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Budget analysts and police officials flag overtime, staffing gaps in SFPD audit; chief outlines civilianization plan
Summary
A Budget Legislative Analyst audit found uneven patrol staffing and high overtime in the San Francisco Police Department and recommended target-based staffing and civilianizing roles. Chief William Scott said SFPD agrees with many recommendations and described planned conversions and hiring to increase foot-beat coverage.
The Budget and Legislative Analyst presented a staffing and overtime audit of the San Francisco Police Department at the committee's June 13 meeting, recommending that the department set a target for the proportion of time patrol officers spend responding to calls and pursue large-scale civilianization of positions to free sworn officers for patrol.
The audit found that while patrol staffing increased, the proportion of patrol time responding to calls for service declined; BLA recommended using the time-on-call measure to harmonize staffing across districts. The office identified at least 200 positions for position-by-position civilianization and urged the department to tighten internal controls around overtime, especially overtime linked to arrests and investigations.
Chief William Scott told supervisors the police department has already agreed to many of the recommendations, selected a 30% calls-for-service target and has converted 25 positions this fiscal year with plans for additional conversions. Scott said the department plans a multi-year program of civilianization, a steady hiring pipeline and some new investments, including legal and records staff to meet AB 748 (transparency) obligations and foot-beat staffing paid by existing salary savings.
Scott said recruiting for sworn officers is difficult nationally and stressed the department must continue recruit academies while converting non-patrol duties to civilian roles. The Chief described a multi-year hiring and conversion plan that aims to add officers to patrol through a mix of civilianization, additional academy classes and other hiring.
The BLA presentation and SFPD response underscored the committee's emphasis on shifting routine and administrative work away from sworn officers, improving equity of deployment across police districts and curbing overtime by replacing extended shifts with regular full-time FTEs where feasible.
