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 separate unit to investigate all officer‑involved shootings.

Supervisor David Campos, whose district has seen several officer‑involved shootings, asked Lee whether he would support the district attorney’s request for a special unit that would be physically separated from the district attorney’s main office and staffed with investigators and attorneys (the district attorney’s proposal discussed at the meeting asked for a budget of about $1.9 million and a staff of roughly 16). Lee said he would review the proposal and committed to reading the report produced by the Blue Ribbon Panel on Transparency, Accountability and Fairness in Law Enforcement before making a decision. He said the Department of Justice had been asked to review the Police Department’s use‑of‑force policies and that the DOJ had provided preliminary feedback.

Multiple supervisors said the Blue Ribbon Panel report, preliminarily released in the days before the meeting, raised “scathing” findings about oversight and the presence of “rogue officers.” Campos said the panel documented a 100 percent increase in fatal officer‑involved shootings in 2015 and asked the mayor to back the DA’s independent unit. Lee said the DA already has authority to investigate shootings and that investigations are ongoing; he said he would review the panel’s full report before deciding whether to support new DA funding.

Supervisors also pressed the mayor about community‑level trust and how the new budgeted funds would be distributed and overseen. Lee said the $11.3 million for prevention would flow largely to programs that have worked in San Francisco — he named Roadmap to Peace and the IPO hiring program — and that the budget process would provide an opportunity for the Board and budget analysts to ensure funds go to the intended community organizations.

Several supervisors urged faster action and clearer commitments on oversight and independence. Supervisor Eric Mar and others asked Lee whether the mayor would support creating an independent Office of Citizens’ Complaints with its own line‑item funding; Lee said he would review the question and discuss the independence of the office with the Board.

Public commenters and coalition representatives reiterated demands for stronger, independent investigations of officer‑involved shootings and for structural changes to policing and oversight. Several speakers asked the Board to press the Police Commission and mayor to remove or replace Police Chief Greg Suhr; others asked the Board to back formal requests to the U.S. Department of Justice for a civil‑rights investigation.

The mayor framed the proposed investments as part of a broader, multi‑year effort combining training, equipment for less‑lethal responses, implicit‑bias training, expanded crisis intervention training for veteran officers, a proposed department Bureau of Professional Standards, and stepped‑up community violence‑prevention programming. He emphasized the work would continue beyond the funds announced and said the Board would have input through the budget process.