Chief Bill Scott took on the difficult task of transforming a beleaguered SFPD. Did he deliver? 

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Chief Bill Scott took over the San Francisco Police Department more than eight years ago amid chaos and upheaval: A series of fatal police shootings, a hunger strike to oust the former chief, and federal government intervention to reform the department’s issues. 

Today, as upheaval continues in San Francisco — a shift back toward more law-and-order policing, a new mayor at the helm — Scott announced on Wednesday he will be leaving in June. He will head the LA Metro’s newly formed transit cops division.

Those who worked with him commended the reforms he oversaw, and acknowledged the complexity of his role. Still, many of those who observed the state of policing over his lengthy tenure as chief said they wished he had done more. 

“He made some progress, but I don’t think it was enough progress to close that project,” said former police commissioner Angela Chan of the 272 reform recommendations that the U.S. Department of Justice handed down to SFPD shortly before Scott took over. 

The state deemed the department “substantially compliant” earlier this year. But Chan and others disagree. “The disproportionate use of police violence continues,” Chan said. “I don’t think it’s dramatically improved.” 

Though Scott didn’t overhaul the department in ways that advocates had hoped for, some progress has clearly been made: The department’s use of force policy was changed to emphasize deescalation in late 2016, police shootings have on average halved, and a policy to limit “pretext stops” for minor traffic violations, which disproportionately impact people of color, was implemented in early 2024, with Scott’s support. Even with plummeting police staffing, crime is at historic lows.

For an unusually long time, Scott managed to placate the myriad voices in his ear, from advocates demanding more reform to a union that, from the outset, rejected him as an outsider.That also meant that no one was ever truly happy with him.

“It’s a really difficult line to walk when you have to respond to community and political demand, and then you have a police force that you need to support, and also direct and keep in line,” said Barbara Attard, former head of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement nonprofit. “I think he’s done a good job in trying to balance all those different forces.” 

Taking over during tumultuous times 

Scott took over the SFPD in early 2017, after longstanding discontent with former Chief Greg Suhr, who was appointed by then-Mayor Ed Lee. Protesters on hunger strike began demanding Suhr’s resignation in 2016 after a spate of controversial police shootings, including the 2015 killing of Mario Woods, Alex Nieto in 2014, Amilcar Perez-Lopez in 2015, and Luis Gongora Pat in 2016. 

The tensions culminated in the May 19, 2016 fatal shooting of Jessica Williams; Suhr resigned hours later. Also in 2016, the SFPD, along with Lee and then-Supervisor London Breed, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a full review of the department, and embarked on addressing the 272 reform recommendations that ensued. 

“There was a groundswell of organizing from the community,” Chan said. “There was mass and frequent protesting in order to push out Chief Suhr, and to make it really clear to city elected officials that we have to prioritize Black and brown people who are more at risk of police violence.” 

The SFPD union, also known as the Police Officer’s Association, or POA, pushed to hire from within the department — and, failing that, pick from anywhere except the Los Angeles Police Department. Scott, an LAPD lifer, landed the job. 

“It just seemed like he took this more to heart, cared more about it. But, at the end of the day, he’s still a police officer,” Chan said. “He’s still in a position where he’s beholden to the mayor … He did a lot of things that I don’t know if he necessarily believed in. And I think he did that to stay police chief.”  

Police shootings did drop off. Prior to Scott’s tenure, most years averaged more than eight shootings per year, and that number dropped to between three and five in the years after Scott took office. Crime, particularly homicides, have recently hit historic lows. 

Playing it safe

Scott has repeatedly said he doesn’t believe arrests are often the answer to resolving street activity, like drug markets and overt drug use, that plague certain areas of the city, most recently in an interview with Mission Local. And yet, as political winds have shifted, he has complied with police-heavy crackdowns on homeless encampments and small-time drug sales led by Mayor Daniel Lurie and Breed. 

When Scott took over the department, some said he remained beholden to an old guard that was used to things being a certain way. 

“He pretty much kept the same deputy chiefs and other ranking officers in place,” Attard said, which is far from the kind of departmental culture change that the community was hoping for.

