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Committee presses SFPD on academies, overtime and role shifts as EMS 6 expansion looms
Summary
Police Chief and the BLA clashed over proposed cuts to body-worn camera funding, academy classes and materials, while supervisors explored redirecting officer duties to new EMS 6 street-crisis teams and civilian positions.
The Budget & Appropriations Committee spent a prolonged afternoon session examining the San Francisco Police Department's budget, focusing on three disputed BLA reductions — body-worn camera funding, materials and supplies, and at least one academy class — and on the department's role in a planned shift of certain crisis calls to community-based responders.
SFPD Chief Bill Scott said the department cannot accept cuts to body-worn camera funding this year because the cameras' lithium batteries are approaching the end of their useful lives and the replacement work was delayed by COVID. "The lithium batteries within the cameras...will approach the end of their useful life this year," the chief said, adding that failing batteries would risk gaps in recording during officer shifts.
The BLA defended its suggested reductions as an attempt to align budget authority with historical spending and to reflect changing workload assumptions if non-police providers take on more crisis response. Nick Menard of the BLA said the office observed carry-forwards in the materials/supplies and camera budgets and recommended a $777,000 alignment in body-worn camera funding based on prior spending patterns.
Supervisors pressed the department on civilianization and the scheduled expansion of EMS 6 community paramedics and Mental Health SF services. Simon Pang, who helps lead EMS 6, said combined street-crisis teams (community paramedic + behavioral health clinician + peer) could significantly reduce police responses for behavioral-health calls and that four additional units could be operational this fall with two more following early next year if hiring and training proceed on schedule.
Supervisors also requested detailed cost estimates for: mounted and school-resource programs, the number of sworn officers currently in positions the city could civilianize (the department identified roughly 50 positions it has sought to convert, with about 30 pending), and the likely effects of shifting responsibilities onto DPH/EMS 6. Several supervisors proposed placing some position savings on reserve in year two to preserve oversight while a transition plan is implemented.
The police and the BLA agreed to continue technical discussions; the committee asked the SFPD and BLA to return with reconciled numbers on camera carry-forwards, materials and supplies, academy-class costs and a list of sworn positions that can be civilianized.
What happens next: SFPD and the BLA will coordinate with the Controller on carry-forward accounting and return next week with reconciled numbers and operational impacts; supervisors signaled interest in redirecting some academy or overtime dollars to civilianization and EMS 6 ramp-up.
