Mayor Announces $17.5 Million Police‑reform and Violence‑prevention Package; Supervisors Press for Independent Investigations

Mayor Edwin Lee told the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on May 10 that his proposed budget includes $17.5 million in new spending over two years for police reforms, oversight and violence‑prevention programming.

Lee said $11.3 million of that package would go directly to community‑based violence‑prevention programs, $4.4 million would fund training, equipment and a new bureau inside the San Francisco Police Department for professional standards and “principled policing,” and about $1.8 million would expand staffing at the Office of Citizen Complaints to investigate officer‑involved shootings and other mandates (the mayor used the figure “$17,500,000” in his remarks).

The announcement came at a policy discussion with the mayor after a string of protests and officer‑involved shootings, including the high‑profile fatal shooting of Mario Woods. Several supervisors used the public session to press Lee about independent oversight and whether he would support the district attorney’s request to fund a…