Welcome back to our “Meet the Candidates” series, where District 6 supervisor candidates respond to a question in 100 words or fewer. Answers are published every Tuesday.
District 6 includes SoMa, Mission Bay, Treasure Island and Yerba Buena. Its current supervisor, Matt Dorsey, was appointed by Mayor London Breed on May 9, 2022. He is up for re-election this November against one challenger, Alex Behrend. Because Behrend does not meet our guidelines here, he is not included in this series.
Public safety has been a persistent concern in District 6. It includes some of the city’s highest-crime areas, has seen longer police response times than the rest of the city, and records more serious traffic collisions than any other district.
In SoMa, some residents and business owners have complained of crime and slow police responses to lower-priority calls.
According to 2025 police data, SoMa’s crime rate was more than twice that of every other San Francisco neighborhood.
Calls-for-service data also show that, while police generally respond quickly to the most serious emergencies, waits can be far longer — anywhere from nearly 40 minutes to almost two hours — for less urgent calls, like a burglary where the suspect has already left the scene.
SFPD and Dorsey have blamed staffing shortages, and Dorsey himself is running on a platform of full police staffing. Southern Station has, since December 2025, grown from 91 to 111 patrol officers, above the 105 recommended under the city’s existing staffing analysis.
But on Oct. 1, the station will take on more territory, which police expect to increase calls for service by 23 percent.
Amid a citywide staffing shortage, SFPD has increasingly turned to technology for crime enforcement. This fall, the department plans to launch a drone-as-first-responder pilot in SoMa, which the department says would allow drones to reach some calls before officers.
The city also has more than 400 automated license-plate readers across the city, which police say can help identify suspects and recover stolen vehicles.
Both technologies have raised concerns about privacy and efficacy. Outside agencies have improperly searched San Francisco’s license-plate data, including on behalf of ICE. Critics of police drones have warned that they can collect footage of people uninvolved in crimes.
Dangerous traffic conditions pose another public-safety challenge. District 6 has recorded more traffic-related injuries and fatal crashes than any other district, and has seven of San Francisco’s 33 speed cameras.
SFMTA says the cameras have reduced the number of drivers traveling at least 10 miles per hour over the speed limit by nearly 80 percent at camera locations. While state law currently caps San Francisco at 33 cameras, city officials have sought authority to install more.
This week’s question: What would you do to make streets safer in District 6?
Matt Dorsey
- Job: Current District 6 Supervisor
- Age: 61
- Residency: Renter, living in District 6 since 2008, has lived in San Francisco since 1990 (except for four years in Washington, D.C.).
- Transportation: Public transit, walking, biking
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Emerson College
- Languages: English
- Website: Reelect Matt Dorsey 2026
Three things:
Fully staff SFPD;
Deploy more speed enforcement cameras; and
Expand automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and drone usage.
There’s no substitute for police full staffing. Although we’re finally hiring more cops than we’re losing to retirements (for the first time since 2019), our voter-mandated staffing methodology shows we’re now nearly 650 officers short of the 2,257 full-duty cops needed.
Beyond that, SFPD’s voter-authorized safety technologies have been hugely successful, and we need more of them. Speed cameras have cut dangerous speeding by 80%, and our ALPRs and drones are dramatically reducing car break-ins and helping solve crimes.
Endorsed by: Mayor Daniel Lurie, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, Senator Scott Wiener … read more here.
Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidate, please let us know at sarah@missionlocal.com // io@missionlocal.com.
You can register to vote via the sf.gov website. Illustrations by Neil Ballard.
Journalistic malpractice – there is a candidate opposing Matt Dorsey. You should delete and post an updated version with the candidate opposing him, Alex Behrend.
Hello there —
Mission Local has opted to only include candidates, for all offices, who have received either a notable endorsement or have reached a modest fund-raising threshold. If and when Mr. Behrend or any candidate achieves either of those criteria, he or she will be included.
See the ground rules here: https://missionlocal.org/2026/08/how-mission-local-covers-elections-2026/
Best,
JE
A reminder that the Police Commission requested the methodology be updated to reflect the 8% drop in 911 calls handled by SFPD that were diverted since 2021 to other agencies (50,000 calls a year!), but SFPD refused because that would mean considerably fewer cops. Same reason they refuse to hire more civilians to do their desk work (cheaper and faster).
They are doing far less work, getting paid more for it, and they still want more cops. That’s not what people voted for, and Dorsey knows it.