The Chamber of Commerce’s Annual City Beat Survey has been released for 2013. You might remember me praising the men and women of the SFPD last year for posting record approval ratings: 72% Favorable/18% Unfavorable in the 2012 survey. Just when you think that the men and women of this Department couldn’t be seen in a more favorable light, they post another well-deserved record year in the 2013 survey. In this year’s survey, the citizens of San Francisco see the SFPD as 76% Favorable/16% Unfavorable.
I have asked many times in my columns for you to decide to make a difference, and every day you go out and do just that. Every day you could go out, do the ordinary and that would be acceptable anywhere else. But that’s not okay here in San Francisco. Everyday you go out and do the extraordinary, the residents of San Francisco notice and love you for it.
Why such rave reviews again this year? Look at what you all have accomplished while down 15% in staffing. Currently, the San Francisco Police Department is down over 300 officers from full-staffing with approximately 1,650 officers working to keep San Francisco safe. In calendar year 2012, the SFPD responded to over 1.3 million calls for service, including 648,000 emergency calls and affected 28,213 arrests; including 23,759 custodial arrests where the suspect was physically “booked” into custody. Officers took over 838 guns off the streets of San Francisco in 2012, averaging nearly one firearm for every two officers assigned to the streets. That’s a lot of unbelievable police work and San Francisco is a safer place because of it.
While doing the police work listed above in 2012, the Office of Citizen Complaints received 740 complaints against San Francisco Police officers. Of the 740 complaints received, 11 have been recommended “sustained” by the OCC, and 177 cases remain open. Of the 11 recommended “sustained” complaints, none of the officers used an unnecessary amount of force in the performance of their duty.
*The above listed statistics were furnished by: the Department of Emergency Management’s Division of Emergency Communications (responsible for dispatching calls for service), the CompStat Unit of the SFPD (responsible for tracking arrests made), and the Office of Citizen Complaints (responsible for taking complaints against officers on duty):
That’s a lot of numbers to digest so, let me state the obvious more plainly:
Using “Calls for Service” as a measure:
For every 1,790 calls for service, one person had a complaint about the service provided by the San Francisco Police Department. For every 124,403 calls for service, one person had a complaint about the service provided by the San Francisco Police Department that was recommended “sustained.” And not one person in all 1.3 million calls for service has had a complaint of unnecessary force by a San Francisco Police officer that was recommended “sustained.”
Maybe “Calls for Service” isn’t the right measure. Let’s try “arrests made.” Let’s assume every complaint received by OCC was made by someone who was arrested.
That would mean only 1 of every 38 arrests resulted in a complaint about how the arrest was conducted by the San Francisco Police Department. Only 1 of 2,565 arrested made a complaint about how they were arrested, which resulted in a recommendation of “sustained.” And finally, not one of the 28,213 people arrested had complained about the amount of force used, while being taken into custody by the San Francisco Police Department that had resulted in a recommendation of “sustained.”
The San Francisco Police Department is among the finest in the world! The men and women of this Department do their duty every day with tremendous courage and restraint. We are given or assume more responsibilities almost daily. We continue to do more with fewer officers.
South of Market continues to “boom,” Treasure Island continues to be developed, Hunter’s Point Shipyard will soon be taking on residents, and Homeland Security is always a significant concern. Our teams are contending for championships annually. We will host the America’s Cup this summer. The President of the United States comes here as often as any other City in the country, other than Washington DC; and on and on. If there is a better City in the world or better cops to keep her safe, I can’t think of any. It is the greatest honor of my life to be your Chief.
When you look at the survey and the other numbers that report your performance, look at them as your job review from folks you have touched. With that in mind, it is nice for you to know that those for whom you put yourselves “in harm’s way” every day, working to keep San Francisco one of the safest major cities in America, appreciates what they’ve got in “you”- San Francisco’s Finest….the men and women of the SFPD.
Be safe out there,
Greg Suhr
Chief of Police, San Francisco Police Department
