SAN FRANCISCO —The city of San Francisco has issued an Executive Directive aimed at tackling severe staffing shortages in the city’s Police Department and Sheriff’s Office, both operating at historically low levels.
The San Francisco Police Department is short more than 500 officers from the recommended 2,074 full-duty personnel, according to the directive. The sheriff’s office faces a similar crisis, lacking roughly 200 deputies.
In response, the directive outlines both immediate and long-term strategies to restore staffing levels and ease the burden on current personnel. Early actions include creating a Reserve Officer Program to bring back recently retired police officers for patrol and investigations, establishing a similar retention program for sheriff’s deputies and forming a Special Events Officer Program to deploy retired peace officers for parades, concerts and other public events.
The directive also calls for streamlining the hiring process by reducing administrative delays, leveraging technology to shorten recruitment timelines and reviewing police academy operations to boost graduation rates without lowering standards. An interagency working group will evaluate how departments can share personnel and resources more efficiently.
Longer-term strategies focus on reassessing employment practices such as overtime and special duty assignments, reallocating administrative roles to civilian staff and exploring legislative updates to retirement policies to support lateral hiring from other jurisdictions.
Public reports will track progress, evaluate reform outcomes and recommend further action if necessary. City officials aim to build a sustainable pipeline of qualified officers while addressing immediate operational needs, according to the directive.
Full list of proposals:
100-Day Actions:
- Launch a Reserve Officer Program to bring back recently retired police officers for patrol and investigations.
- Create a retention program for retired sheriff’s deputies to return to full duty.
- Establish a Special Events Officer Program using retired peace officers for public events.
- Streamline hiring in coordination with the Department of Human Resources.
- Review and propose changes to police academy operations to improve graduation rates.
- Partner with the private sector for recruitment outreach and process improvement.
- Use data and technology to accelerate hiring.
- Form an interagency working group to explore personnel and resource sharing between departments.
- Expand technological tools like drones and real-time investigation systems to support operations.
Six-Month Actions:
- Evaluate employment practices including special duty assignments, sick leave, and overtime use, with findings to be released publicly.
- Identify administrative duties that could be handled by civilian staff.
- Reassign sworn officers from non-core duties to patrol or investigations.
- Establish partnerships with local businesses to better coordinate public safety efforts.
One-Year Actions:
- Develop legislative proposals to modernize retirement policies and facilitate lateral hiring from other agencies.
- Publish a progress report analyzing reform effectiveness and recommending additional actions if needed.
