SFPD says most DOJ recommendations are in substantial compliance but 27 remain in progress; agency names records and policy work as priorities

San Francisco ' Police officials told the full Board of Supervisors Sept. 27 that the department has achieved substantial compliance on most recommendations from the U.S. Department of Justice collaborative reform initiative but still has 27 recommendations in progress, and emphasized technology, training and policy work as essential next steps.

Why it matters: The DOJ recommendations follow a federal review of the San Francisco Police Department that led to a multi-year reform effort. Supervisors pressed police leadership on why racial disparities in stops and uses of force have not meaningfully declined despite adoption of many reforms.

What the department reported

Catherine Maguire, executive director of the SFPD's Strategic Management Bureau, summarized the department's status report: 245 recommendations are in substantial compliance and 27 remain in progress. She grouped the remaining work into four projects that together map to 23 of the outstanding items:

- Records management system (RMS) replacement to enable NIBRS-compliant, incident-based tracking of arrests and uses of force, and to permit richer analysis. - Data-informed personnel development, including an officer dashboard linked to updated performance-evaluation processes. - Community policing annual plans and advisory forums drawn from the community policing working group's proposals. - Management tools and discipline metrics making better use of existing business-intelligence systems.

"The biggest lift for this project is implementing an RMS," Maguire told the board. She said a new RMS would enable better analysis of arrests and force and help the department meet reporting requirements.

Chief's comments on disparities and policy

Chief Bill Scott told supervisors he believed the remaining reforms, taken together, would help reduce racial disparities in enforcement data but acknowledged the department has not yet turned the corner on disparity trends. Scott emphasized that no single recommendation will fix disparities and called out traffic and "pretext" stops as a policy area with high potential to reduce disparities. "We think that's going to make a difference," he said.

Supervisors pressed on culture change and measurement

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, Supervisor Shamann Walton and others asked for clarity on how the department would measure culture and whether internal personnel changes, promotions and discipline were being linked to bias reduction. Maguire and Chief Scott said the department is working with academic partners including the Center for Policing Equity on analytic frameworks and a planned CompStat-for-Justice program to provide ongoing measurement and review.

Timeline and next steps

Officials said funding for a new RMS was in this year's budget and that implementation would take multiple years. For items that require annual reporting or targeted audits, Maguire said the department is compiling review calendars and reports that will be routed to senior leadership. Chief Scott estimated many remaining recommendations could be completed within two to four years with the resources now committed, though he and Maguire both stressed that progress would be incremental and that some policy and systems changes take time to become sustainable.

Quotes

"When everything comes together, I do think we will turn the corner on reducing the bias that we see in our stops and our arrests and our use of force," Chief Bill Scott said. Director Maguire said the department has "a draft reporting" on aggregate complaint data that will require iteration before final publication.

Ending

The board did not take formal action at the update; supervisors requested continued briefings and asked for clear public reporting timelines on the RMS, dashboard work and the CompStat-for-Justice partnership.

(Reporting note: Chief Scott and Director Maguire presented the department's written status slides and answered supervisors' questions; the department did not announce immediate new policy changes at the hearing.)