San Francisco police officials are celebrating the completion of a years-long effort to reform the department.
The process started seven years ago after a police shooting in San Francisco's Bayview District. The police department and critics said the reforms are good news, but there is still more to be done.
"It would have been easy for us to say 'We're too busy. Can't do it,'" San Francisco police Chief Bill Scott said. "We did not. We doubled down."
Scott said the department continued its commitment to reforms even in the face of a pandemic and a national reckoning after the George Floyd incident.
The completion of 272 specific reforms being submitted to the California Department of Justice completes a procss that started nearly eight years ago. That is when 26-year-old Mario Woods was shot nearly two dozen times by five SFPD officers -- one of a series of police shootings that prompted a string of reforms by then police Chief Greg Suhr.
Suhr resigned after being forced out of the department over public pressure due to the shootings. Scott was brought in with a mandate to finish the job.
Among the accomplishments, the department said police shootings have dropped by 50% and use of force fell by 65%.
While the chief is celebrating submitting the finals reforms to the Department of Justice, there are critics who said the police department still has work to be done.
"The racial disparities in terms of who gets stopped, who gets searched and has force used on them are still unacceptably high, and remain so under these reforms," San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Brian Cox said.
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Cox hopes additional restrictions adopted by the police commission recently will have some impact on those disparities.
Meanwhile, Cristine Soto DeBerry, is concerned that recently passed local propositions could roll back reforms.
DeBerry is with the Prosecutors Alliance of California, a law enforcement reform organizations.
"Measure E permits now police pursuits in misdeamenor cases," DeBerry said. "That's very unusual and out of keeping with most places in this country."
Measure E was put on the ballot by Mayor London Breed, who has made dealing with crime in the city a major priority.
"This does not mean that we won't continue the great work that we're doing to balance the reforms that we need to implement, as well as making sure that we focus on public safety for San Francisco," Breed said.
Most of the mayor's opponents in the November's election said they support the SFPD reforms under Scott. But Mark Farrell, the city's former interim mayor, said he would fire Scott if he is elected. His campaign declined to comment on Friday's milestone.
