Civil grand jury urges tougher leash enforcement, data transparency and interagency access on dog bites

The civil grand jury presented a report on dogs and public safety recommending that Animal Care & Control (ACC) consider increased leash-ticket enforcement, publish bite statistics online, and make dog-incident data more readily accessible to the San Francisco Police Department’s Vicious and Dangerous Dog unit.

Paul Ferdner, presenting for the jury, said the jury found the majority of public dog bites in public involve off-leash animals and noted ACC issued only 25 tickets in 2017. The jury recommended publishing bite-location and incident summaries and urged ACC to study whether its 1 a.m.–6 a.m. closure impairs emergency response.

ACC and SFPD representatives disputed some recommendations. ACC cited budget constraints and privacy concerns about publishing data the jury had requested, and SFPD said state CLETS/security rules prevent direct hosting of the Chameleon incident database on police desktops; officers can access Chameleon by going to ACC or via controlled methods. Committee members suggested technical solutions such as ACC-provided, preconfigured laptops or secure remote access to reduce the burden on officers.

Supervisor Brown raised repeated complaints from Haight-Ashbury residents about long leashes and sidewalk-blocking, particularly affecting seniors and people with disabilities. ACC acknowledged enforcement and reporting limitations and said it will continue neighborhood-focused enforcement efforts.

The committee accepted the report into the record and will monitor follow-up.