dedication of keeping San Francisco safe without words that can really describe it, but thank you that it's proven and it's keeping San Francisco safe and our city is on the rise."

"Despite that you [Yep] look for answers and outcomes, you don't make excuses when you could make excuses and you always try and figure out a way to improve things and you've done that for my constituents in District 3 many times in this past year," said District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter who represents Chinatown and North Beach.

"The work you [Yep] did almost a decade ago when you were at Central Station, now folks still remember the impact you had there and still speak fondly of you and in that district 3 community. So thank you for everything," Sauter added.

District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong praised Yep as "a true public servant" who was able to come back to serve the City and step up into the roles. Wong said he has seen the drastic changes and improvements in public safety over the past year.

"It's a real credit to your leadership, to the community and to the City and County of San Francisco. So those are and also being able to take innovative approaches in law enforcement and being able to bring a level of professionalism and pride to the profession," Wong said.

"Your short time as the Chief for not only being responsive but actually listening and understanding that terminology matters," said District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton. "We had conversations about things that affected the community and how officers responded to certain communities and we worked together to make those changes and you were very responsive and amenable to having those conversations."

"As somebody who was born here knows the community inside and out in all of the different communities exist side by side in San Francisco, because representation matters and also experience matters," District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar addressed Yep. "Thank you for stepping up but also the role that you played in the history of our city."

Yep was born and raised in San Francisco Chinatown as one of the two sons of his single mother who immigrated from China. He is a graduate of Lowell High School and San Francisco State University. He joined the SFPD in 1995 and retired in 2023 as a Commander.

"It is always a humbling experience to hear when others list your accomplishments. So thank you for that," Yep addressed in the commendation ceremony with several dozens of police officers and community leaders in the audience. "The last six months serving as interim Chief of police was an honor of a lifetime."

Yep said he was grateful and proud of all police officers and their commitment to serving the communities. "San Francisco's historic low crime rate at 25 to 30% decrease is a direct result of our officers' hard work, as they consistently prevent and investigate crimes, protect our communities and hold criminals accountable," said Yep.

"We opened a new real-time investigation center or ARCTIC to deploy technologies like drones to support the work and efforts of our frontline police officers tracking criminals who come to SF to commit crimes like retail theft and car break-ins,” said Yep.

On open-air drugs, Yep said SFPD has intensified operations around drug enforcement. In 2025, the drug marketing coordination center seized 56 pounds of fentanyl while officers made over 6,600 arrests related to drug activity. "Collectively our message is clear: anyone selling or using illegal drugs in SF will be arrested. Police officers will continue this effort for as long as it takes," said Yep.

The SFPD is still short of police officers. "We need more police officers in our communities and we've been doing some work on recruitment. Yes, we are hiring," Yep noted.

"This past year marked the first net positive in officers patrolling the streets and neighborhoods for the first time since the 2020 global pandemic," Yep said. "The SFPD academy has had four fill classes in a row with the newest academy class starting last month."

"What is encouraging is that we are seeing more high quality applicants due to our work on streamlining the hiring process and increasing outreach and advertising for both entry level and lateral police officers," Yep said the morale among police officers has been higher as SFPD continues to focus efforts on providing basic police services.

"Our mission of keeping the city safe with integrity and respect will continue to flourish, grow and thrive," said Yep. "Thank you again. San Francisco residents and Mayor Daniel Lurie for the opportunity to serve as the Chief of Police. Thank you to all the SFPD officers for your commitment to serve, protect and engage our communities."