Public Safety is the Foundation

The San Francisco we want to build is a city with vibrant communities, rich with culture and ripe with opportunities; where families can thrive and put down roots, businesses can open their doors and keep them open and seniors can age in place. However, all this depends on people feeling safe in their daily lives.

Employees need to feel comfortable commuting to work. Small businesses need confidence that their storefronts will be protected. Families should be able to let their children walk to school or wait for the bus without concern. Seniors should be able to age in the neighborhoods they helped build and take a morning walk in peace, as Vicha Ratanapakdee should have been able to do. When a city develops a reputation for disorder, it becomes harder to build the public confidence and long-term stability needed to support thriving businesses, schools, parks, housing and other shared priorities.

The city we want is predicated on public safety and the security it provides, so the rest of us can do our jobs, live our lives and build the communities we want.

As a first lieutenant in the California Army National Guard and a military police platoon leader, I deployed with my unit to wildfires and natural disasters across California. We were there to hold the perimeter, help evacuees and keep civilians out of danger so the firefighters could focus on the fire. Here in Sunset, holding the line for public safety takes enough hands, the right equipment and strong public safety laws. And it takes all of us pulling in the same direction.

This starts with staffing. We cannot ensure the safety of our neighborhoods if there is no one to patrol them. The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is a few hundred officers short of recommended strength, and the Sunset needs more of them, including officers who speak the languages our residents speak. I was happy to co-sponsor two items to close that gap: the ordinance to accept a $6.25 million federal cops hiring grant that would fund 50 new officer positions, and a memorandum of understanding that will help retain and recruit new police officers. Together, if they pass, they would bring officers in and keep them here. But this is only the first step.

We also need the tools and assets necessary to do the job effectively. Policing has evolved, and so have the opportunities to make it more effective. Today’s tools let officers respond faster, work more safely, and make better decisions. Last month, I voted to approve SFPD’s StarChase policy, which allows officers to avoid engaging in dangerous vehicular pursuits with the help of GPS tags that keep a fleeing suspect trackable. I also voted to put a $535 million Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response bond on the June ballot, which would fund critical upgrades to public safety facilities, including Taraval Station, which serves the largest and most populous patrol district in the City. These are not extras. They are how a modern department keeps the City safe. But this is only the second step.

We also need common-sense laws and policies that address the real harms and challenges we are facing in our communities. In December, I cosponsored legislation to increase the maximum fine for misdemeanor sideshow offenses from $500 to $1,000, matching Oakland and San Jose. In February, I cosponsored another ordinance in the same spirit, extending mandatory overnight retail closures for food and tobacco retailers into high-crime blocks across South of Market, giving officers a tool to help maintain safety. I am currently cosponsoring Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s ordinance to expand drug-free permanent supportive housing, giving San Franciscans who choose recovery a real chance at it. These are practical responses to real problems. That’s what it means to serve our communities.

San Francisco has been through a hard decade for public safety. The people doing that work, the ones who answer the call when it comes in, shift after shift, deserve a Board of Supervisors that sees them, funds them and holds the line with them. They have that in District 4. I’ll keep holding the line alongside the officers of the SFPD, so we can build the San Francisco that delivers on its promises to those who live here: where a vibrant city and a livable one are one and the same, where public spaces belong to all of us, and where public safety is a fact of daily life, not an aspiration.

Supervisor Alan Wong represents District 4 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Reach his office at wongstaff@sfgov.org or 415-554-7460.