SEC. 4.127. POLICE DEPARTMENT.
§ 4.127
This section establishes the Police Department's core duties, structure, and oversight. It defines the department's mission, grants the Chief of Police authority to appoint special officers and exercise riot-suppression powers, requires the Police Commission to oversee district stations and staffing levels through a biennial reporting and review process, mandates a separate budget line for settlement payouts, and authorizes patrol special police officers who may hold territorial rights subject to Police Commission approval.
The Police Department's job is to keep the peace, prevent crime, and protect people and property by enforcing laws. The Police Chief can hire and fire special police officers on their own. The Police Chief also has the same powers a sheriff would have to stop riots and serious disturbances. The Police Commission (with Board approval) runs district police stations and can open, close, or move them. When the city pays out money from lawsuits or settlements related to police actions, that money must come from a separate line in the police budget. Every other year (odd-numbered years), the Police Chief must report to the Police Commission about how many officers the department has and recommend staffing levels for the next two years. The Police Commission then holds a public hearing and can consider these recommendations when approving the budget, but doesn't have to follow them. The Police Commission also reviews whether civilian workers can do jobs currently done by police officers and reports this annually to the Board. Patrol special police officers (a type of private or contract officer) can be appointed by the Commission and may be assigned to specific areas; they can pass their area to someone else if the Commission approves.
- Complex:The staffing provisions involve multiple interlocking deadlines, reports, and procedures spanning different calendar years and fiscal years, with conditional language that requires careful tracking of when actions must occur.
- Controversial:Police staffing levels and budgets are subject to ongoing public debate in San Francisco, and this section establishes the procedural framework for those decisions, which reasonable residents may view differently.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
The Police Department shall preserve the public peace, prevent and detect crime, and protect the rights of persons and property by enforcing the laws of the United States, the State of California, and the City and County.
The Chief of Police may appoint and remove at pleasure special police officers.
The Chief of Police shall have all powers which are now or that may be conferred upon a sheriff by state law with respect to the suppression of any riot, public tumult, disturbance of the public peace or organized resistance against the laws or public authority.
DISTRICT POLICE STATIONS. The Police Department shall maintain and operate district police stations. The Police Commission, subject to the approval by the Board of Supervisors, may establish additional district stations, abandon or relocate any district station, or consolidate any two or more district stations.
BUDGET. Monetary awards and settlements disbursed by the City and County as a result of police action or inaction shall be taken exclusively from a specific appropriation listed as a separate line item in the Police Department budget for that purpose.
POLICE STAFFING. By no earlier than October 1 and no later than November 1 in every odd-numbered calendar year, the Chief of Police shall transmit to the Police Commission a report describing the department’s current number of full-duty sworn officers and recommending staffing levels of full-duty sworn officers in the subsequent two fiscal years. The report shall include an assessment of the Police Department’s overall staffing, the workload handled by the department’s employees, the department’s public service objectives, the department’s legal duties, and other information the Chief of Police deems relevant to determining proper staffing levels of full-duty sworn officers. The report shall evaluate and make recommendations regarding staffing levels at all district stations and in all types of jobs and services performed by full-duty sworn officers. By no later than July 1 in every odd-numbered calendar year, the Police Commission shall adopt a policy prescribing the methodologies that the Chief of Police may use in evaluating staffing levels, which may include consideration of factors such as workload metrics, the Department’s targets for levels of service, ratios between supervisory and non-supervisory positions in the Department, whether particular services require a fixed number of hours, and other factors the Commission determines are best practices or otherwise relevant. The Chief of Police may, but is not required by this Section 4.127 to, submit staffing reports regarding full-duty sworn officers to the Police Commission in even-numbered years.
The Police Commission shall hold a public hearing regarding the Chief of Police’s staffing report by December 31 in every odd-numbered calendar year. The Police Commission shall consider the most recent report in its consideration and approval of the Police Department’s proposed budget every fiscal year, but the Commission shall not be required to accept or adopt any of the recommendations in the report.
The Board of Supervisors is empowered to adopt ordinances necessary to effectuate the purpose of this section regarding staffing levels including but not limited to ordinances regulating the scheduling of police training classes.
Further, the Police Commission shall initiate an annual review to civilianize as many positions as possible and submit that report to the Board of Supervisors annually for review and approval.
PATROL SPECIAL POLICE OFFICERS. The Commission may appoint patrol special police officers and for cause may suspend or dismiss patrol special police officers after a hearing on charges duly filed with the Commission and after a fair and impartial trial. Patrol special police officers shall be regulated by the Police Commission, which may establish requirements for and procedures to govern the position, including the power of the Chief of Police to suspend a patrol special police officer pending a hearing on charges. Each patrol special police officer shall be at the time of appointment not less than 21 years of age and must possess such physical qualifications as may be required by the Commission.
Patrol special police officers may be designated by the Commission as the owners of a certain beat or territory which may be established or rescinded by the Commission. Patrol special police officers designated as the owners of a certain beat or territory or the legal heirs or representatives of the owners may dispose of their interest in the beat or territory to a person of good moral character, approved by the Police Commission and eligible for appointment as a patrol special police officer.
Commission designation of beats or territories shall not affect the ability of private security companies to provide on-site security services on the inside or at the entrance of any property located in the City and County.
(Amended November 2003; March 2004; Proposition G, Approved 11/8/2016; Proposition E, Approved 11/3/2020)