The San Francisco Police Department is in “substantial compliance” with 272 state-recommended criminal justice reforms, the California Department of Justice announced today, ending the state’s years-long oversight of the department.
The SFPD, the state said, had implemented 263 of its 272 recommendations, or 97 percent, and was on its way towards fulfilling the other nine. In a 124-page report, the state said “significant work” had been done towards reform, and praised the police force: “No other major city department has done what the San Francisco Police Department has: Embarked upon a self-directed reform program with independent oversight.”
Max Carter-Oberstone, a police commissioner focused on reform, was more circumspect. He said that while there were many “laudable reforms” in the state’s recommendations, they were far from “best practices.”
“I’ve heard people say we’re a leader in reform because we’ve completed this, but that is not what this process was about,” he said. “This process was about bringing us up to the bare minimum.”
The state’s oversight started in 2018 after a spate of police shootings over the previous years, including the controversial 2015 killing of Mario Woods in Bayview and several more in the Mission, such as Alex Nieto in 2014, Amilcar Perez-Lopez in 2015, and Luis Gongora Pat in 2016.
The killings led to widespread outrage with SFPD. In April 2016, a group of Mission activists started a two-week hunger strike outside Mission Station, eventually leading to a hundreds-strong march to City Hall led by the hunger strikers, wheelchair-bound and pushed by the crowd. There, sheriff’s deputies clashed with the crowds occupying the rotunda, assaulting reporters and leading to dozens of arrests.
Jessica Williams, a 27-year-old Black woman, was shot and killed that May in the Bayview. The resulting pressure led then-Chief Greg Suhr to resign hours later, fulfilling the protesters’ key demand.
Mayor Ed Lee then hired Chief Bill Scott to oversee reform. Scott’s position is tenuous, as Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie can unilaterally choose whether to keep him on in his new administration. Lurie promised during the campaign to re-interview all department heads for their jobs.
The California Department of Justice praised SFPD under Scott’s tenure. The police force’s “overall use of force” declined between 2017 and 2023, it wrote, and its “yearly average of shootings” from 2018 to 2024 decreased 50 percent, compared to the number between 2011 and 2017.
There are still racial disparities in use of force, the state department wrote, “but the rate that force is used against Black individuals has significantly declined,” more so than the decline among other races. SFPD assigned several commanders and lower-level officers to work on reform, met with the state regularly, and implemented “cutting-edge practices,” like withholding mugshots and implementing transgender-policing strategies, the state said.
The California Department of Justice, the report read, “is unaware of any other law enforcement agency that has dedicated such a significant number of its command staff to reform efforts on a full-time basis.”
Still, there is outstanding progress, the department wrote. Namely, the racial disparities in the use of force, police stops and searches. The department also particularly flagged changes in use of force brought on by Prop. E, the March ballot measure that, among other things, limited the amount of time officers are required to use when reporting violent incidents.
“Cal DOJ is concerned that the enacted use of force policy changes could have negative impacts on the forward progress that SFPD has made thus far,” it wrote. “The time SFPD officers devoted to reporting use of force is a worthwhile investment … it is important for all stakeholders to understand that public safety and progressive policing can and should co-exist together.”
Barbara Attard, a police accountability expert, also worried about the changes from Prop. E, saying they were a “big concern” alongside the existing racial disparities for stops and uses-of-force, which were highlighted in a recent Department of Police Accountability report. Attard also pointed to the city’s recent report about a surge in police overtime, saying the department still has a ways to go.
In a statement, Chief Scott touted the report: “Today marks a significant milestone for the SFPD and for the future of policing. Crime has reached historic lows thanks to our hard-working officers and our work to build community relationships through our reform efforts.”
Mayor London Breed, in a statement, praised Scott and pointed to declining crime rates across the city, a fact she emphasized time and again on the campaign trail. “To see this accomplished at a time where we are seeing crime rates drop to levels not seen in over twenty years shows that we can deliver transformative reforms while remaining committed to accountability.”
For his part, Carter-Oberstone, Breed’s police commissioner, with whom she frequently clashed, pumped the brakes on the celebration. He pointed to several issues: Possible violations of state law from SFPD’s use of drones, alleged misreporting of race data in police stops, the misuse of DNA evidence, and more.
“I don’t feel like this is a moment to pop the champagne,” he said. “It’s fair to recognize the successes, but we still have a lot to do.”
Mayor Lurie has his hands full about SFPD compliance and the department of police accountability, especially since SFPD is awash with MAGAs.While DPA did put out some oversight, it was in spite of its hapless director Henderson, and lifer director of investigations. The mediation program was completely let go and the investigators lacked support from Henderson and their director of investigations. Yep is another scandal (the drunk driving matter). Yep brought in the Chinatown vote but at what cost to Lurie’s promise to clean house? If Lurie brings in an insider to be SFPD’s chief, someone better do a good vet job to keep SFPD in compliance with the alleged reforms and someone with a clean background. It’s going to be a long 4 years.
Congratulations Chief !
Would you consider personally commending Nick Grant at a Commission meeting ?
He’s the barista at Carlin’s Cafe who not only foiled a robbery on video but held the miscreant until Mission District cops arrived.
You must have seen the video.
I’d contact Walker but lost her info.
thanks,
h. brown
Hopefully this will bring an end to affirmative action policing and finally allow police to tackle black/latino gangs with force. No one cares white communists get the Willie’s cause blacks disproportionately cause more crime – we want an end to gang violence and don’t care how many of them get clapped in the process. No more sanctuary cities, let’s start defunding hell scapes like SF