New Report: San Franciscans Spend More And Get Less From Their Police Department Than Most Major CA

[tenderfoot]

SAN FRANCISCO – March 15, 2022 – A publication released today by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice examines performance trends within the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD). At an annual cost of about $704* per resident, the SFPD remains a disturbing outlier among police agencies across the state. The SFPD solves fewer crimes compared to other large California cities while arresting Black people** with the widest racial disparities of any jurisdiction evaluated statewide.

The SFPD has a history of mismanagement, wasteful spending, disproportionate policing of communities of color, and lack of transparency. The SFPD consistently has the worst statistical reporting of any California law enforcement agency, large or small. In particular, the SFPD does not specify an offense in most youth arrests and wholly fails to specify Latino ethnicity among arrestees, which masks information about who is coming into contact with police and why. As issues mount, this policy brief explores the limitations of recent reform efforts and opportunities for further action.

The SFPD has the highest cost per square mile patrolled, the second-highest spending level per resident, and the most employees per resident of California’s six major-city police departments.

SFPD arrests have declined by an average of 60 percent per reported offense from 2010 to 2020, challenging conventional beliefs that more police lead to lower crime.

The SFPD has the lowest rate of reported offenses solved by an arrest (8.8%) compared to other major city departments.

The SFPD arrests Black people at the highest rate of any major California city. In 2020, the SFPD’s arrest rate for Black people was 9.8 times higher than its arrest rate for non-Black people, and 3.6 times the average arrest rate for Black people statewide.

The SFPD is the only police agency in California that refuses to specify Latino ethnicity in arrest data. Its failure to comply with statewide standards distorts analyses and potentially masks true racial arrest disparities.

The SFPD fails to specify an offense in 86 percent of juvenile arrests and 17 percent of adult arrests. This is four and 12 times the state average, respectively.

http://www.cjcj.org/news/13268

[dutch777]

1. It seems police are less and less willing to engage in real policing for a number of reasons

I think, like teachers, the more you engage, the more you risk getting your hand slapped or worse. If the DA isn't going to prosecute, why suffer the paperwork and the hassle of an arrest? And if there is no consequence for a lower arrest rate, well, easy decision. Covid has a lot to do with it too as who wants to get in someone's face that can give you a deadly disease? It was clear where I lived in WA state during Covid that unless you were driving like a maniac, police weren't pulling people over so they could stick their head in their car window. And while BLM has a righteous cause, saying defund the police doesn't exactly tell officers they are in a secure and supported line of work. We need to figure out a way to better support the folks doing these hard, often thankless and underpaid jobs that we clearly need done in a way that has them feeling valued and have metrics that assure we get the value they can bring to the community. Right now, we are paying the taxes but the results in many communities are clearly not at the level of value we need as a society.