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San Francisco hearing highlights racial and gender gaps in first‑responder recruitment, flags testing as barrier
Summary
City fire, police and sheriff leaders described recruitment efforts and pipelines; departments and unions said the National Testing Network and fee requirements have reduced local and underrepresented applicants. The Office of Racial Equity will analyze hiring and testing data and the committee continued the hearing to the call of the chair.
San Francisco — City officials and union leaders on July 30 told the Board of Supervisors' Government Audit and Oversight Committee that recruitment systems for first responders are producing unequal outcomes by race and gender and that testing practices merit reevaluation.
Fire Chief Janine Nicholson said the department’s diversity grew after a 1988 consent decree but that progress has stalled. She criticized the city’s use of the National Testing Network (NTN) and the fee‑based testing structure, saying those changes make it harder for local and low‑income candidates to apply and succeed and describing the resulting losses in African American and female representation. "I'd rather give a local kid a job than someone from Florida," Nicholson said in the hearing.
Police Chief Bill Scott described SFPD’s recruitment work — eight full‑time recruiters plus an 81‑member part‑time recruiter corps and a roughly $250,000 events budget — and said the department has used outreach, college recruiting, free…
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