As a City, we are facing an unprecedented public safety crisis that demands immediate action and a zero-tolerance approach to crime. Public safety has always been my top priority – both when I was Mayor and when I ran the Budget Committee in City Hall for four years. Starting on Day One, I will aggressively address the police staffing crisis and improve public safety across every neighborhood in San Francisco.
- Restore and improve the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP), allowing hundreds of experienced officers to return to our neighborhoods on patrol and walking the beat without affecting their pensions.
- Retain experienced officers and redirect them to policing and mentoring new officers.
- Commit to fully funding five police academies a year through the City budget to grow our police force back more quickly to the size it needs to be vs. the three the City has been averaging per year.
- As Mayor in 2018, I averaged five new police academy classes a year with an average of over 50 recruits per class, and I will do it again.
- Immediately outsource the officer background check process to trusted third parties, as other major cities have successfully done.
- It is estimated that over 500 police recruits are stuck in the bureaucratic maze of the City’s background check process.
- Create new and reduced hours at public parks with clear public safety issues from sunset to dawn to deter unsafe and illegal behavior.
- Expand and make permanent citywide illegal vending bans, with targeted enforcement in UN Plaza, Civic Center, the Tenderloin, and along Market Street to increase street cleanliness and decrease police calls.
