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Independent monitor says SFPD reform is under way but slower than community demands; activists press for per-capita disparity reporting
Summary
Hillard Hines, the independent consultant overseeing much of San Francisco’s DOJ collaborative reform work, reported progress on policies and compliance measures but said finishing all 272 DOJ recommendations within the current contract era is unlikely; community groups urged faster action, better data and permanent accountability.
San Francisco’s effort to implement recommendations from the U.S. Department of Justice assessment of the Police Department remains a work in progress, an outside consultant and community groups told the Board of Supervisors Oct. 20.
Hillard Hines, the consulting team hired to help the city implement the DOJ’s 2016 collaborative reform initiative, briefed the board and said the program has moved from policy development into implementation. Lindsay Morgan and senior adviser Michael Durden said the department had finished many “compliance measures” tied to DOJ recommendations and expected a new phase of reporting in 2021, but they did not expect to reach every recommendation before the consultant contract ends.
“We are in a good road,” Durden said, adding the goal is to institutionalize reforms so the department can continue them after outside monitors leave. Hillard Hines estimated most recommendations tied to use-of-force and accountability have advanced, noting the department has published a new written-orders framework (DGO 3.01) and a bias-free policing policy (DGO 5.17).
San Francisco Police Chief William Scott told supervisors the department has restructured to support reform, created a division for data and oversight and revised core policies. “We do expect 80% of the recommendations to be completed by the end of phase 3,” he said, and outlined milestones including new policies, audits and audits-driven corrective actions.
But community speakers and several supervisors pressed for clearer measures of progress. Felicia Jones of Wealth & Disparities in the Black Community presented per-capita analyses showing much larger racial disparities — including far higher per-capita use-of-force and arrest rates for Black residents — than the raw totals presented by the department. “We are 13 times that of whites to be subject to use of force,” Jones said, calling the city’s pace “atrocious.”
Deputy Public Defender Bridie Cox told the board the city needs “lightning-fast cadence, not good cadence,” and asked for sharper timelines and explicit targets tied to racial disparity reduction. Several supervisors asked for more frequent public briefings; Supervisor Connie Chan (note: actual speaker names from transcript) and others urged quarterly reports rather than annual updates.
Hillard Hines and SFPD officials said the city now has compliance measures and a “prescreening” process intended to avoid repeated back-and-forth with state reviewers and to accelerate validation for completed reforms. They said some measures are constrained by external factors — including labor meet-and-confer rules and technology budgets — and said changes to procurement and staffing were being used to accelerate progress.
The Board did not take legislative action at the meeting, but several supervisors urged that the department provide per-capita disparity statistics, a prioritized timeline for remaining recommendations and a public plan for sustaining reforms after external monitoring ends.
