Police staffing, body-worn cameras and OCC workload top police budget hearing

The San Francisco Police Department told the Board of Supervisors’ Budget & Finance Committee on April 20 that accelerated hiring, information-technology upgrades and vehicle replacement are central to the department’s FY 2016–17 budget picture.

Chief Gregg described the department’s all-funds revenue and said the department has about 2,988 total FTEs across work orders and is pursuing a substantial hiring campaign. He noted the City Charter’s 1,971 full-duty officer benchmark and said the department has budgeted 2,241 officer positions—some of which are recruits in training—and reported 1,806 officers currently at full duty. "We hired 876 police officers since 2012," Gregg said, noting retirements have reduced net gains and that the department expects to reach charter staffing on its accelerated academy schedule by late 2017 if hiring and academy throughput continue as planned.

Supervisors asked for clearer accounting of officers in non–full-duty statuses (injury, leave, academy), and one supervisor said he would ask the Controller's Office for an independent analysis of the 1,971 benchmark and the department's off‑street pool to improve transparency about when budgeted positions translate to officers on patrol.

CFO Catherine Maguire explained recruits are paid from the budget when they start the academy and that the department budgets funds to pay those recruits in the fiscal year when compensation occurs; attrition adjustments are made in the budget presentation.

On body-worn cameras, Chief Gregg said the department drafted a policy that the Police Commission considered (committee vote reported as 6–1 on the draft) and that the policy is in meet-and-confer with HR and the police association; the department completed an RFP and finalized a contract the month of the hearing and expects to begin outfitting officers no later than July 1 starting with Bayview and Ingleside, with the goal of equipping street-assigned officers over time. "The cameras are on its way," Gregg said.

Gregg also described vehicle- and station-related capital needs: he said the department should be replacing roughly 138 vehicles and 23 motorcycles and will request an additional 76 vehicles/motorcycles because a large share of the fleet exceeds 100,000 miles or is more than 10 years old; he described ongoing station upgrades (fencing, HVAC, roofing) and mentioned $30 million from an existing bond program available for major improvements. Gregg said a new crime lab and crime-scene investigation facility is planned at Evans and Toland with construction expected to start next year and a hoped-for opening in fall 2019.

Joyce Hicks, Executive Director of the Office of Citizen Complaints, told the committee OCC expenditures are about 92% personnel and that the office needs enhancements to handle officer-involved-shooting investigations and the additional workload that will accompany body-worn camera footage review. Hicks said OCC investigators currently assigned to officer-involved-shooting cases have caseloads around 14 while other investigators average about 28; a Controller report cited by Hicks found a best-practice investigator caseload is about 16. OCC requested additional staff (Hicks said the office sought six additional staff, including a senior investigator), transcription services for interviews and additional vehicles (OCC has two vehicles, one of which is 16 years old) to support fieldwork.

The committee continued item 3 to the call of the chair so the Mayor’s Office, Controller’s Office and department can finalize budget details and schedule follow-up reporting.