Supervisors hold broad hearing on DOJ reforms, crisis intervention training and proposed Tasers for SFPD

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors held a committee‑of‑the‑whole hearing on the Department of Justice collaborative reform initiative and San Francisco Police Department progress on the DOJ’s recommendations, with an extended public discussion of crisis intervention team (CIT) training and the police commission’s pending consideration of electronic control weapons (commonly known as Tasers).

Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer convened the session and said the Justice Department’s decision to scale back federal monitoring makes local transparency and continued implementation — not retreat — essential. “We are committed to every one of the 272 recommendations,” Chief Bill Scott told the board. He said he would continue implementation work even though the Justice Department concluded its formal oversight phase.

Status and implementation

Chief Scott reported that the department had submitted 81 recommendation packages for DOJ review; that number reflects packages the department considers complete for DOJ evaluation though he emphasized that submitted “completions” sometimes require ongoing training and follow‑up. Scott said workstreams include policy changes, data collection and technological upgrades, training and the establishment of an ongoing reporting process to provide independent public progress reports.

Training and CIT

Supervisors and community advocates pressed the department about the scale and speed of CIT training. Scott said 931 officers had received a short-form CIT/field‑tactics module (the transcript later corrected the short course to 20 hours) and 737 officers had completed a 40‑hour CIT curriculum; he described…