San Francisco Police Can’t Justify Growing Racial Disparities in Force

The crucial issue is ignored: Due to catastrophic policy, SFPD’s use of force numbers are worthless.

Nov 16, 2023

Officials struggle to explain

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is being called out by their police commission over 2022 Q4 data that reflects that police force was used 25 times as frequently on black people as white people. This data also appears to continue that shocking trend into 2023. A policy change effective in April 2022, is now broadening use of force and bogging down officers.

“In the previous quarter, the disparity was a magnitude of 11, and the highest disparity on record dated back to 2016, when Black people experienced force from police 16 times as much as white people.” Commission members aren’t satisfied with the answers, after all, they wrote the policy.

“Additional actions are now considered reportable uses of force, including an officer pulling out their weapon and getting it into a position known as “low ready,” with the gun pointed at the ground or away from a subject. Physical holds and takedowns, previously only reported if they caused pain or injury, must now always be reported.”

Casual observers around the nation might say that what they are seeing on the news and social media of organized hordes of black teens and young adults conducting looting raids on shops and stores around the country, make more violent or forceful encounters between black people and the police appear plausible. We can’t determine if that would scale accurately but there has to be some answer other than the default of blaming the police for crime and criminality.

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There is only one constant in these 2022 Q4 numbers: 3,281 arrests. When it comes to use of force, under the old standards there were 239 police uses of force. Under the new standards, there are 1,408. In other words, SFPD’s reporting method have caused uses of forces, only considering arrests to rise from an exaggerated 7.28% to an unreasonably high 42.91%.

Is police use of force random?

The majority of police use of force is in response to resisting arrest or defending from attack. There are rare exceptions but the overwhelming majority of police force data falls in those categories with resisting lawful arrest dominating the numbers. Officers in Nashville killed the Covenant School shooter to end the murder spree of Audrey Hale, but the majority of peace officers in this country, while prepared to, will never face a threat like that.

Officers don’t choose who they are sent to arrest. Every cop with experience knows better than to assume all the details in a dispatched 911 call are accurate. A vandalism may be domestic violence or stalking. A hit on a stolen vehicle may be related to a drive-by shooting.

The police also have no say in whether a suspect is compliant or resists, with or without violence. Activists give undue weight to an officer’s attitude or demeanor, frequently claiming that they cause suspects to fear, fight and flee for safety concerns. In 99.99% of cases, it doesn’t matter as the crime has already been committed. The criminals know the crime they committed will result in arrest if caught.

Crime, especially victimization, is not remotely evenly distributed among races or ethnic groups by population and neither are arrests.

Disparate impact

The fear of disparate impact has paralyzed law enforcement for the last decade. Heather Mac Donald writes in her recent article in City Journal:

“Disparate impact is why many police departments have dismantled gang databases and antigun task forces, why they have given up on public-order enforcement, and why they have all but eliminated car stops. It is why “progressive” district attorneys have stopped prosecuting trespassing, shoplifting, fare evasion, and resisting arrest, why bail is being eliminated, and why judges let repeat offenders back on the street.”

From the SFPD updated policy:

REPORTABLE FORCE - Officers shall report all use of force involving physical
controls that are used in any attempt to overcome any physical resistance, regardless
of injury or complaint of pain. Use of control holds to effect handcuffing, where the
person does not offer physical resistance, is not injured, and does not complain of
pain, are not included. Officers shall also report any use of force involving the use of
personal body weapons, chemical agents, impact weapons, ERIWs, vehicle
interventions, K-9 bites, and firearms. Additionally, officers shall report and
document in an incident report articulating the specific set of facts warranting the
pointing of a firearm (including low ready) at or in the direction of a person.

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The damage of terrible policy

The San Francisco Police Department serves as a cautionary tale. While criminals have no rulebook, officers have to deal with layers of complexity, even some contradictions, in their updated use of force policy enacted in April of 2022. Seemingly every split-second decision an officer faces in the policy includes six to eight decision points. Documentation requirements for a range of normal actions that didn’t previously constitute force (and in reality, still don’t) are both oppressive and onerous. The unintended consequence is the policy becomes a guide that disincentivizes officers in using proper and necessary force.

How did this regressive initiative begin? In 2015, while receiving negative attention on some controversial police incidents, the City of San Francisco appealed to President Obama and Attorney General Holder to receive a thorough audit of policing practices resulting in 94 findings and 272 recommendations. One of the recommendations was this enhanced force policy. The city has become synonymous with civilization in decline. It has transformed from being the most romantic city on Earth to a dystopian humanitarian crisis.

Eight years following federal guidance, nobody in the Golden Gate City is celebrating the results, especially not the command staff at SFPD.

Please keep all officers in your prayers, especially Bay Area cops!