Tony Montoya - SFPOA President

Our state faces a mental health crisis. San Franciscans feel this more than most. The SFPOA is working to advocate for more mental health funding and will be looking at new laws which will give local authorities a greater ability to intercede to ensure someone gets the care they need before they slip further towards a mental health crisis. This is the right thing to do and it keeps residents and officers safe.

Homelessness is not a new problem for our Department, and it is certainly not a new problem for the residents of San Francisco. However, the expectations of how police officers conduct ourselves managing our homelessness epidemic has evolved over time. The expectations have gotten much more demanding. And they’ve become unnecessarily complicated because of the political agenda of a few.

How Recruitment and Retention of Police Officers Remains an Ongoing Challenge

In the October 2018 edition of the POA Journal, I wrote about the challenges facing most law enforcement agencies in our country surrounding the recruitment and retention crisis. In that article which is reprinted on page 9 of this edition, I highlighted the hard work being done by the SFPD to try and keep staffing levels up even though we are not at the mandated 1,971 available full duty police officers per the City Charter.

Last year, a bill was hastily introduced in Sacramento by Assemblyperson Shirley Weber (D) from San Diego. That bill (AB 931) would have drastically altered our profession as it applies to use of force and would have been in direct conflict with a long established and often challenged United States Supreme Court ruling in Graham v. Connor.

In my two decades of service with the POA, from a station representative on the Board of Directors, to the elected Secretary followed by your elected Vice President, to my role as your President; I can recall many a crisis and many challenges faced by our organization. These challenges were never ignored or dismissed by past POA administrations and they will not be ignored under my administration.

As 2018 draws to a close, I have to admit that this year has been one of the most rewarding, stressful, busy, and chaotic years of my entire career. I was already serving as your Vice President and Chairman of the Negotiating Committee at the beginning of the year while I was working my fulltime assignment at Mission Station. I was able to handle all of this through the mediation and arbitration process due to an excellent negotiation committee and a fantastic Executive Board.

By the time you read this article Halloween will probably be over and we all know what happens next; the Christmas decorations come out at the retail outlets and the Christmas commercials start on TV. They probably have already started. Why we jump from Halloween right to Christmas is baffling. I guess it is because the almighty dollar takes precedent and there is not much to sell around two of the most important holidays of the year which both fall in the month of November.

In 1988, I entered the honorable profession of law enforcement. I, like most police officers, joined this profession out of pure passion, not seeking profit. Six years later, I applied and was hired as a lateral police officer by the SFPD. It was in that same year that San Francisco voters approved a measure requiring the City to maintain 1,971 full duty sworn police officers available to patrol the streets of our city. That number did not include officers who worked at the airport since SFO had its own police department at that time.

The first Monday in September long ago was established as Labor Day. A day of recognition if not celebration for those, past and present, who have offered their hearts and souls, along with their blood sweat and tears to further the rights and wages of the working man and woman while they pursue their dream in the United States. Many look upon this holiday as another reason to pick up a discount at your local Walmart or mattress center. Who doesn’t relish in a good deal? But it is important not to miss or dismiss the importance of this day.

How AB 931 will end proactive policing