San Francisco Mayor London Breed has announced she was introducing a public safety ballot measure, four days after publicizing her office’s record on anti-crime efforts.
She addressed the public and the press, standing against the backdrop of iconic Victorians at Alamo Square, flanked by political supporters.
The ballot measure, Safer San Francisco, calls for changes in policing policies — giving police access to more technologies, loosening restrictions on street pursuits and amending the process by which the police commission can make policy changes. Underlying all the proposals is an effort to reduce the time police officers spend on administrative tasks.
“We’re going around the board of supervisors, we are going around the police commission, we are going straight to the people of San Francisco,” Breed said. “We need the people to know the challenges that made it so tough for us to do simple things that we know the public wants to see. We are going directly to the voters!”
“San Franciscans deserve a police department with the same access to surveillance technology as every other county in California … This is a neighborhood where the restrictions on surveillance technology are nothing less than a fentanyl dealer full-employment act.” District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey
According to Breed, the police department does not have full access to city-owned and operated surveillance cameras and is not permitted to use drones. These permissions are regulated by the Committee on Information Technology, a city panel that determines policy regarding privacy and surveillance technologies.
“San Franciscans deserve a police department with the same access to surveillance technology as every other county in California,” said District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey. “I represent the South-of-Market neighborhood, I live in Mid-Market. This is a neighborhood where the restrictions on surveillance technology are nothing less than a fentanyl dealer full-employment act.”
A step back from ‘micromanaging’
In a written statement, Breed said the measure will allow for a pilot period for the use of new technologies of up to one year without a Board of Supervisors approval, which she said would otherwise cause unnecessary delay.
The new measure would also amend the city charter to add new rules for the police commission, the seven-member committee appointed by the mayor and Board of Supervisors that sets standards for the police department.
Any changes the police commission wants to make would involve engagement with local merchants and neighborhood leaders. These are people Breed says understand the day-to-day challenges and impacts of their decisions and what real-life conditions require of police officers.
“The measure will prevent the Police Commission from micromanaging the Chief of Police, and ensure all new policies put in place do not require more than 20 percent of an officer’s total on-duty time be spent on administrative duties,” Breed said.
The measure is also expected to loosen rules regarding active pursuits, but the exact details in the ballot measure are not yet known. The department still operates under a 2013 general order that says an officer shall not initiate a pursuit of an individual suspect of a non-violent felony, misdemeanor, property crime, or vehicle code violation, except when there is a reasonable belief the person could be suspected of a violent felony.
Tuesday was the deadline for proposing ballot measures for the next election, according to John Arntz, director of the San Francisco Department of Elections. From here, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors must schedule a hearing to review the measure in committee by Nov. 16 before sending it to elections for inclusion on the March 2024 ballot.
