San Francisco Police Commission Meeting - May 14, 2025: Chief's Farewell, CIT Report, EIS Update, Language Access
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San Francisco Police Commission Meeting – May 14, 2025
The San Francisco Police Commission met on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, at 1:45 PM. The meeting included an officer recognition ceremony, a presentation of the 2024 Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) annual report, a follow-up on the Early Intervention System (EIS) rollout, a presentation on SFPD’s language access efforts, and unanimous approval of a revised Department General Order on community policing. Chief Bill Scott announced his departure, receiving tributes from commissioners and the public. The commission also voted to enter closed session and later voted not to disclose that discussion.
Consent Calendar
- Unanimously approved (4–0) items: donation of eight pieces of art to the mounted unit (estimated value $2,000); department use of non-entity camera police quarterly report for Q4 2024; and SFPD/DPA’s SB 1421 and SB16 monthly report for April 2025.
- Unanimously approved (4–0) the minutes of the meetings of April 2, 9, and 16, 2025.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Chris Workline (public comment on general items) expressed concern about emails sent to the commission being deleted. He requested the commission and DPA be included in proper use of surveillance equipment and urged identification of unauthorized users.
- David Elliott Lewis (public comment on Chief’s Report and CIT) thanked Chief Scott for his support of the CIT program, noting quarterly meetings and delivery of resources. He also spoke in favor of the co-responder model and encouraged commissioners to attend the upcoming CIT awards ceremony on May 28, 2025, at 11:00 AM at Scottish Rite Masonic Auditorium.
Discussion Items
- Chief’s Report – Chief Bill Scott reported crime statistics: overall crime down 27% year-to-date, property crimes down 29%, violent crimes down 16%, homicides down 27% (9 vs. 11 last year), a 45% reduction in car break-ins, 366 guns seized (41 ghost guns), and zero shootings for the week. He detailed major incidents including a homicide on Sunnydale, a stabbing, and a sideshow at Pier 32. He also noted that he is stepping down as chief to lead a new transit police agency in Los Angeles County (serving ~12 million people). Commissioners and Director Henderson expressed gratitude for his eight years of service, highlighting his implementation of 272 reform recommendations, cultural change, and crime reduction.
- DPA Director’s Report – Executive Director Paul Henderson announced a new language access focus group at DPA, a Distinguished Knight Award for the stop data audit, and a collaboration with Harvard Kennedy School on small business crime impacts. DPA opened 50 new cases and closed 55; top allegations were conduct unbecoming. Zero cases over 270 days and 97 sustained cases pending with the Chief’s Office.
- Commission Reports – Commissioner Yee reported on SFPD’s Denim Day (April 30) in solidarity with sexual assault survivors and the Night of Remembrance (May 1) honoring 101 fallen officers.
- CIT 2024 Annual Report – Lieutenant Donald Anderson presented: 72% of agency CIT-certified (unchanged from prior year); 24,510 calls for service (27% drop due to fire department taking over some wellness checks); staffing doubled from 4 to 8 officers; a co-responder clinician now works with CIT two days a week; the unit moved to a centralized location at Park Station; a new report-writing system captures mental health hold data; and the CIT unit will present at the 2025 CIT International Conference. Commissioner Clay noted the 40-hour and 10-hour training courses. The unit plans to launch a “care link” for individuals to share triggers and needs.
- Early Intervention System (EIS) Update – Sergeant Darnaval reported that the transition to the Benchmark system continues to face data pipeline issues. For Q4 2024, 575 indicator points were generated, with 172 alerts for 129 members (90 members with 1 alert, 35 with 2, 4 with 3). One intervention was closed successfully; currently no active interventions. The department is piloting Benchmark’s EIS at two stations. Because of staff turnover at Benchmark, the department had to manually generate alerts, reviewing 14,000 officer records and spending 14 weeks to close a data gap. Approximately 90 support tickets have been opened with Benchmark, with resolution times averaging 28 business days. The data pipeline is expected to be complete by the end of September 2025.
- Language Access Presentation – Dr. Diana Arroche (Director of Policy and Public Affairs) and Director Jorge Rivas (OCEIA) presented on SFPD’s compliance with DGOs 5.20 and 5.23. SFPD has 550 bilingual members (441 officers certified in 5 core languages). In FY 23-24, 41 members were newly certified. The department supports over 103 languages via website and 240 languages (including ASL) via Language Line. A five-year comparison of language access support was provided (2019–2023 data; 2024 report forthcoming). Key accomplishments: 19 of 40 academy graduates bilingual; a language access audit completed at all district stations; 16 neighborhood safety meetings with interpretation in Spanish, Cantonese, Tagalog, and Russian; and revision of DGO 5.20 has begun. The unit is exploring a uniform modification (name tags or pins indicating spoken languages) and enhancing data collection for hate crimes and foot patrol interactions. Commissioner Yee noted the value of such identification. The 2024 annual report is expected by mid-to-late June 2025.
