San Francisco Mayor London Breed made an announcement of a program she hopes will make everyone in the city feel safer without involving police.
The city's police chief said the move is already allowing his officers to attend to more critical work around the city.
Mayor Breed announced the expansion of the city's community ambassador program. Ambassadors range from attendants to retired cops who serve as support for the officers on the ground.
The program has been around for two years and the mayor plans to add up to 150 ambassadors around the city in hopes of creating a safer city.
"These are retirees so they know how to speak the lingo and communicate with us," said police chief Bill Scott about the program.
He also said explained they don't have the power to detain individuals, but can use radios to communicate to officers. The chief believes this could help prevent crimes from happening.
The new ambassadors will be in the city in time for holiday season, primarily at BART and Muni stations.
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The mayor said the expansion of the program will cost close to $8 million.
"We scraped it together from some savings, from a number of different departments so we wouldn't have to go back and ask for the money again," she said.
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The goal is to make the program permanent.