Newly retired police commissioner Jesús Gabriel Yáñez agreed. Scott was never able to get other SFPD leadership on board and effect change on a larger scale, he said. Part of the problem, Yáñez said, was a lack of vision. 

“The chief is an excellent politician,” Yáñez said. “Not necessarily the chief that we needed to take the department and shift that culture in the direction that we needed.” 

When the department’s nonprofit arm, SF SAFE, was charged with mismanagement of funds, the chief failed to act. SF SAFE couldn’t respond with documents for an audit, and Scott chose not to pursue one. 

When the Department of Police Accountability uncovered a practice of the SFPD circumventing rules to set its internal policies for officers without commission approval, Scott defended the practice. 

When the Department of Police Accountability suggested that officers falsified traffic-stop data, the tracking of which was intended to identify and address racial disparities, and the police department failed in its auditing duties of the data, Scott deflected and warned against a “witch hunt.” 

Former police commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone said that Scott’s “work ethic was exemplary,” and he pushed through “incredibly laudable reforms,” but he also “defended some of the department’s most lawless and reprehensible conduct.” 

“When pressed, he also did whatever it took to keep his job, even if it wasn’t in the best interest of San Franciscans,” Carter-Oberstone said. 

A hostile union 

Scott also drew the ire of the union by doing exactly the kind of reform-minded work he was hired to do. 

He opposed Prop. H., a failed ballot measure that would have allowed the union to dictate Taser policy; studies have shown that Tasers increase police violence.  

After the botched raid of freelance journalist Bryan Carmody’s home in 2019, Scott first defended it, then admitted the department acted improperly. “It is time for Chief Scott to go,” then-union head Tony Montoya wrote in May 2019, blasting the chief for “self-preservation” and “political kowtowing.” 

Scott also dismissed Chris Samayoa, a rookie officer who fatally shot unarmed alleged carjacker Keita O’Neil through his car window in 2017. 

Then, too, the union spoke out: “The Chief and the majority of his administration DO NOT have your back,” wrote then-president Martin Halloran in the union’s newsletter. 

Current union head, Tracy McCray, did not respond to a request for comment, though in recent years she vehemently opposed the landmark pretext-stop policy that Scott tepidly supported. The policy limited police officers’ ability to stop cars for minor traffic infractions, like broken tail lights, unless there was evidence of a more serious crime. 

In a Wednesday press statement, McCray congratulated the chief while writing that “we may not have always agreed on issues.” 

Officers who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they liked Scott, but acknowledged the resistance internally. 

“I think a lot of times, other rank-and-file officers might have not been huge supporters of him, because he was bringing in a lot of change, and change always brings pushback,” said one officer.  

“The union has a job to protect officers. The chief has a job to fairly hold those of us that do wrong accountable,” said another officer. “Maybe they didn’t like his standard for holding officers accountable.” 

That officer said that Scott “made many strides to educate officers” about diversity, winning him appreciation from minority and LGBT officers, and had an impact on shifting the culture of the department by emphasizing de-escalation and overseeing a decline in police shootings. 

What’s next

Chief Scott is returning to his roots in Los Angeles, to head the metro’s transportation police force. 

Reformists expressed concern about what would come next. Though Scott wasn’t perfect, everyone agreed that he achieved some good for the city. 

Petra DeJesus, a former longtime police commissioner who served through the transition to Scott’s leadership, called him “a firm leader, yet calming influence over a rigid Police Department and a provocative Police Officers Association.” 

She encouraged today’s commissioners to explore hiring someone outside of the department to avoid returning to an “inflexible and persistent ‘Old San Francisco Way of Doing Business,’ or a reconstitution of stagnant policies that contributed to the old police department’s unpredictability and inconsistency.” 

Commissioner Kevin Benedicto echoed this, and said he does intend to conduct a national search for the new chief along with the mayor, his colleagues, and the community. Right now, Paul Yep, a former SFPD commander and Lurie’s “policy chief” in charge of public safety, is interim chief. 

“SFPD’s progress is proof that evidence-based, effective reforms can build trust and keep both communities and officers safe,” Benedicto said. “But there is still more work to be done. I am committed to finding a Chief of Police who is ready to build on this progress.”