- Revised DGO 1.08 (Community Policing) – Sergeant Danny Lee presented the revised order, shortened from 12 to 3 pages to focus on broad guidance, with detailed procedures moved to a manual. The manual and DGO will go through the meet-and-confer process together. The commission voted unanimously (4–0) to approve the revised DGO for use in meeting and conferring with bargaining units.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Calendar – Approved unanimously (4–0).
- Minutes – Approved unanimously (4–0).
- Revised DGO 1.08 – Approved unanimously (4–0) for use in meet-and-confer.
- Closed Session – The commission voted unanimously (4–0) to enter closed session (Item 14) and later voted unanimously (4–0) not to disclose any discussion from closed session.
- Chief’s Departure – Chief Scott announced his retirement from SFPD to become chief of a transit police agency in Los Angeles County. Commissioners, staff, and the public expressed appreciation for his eight years of service. The commission will work with the mayor to initiate a search for a new permanent chief.
- Next Steps – CIT unit to present awards ceremony on May 28, 2025; EIS data pipeline completion expected by September 2025; Language Access 2024 annual report to be submitted by June 2025; DGO 5.20 revision to be completed by end of 2025.
Note: The meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:30 PM. A subsequent press conference with Mayor Lurie and Chief Scott, captured in the raw transcript, was not part of the commission meeting and is not reflected in this summary.
Meeting Transcript
President Lyons, like to take role? Commissioner Scott is excused. Commissioner Leon. Commissioner Clay. Present. Commissioner Benedictus excuse. Commissioner Yi. Here. President Lyons, you have a quorum. Also with us tonight, we have Chief Scott from the San Francisco Police Department and Executive Director Paul Henderson from the Department of Police Accountability. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome. Good morning. It's okay. It's okay. Well, that was a test. So I'm glad my fellow commissioners are paying attention. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our May meeting. Sergeant, can you please uh start with the first item? Line item one, weekly officer recognition certificate. Presentation of an officer who has gone above and beyond in the performance of their duties. Officer James Johnson, star number 2430 from the strategic investigations unit. Hello. Afternoon, President Elias. Afternoon, Chief Scott. If I could have Officer James Johnson, more effectively known as JJ. If you wouldn't mind coming up, JJ, with your family. So my name is Tom McGuire. I'm the acting captain of strategic investigations. And it's my pleasure tonight to introduce our officer of the week, James Johnson and his family. A little bit about James James Johnson, like I said, more effectually known as JJ. He did his field training at Terravel Station. He went to Bayview Station. Later worked at Central Station, worked on the footbeats, Fisherman's Wharf, Footbeats. He worked a plain clothes assignment, and then he came and worked for us at the real-time investigation center, where he has uh brought great skills, great knowledge, and has brought a lot of success to the unit. JJ's been uh awarded many prior uh commendations, captain's commendations, a silver medal of valor when he was involved in a shootout with a carjacking suspect, a bronze medal of valor when he ran into a burning building to alert the residents in the building that the building was on fire, saving lives. He came to us at the real-time investigation center in August of 2024 at a time in which we were just beginning our new mission with our new technology, our drones, license plate readers, direct access to our cameras, where we're lever leveraging our technology, and uh JJ's really brought something very special to the group. Over the past year, there's been a lot of news about the Arctic, uh big reduction in crime, uh a lot of safety, safety for our citizens, safety for our officers, and all involved. Although we've been the subject of much local and national news, it's really the people that are the core that are bringing success to this. Not only just JJ and his fellow uh teammates that's behind us, uh a great showing from the Arctic. It's uh it's the hardworking police officers, the patrol officers, the plain clothes officers, the specialized units, it's leaders like Sergeant Tony Serkey, who has helped build the Arctic, Lieutenant Scott Ryan helping uh lead the Arctic, uh leaders like Captain Steve Jonas and Lieutenant Dave Goff running the citywide plainclothes team helping and working in coordination with JJ every single day. He's already worked a full shift at the Arctic. I think we've already had four uh occupied stolen vehicles arrested today, and uh now he's here all dressed up, suited up, and with his family. So JJ's got incredible experience, his knowledge, his specialized skills, and his abilities, and truly is a next level performer at the Arctic. Uh without JJ, we would have nowhere near the success that we're having today. Like I said, the testament to JJ's character. He's a uh he's a great person, he's humble, he's kind, he's hard working, and more importantly than being a great police officer, is that JJ is a even better person. Uh, we'd like to introduce his wife Annabel tonight, his daughters, Isabella and Elizabeth.
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