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Supervisors press for shared criminal-justice performance metrics as Justice Project lags
Summary
Supervisors at the Budget & Finance Committee urged coordinated measures across public defender, police, sheriff and probation offices and pressed for a clearer timeline for the Justice Project hub and police record-management rollout, saying current, siloed statistics don—t show systemwide outcomes.
Supervisors at a special Budget and Finance Committee meeting on departmental performance measures pushed city agencies to adopt shared, outcome-oriented metrics and pressed officials for a clearer schedule for the citywide Justice Project.
Public Defender Jeff Adachi told the committee his office represents "over 20,000 people every year" and said present measures focus too much on raw counts rather than outcomes such as successful reentry and completion rates. He said the office has begun a reentry-services program and will provide early-year tracking but that long-term, longitudinal measures will take time to mature.
Roderick Seymour of the Mayor—s Office of Criminal Justice, standing in for Director Alan Nance, urged development of measures that reflect program impact rather than administrative outputs. MOCJ—s recommended metrics include tracking evidence-based policy adoption, accountability tools for community-based organizations and periodic crime-trend reporting.
The committee focused much of its attention on technology that underpins cross-agency reporting. Police Chief Fong described limits in Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) standards and the SFPD—s need to supplement UCR clearances with unit-level and hand-count data. He said the department will roll out a new record-management system station-by-station beginning in March, and that the federal NIBRS system will coexist for a transition period.
Sheriff Hennessy and other agency leaders said the Justice Project—s central —hub— is the linchpin for shared measures. A project representative told the committee that the jail management system (JMS) is complete and awaiting the hub, that DTIS expects a hub connection within about 2–4 weeks, and that the police RMS pilot is scheduled for March or April at a single station.
Supervisors tied the performance-measure debate to budgeting decisions, arguing that percentage-based and longitudinal metrics (for example, percent of program participants who avoid re-arrest at 6 and 12 months) are more useful for allocating resources than raw tallies. Several supervisors also urged that the Gartner technology assessment be presented to the committee when complete so the board can weigh vendor recommendations as it prepares next year—s budget.
The committee did not adopt formal policy at the hearing. Members directed staff and departments to work with the Controller—s Office and MOCJ to produce coordinated February measures and asked for timelines and milestones for Justice Project milestones during upcoming budget hearings.
