SEC. 16.123. CIVILIAN POSITIONS WITHIN THE POLICE DEPARTMENT.
§ 16.123
The Police Department may convert vacant sworn officer positions to civilian roles, but cannot lay off officers to create those vacancies. If the Mayor or Board of Supervisors proposes such conversions in the budget, the Controller and Police Chief must assess whether the change would reduce neighborhood policing, patrol, investigations, or emergency response capacity, with input from the Police Commission.
When a police officer job opens up in the Police Department, the city can decide to fill it with a civilian worker instead of a sworn officer. However, the city cannot fire officers just to create civilian positions. If the Mayor or a Supervisor wants to convert officer positions to civilian ones, the Controller and Police Chief have to write a report saying whether this would mean fewer officers doing neighborhood policing, patrol work, or investigations, or would hurt the city's ability to respond to emergencies. The Police Chief should ask the Police Commission for their thoughts before writing the report.
- Controversial:The conversion of sworn police positions to civilian roles is a subject of genuine public debate in San Francisco regarding police staffing levels and public safety priorities.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
(a) Positions in the Police Department may only be converted from sworn to civilian as they become vacant. No sworn officer shall be laid off in order to convert a position to civilian personnel.
(b) If the Mayor or any member of the Board of Supervisors proposes to convert positions in the Police Department from sworn officers to civilian personnel through the budget process, the Controller and the Chief of Police shall report on whether the reduction would decrease the number of police officers dedicated to neighborhood community policing, patrol, and investigations or would substantially interfere with the delivery of City public safety services, including services to protect the public in the event of an emergency. In preparing the report required by this subsection (b), the Chief of Police shall solicit input from the Police Commission.
(Added March 2004; amended by Proposition E, Approved 11/3/2020)