After eight years as police chief, Bill Scott will leave the San Francisco Police Department to head the newly formed Los Angeles Metro transit police force, according to an internal email obtained by Mission Local.
“I will be joining the LA Metro Transit Community Public Safety Department, where I will have the rare opportunity to build a department form the ground up,” Scott wrote. “I will be using my experience as SFPD Chief — including everything I learned from our members — to address crime and quality-of-life concerns across the LA Metro Transit System, which spans the entirety of Los Angeles County.”
Mayor Daniel Lurie announced Scott’s resignation at a press conference today.
“This was an incredibly difficult decision, but at the end of the day, I was given an opportunity I simply could not decline,” Scott wrote to staff earlier this morning.
According to a 2021 job posting, the salary range for Scott’s position is between $223,000 and $335,000.
Paul Yep, Lurie’s “policy chief” in charge of public safety and a former SFPD commander, will be interim chief.
Before joining the SFPD, Scott served in the Los Angeles Police Department for 27 years, rising to deputy chief.
He became one of the longest-serving chiefs in San Francisco history, but never secured widespread support from the rank-and-file.
When city officials visited police stations across the city in 2016 and asked who officers would like to see in the top spot, they said they wanted an SFPD lifer instead of an outsider from the LAPD. Scott was chosen for the role of chief by the Police Commission over a candidate favored by the police union.
There was speculation Mayor Daniel Lurie would seek Scott’s resignation.
When Lurie asked the Board of Supervisors to remove reformist Max Carter-Oberstone in February, it was seen as Lurie ensuring that he had control over the appointment process: The Police Commission advances a list of nominees to the mayor for choosing, and Lurie wanted to make sure one of his choices was on that list.
Scott joined the SFPD in 2017, after public pressure over police misconduct led then-Chief Greg Suhr to resign. Scott entered a department beset by controversial police shootings and 272 recommendations from the U.S. Department of Justice for police reform.
The department announced earlier this year that it was in “substantial compliance” with most of the recommendations, and that the state’s monitoring of SFPD would end.
Scott wrote that he intends to stay on as chief until late June.
“It has been an honor to partner with Mayor Lurie and I will work to ensure that the transition does not interfere with the momentum we’ve created regarding improvements to public safety and street conditions,” he added.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
To paraphrase Warren Buffett: You put a good person in a rotten institution, and it is the institution’s reputation that will remain intact.
why is the parking control head in this pic? It did not exist in 1906. This is the same parking control person who you are writing about with the civil lawsuit.
Campers,
Only an Elected Police Chief with same hire and fire power as Sheriff and DA and CA can put the cops back in touch with the Town.
By assigning hundreds of officers to Permanent Beats just as we did for 100 years.
Mayor Lurie can get the Voters’ gratitude and they’ll be responsible how the department is run.
go Niners !!
h.
Campers,
Cops have lost community individual touch with the People.
We need a return of serious Permanent Foot Patrol Beats to get acquainted again.
Only a truly Independent Police Chief with same powers as Sheriff and DA and CA.
And, Mayor.
Citizens elected our Top Cop first 85 years of City’s existence.
Since then the Chief has been a Figurehead Shuttlecock batted between the Mayor and the SFPOA with 500,000 registered voters relegated to Mission Local chats.
Mayor Lurie should magnanimously return the choice of Chief to us Voters.
Bet you every single candidate promises Foot Patrols.
Hell, Chief Scott might win and serve for another quarter century.
go Niners !!
h.
Wishing him well.
Change is good .
Hopefully , a new police chief will be able to effectively see and address the lawlessness here .
The drug dealing , usage , vandalism , stealing which have not be adequately addressed here with the laws on the books will be prioritized .
Safety and the publics wellbeing needs to be the focus .
Hard to understand why there is still even one drug dealer free on the streets to poison and harm others .
Yes, it’s time to get serious and address the illegal activity that is going on and destroying this city. Let’s start by going after the institutional landlords who use price-fixing algorithms like YieldStar to constrain unit availability and set rents artificially high. C’mon, Mr Mayor, show you are not SOFT ON CRIME and prosecute real estate holdings like Crescent Heights, Greystar, Trinity, and their compadres in rental collusion. Now that SFPD is going to get all that sweet, sweet OT, can we get some police mobile units with their lights flashing parked 24/7 in front of criminal landlord offices like you have on 16th and Mission?
Don’t forget John Stewart Co, Veritas, Lennar, Zephyr… it’s a long list.
The irony is that SF rent laws pushed out so many mom & pops owners, only to be taken over by the entities you cite….whej things are onerous, they break. Meanwhile building insurance is going up 50%!
Anyway Back to SFPD: PRIORITY #1 for the new chief needs to be: prosecute all the drug dealers, gee there have to be hundreds.
I don’t disagree with your points, but I don’t think for example rent control can be considered among them.