At the end of this fiscal year on June 30, 2014, the department will see the last of the DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Program) members retiring based on service. Depending on the figures provided by either the department or the POA, those numbers range from 65 officers up to possibly 80 officers. These numbers do not include folks who are retiring based on regular yearly attrition. That number could possibly reach an additional 40 to 50 officers annually.
Although the department has been aggressively hiring new patrol officers as quickly as possible based on the commitment to public safety made by Mayor Edwin Lee, the staffing within the SFPD is at one of its lowest levels in decades. The department has confirmed that its necessary staffing is nearly 300 officers short -- well below the mandated number of 1971 sworn officers set by the City Charter.
I realize that the numbers will eventually bottom out and swing back toward a staffing increase. I applaud the Mayor for recognizing this problem early and addressing it swiftly. If the Board of Supervisors of a few years past had extended the DROP program we may not be in this predicament. But they chose not to, so we are in a staffing crisis, and the department must strive to deal with it efficiently and effectively.
My over-riding concern is officer safety. Our members – the department’s most valuable resource – are being increasingly stretched to ineffective staffing limits, and serious safety questions have developed around the diminishing numbers. Is there sufficient staffing to cover the fundamentals of street patrol, including the most critical need of all – the 10-25 back-up responses?
The number one complaint I hear from our members is, “Marty, there is nobody working. Everyone is being detailed out. We had just one car working the entire district!”
Details
Outside details are nothing new. They are routine and prevalent in the SFPD. A world-class city tends to generate a myriad of special events, as well as a large number of spontaneous, non-permitted demonstrations, marches, and/or violent protests. Add to these – some 200 scheduled events per year – details like Giant’s games, hospital prisoner watches, mandated POST in-service updates, and other necessary training and the need for local station staffing adjustments becomes nearly an art form.
Hospital details require a minimum of two officers. The perpetual fixed post details (i.e. Turk & Taylor, 16th & Mission, Friendship Alley, etc.) also require a minimum of two officers. The weekly numbers required for spontaneous marches, protests, demonstrations, celebrations, fairs, block parties, or organized parades that the SFPD must facilitate and staff are nearly incalculable.
The SF Giants
Last season, I have heard this valid staffing concern voiced many times about the Giants game details. Of course, the complaints tapered off at the conclusion of last year’s season. Well here we are less than three weeks after the Giants home opener and, as Yogi Berra once said, “It’s deja vu all over again.”
For every home Giants game the department details two officers to AT&T Park, drawing from 5 of the 10 district stations. These officers handle pedestrian, crowd, and traffic control around the perimeter of the park. This is on top of the officers inside of the stadium that the Giants pay for, not the department, to maintain order. When the Giants are at home against the Dodgers, or if there is a playoff game, then all 10 district stations are required to detail a minimum of two officers.
Don’t get me wrong; who doesn’t love the Giants? I’m out at the ballgame whenever I can make it, but when the franchise has shown their worth to be over $1 billion, and it ranks as one of the top five wealthiest franchises in the MLB http://blog.sfgate.com/johnshea/2014/03/26/forbes-sf-giants-oakland-as-are-filthy-rich-check-these-numbers/#21888101=0 then I think the time has come for the department to make some logistical changes in order to ensure that there is adequate patrol coverage at district stations while also sufficiently policing AT&T Park.
A Possible Fix
In the context of the department staffing crisis, I have offered to the administration several suggestions enumerated below to rethink the deployment of officers to Giants’ games. Leaving regular patrol officers out on the streets within the districts will better serve our community and must be addressed now.
1) Negotiate with the San Francisco Giants franchise to supplement the cost of SFPD officers on the perimeter of their stadium similar to the franchise covering the cost of the officers on the interior of the stadium. This would illuminate the detailing of on-duty officers being removed from patrol duties at district stations for the duration of home Giants game. This would also be consistent with the fiscal coverage provided by the San Francisco 49ers franchise at Candlestick Park, even though that stadium is owned by the city.
2) Absent of a successful negotiation with the Giants, the department should seek additional funding from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to cover the cost of officers conducting official duties along the perimeter of AT&T Park for Giants home games. This would also eliminate the necessity of detailing officers to AT&T for Giant home games.
3) Negotiate with the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department to take over duties within the facilities that their department maintains control. San Francisco General Hospital is under the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Depart. According to Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, the housing of inmates within their jail facilities are at the lowest point in decades. Transfer the excess deputy sheriff’s to custody responsibilities at SFGH.
4) Fixed posts at district stations shall only be manned if the watch for that shift has 80% staffing or better. The 80% staffing appears to be the threshold that the department wishes to maintain. It should apply that ratio to fixed post details.
I have to say that Chief Greg Suhr, and his Command Staff, are doing their utmost to provide the best service and protection to all San Franciscans based on the means at hand. But our department is at a tipping point where staffing at the district stations must be addressed now. If my suggestions were taken on a temporary basis or on a pilot program initiative then that would be a start. If my suggestions are taken as a long-term solution to a serious FOB problem, at this time, then all the better. The residences of this city deserve proper police coverage, and certainly our members deserve ready and fast back-up. Either way this department must stop detailing officers out of FOB to the point of depletion of patrol.
Slainte
