We Must Do Better

Protesters in downtown Oakland. Photo credit: Scott Strazzant/San Francisco Chronicle

On May 27, our group Stop Crime SF issued a statement condemning the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis and calling for the prosecution of the officers involved. Since we published that statement, major protests have launched in cities across the country. In light of that, more needs to be said.

The events of the last few days are the latest manifestation of the frustration and distrust with law enforcement that has been sown over the past century.

Police departments, in some ways, are doing better: many are the most diverse they’ve ever been, recruiting police officers from the communities they patrol.

But so much more still needs to be done when a police officer will kneel on a man’s neck for nearly nine minutes as three of his coworkers watch, an EMT can be killed in her own home as police conduct a raid on the wrong apartment building, and local news reporters get shot with pepper balls as they stand behind police lines.

There is still more work to be done to build trust between law enforcement and communities of color in our city, especially as San Franciscans watch the reactions of police to protests in other cities. San Francisco has implemented some critical reforms, but needs to do better on following through with the SFPD changes recommended by the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice.

This isn’t an abstract policy issue — our city’s decisions, and any failure to make the right ones, have direct, physical impacts on the lives and bodies of people of color.

We ought to continue building a police department that we can count on to protect everyone who lives and works here. We need to be able to trust that officers are being held to the highest standards any public servant can be. Bad actors in police departments strain the trust that residents need to feel comfortable calling 911 — that makes all of us less safe.