The San Francisco Police Department is so committed to using less force that they are now putting little “Safety with Respect” stickers on some of their vehicles.
If there were a sign at SFPD headquarters that said “X Days Since the Last Police Shooting,” that sign would today read “325 Days.” That’s the longest the department has gone without shooting a suspect in nearly 20 years, and the San Francisco Chronicle reports the department has seen a 30% decline in use-of-force incidents. Chief Bill Scott attributes to this to new, stricter rules of engagement, and additional training with an immersive five-screen, virtual reality use-of-force simulator that allows officers to duplicate high-risk situations.
And for good measure, the department is now putting “Safety with Respect” stickers on some of their vehicles, according to KCBS radio.
A skeptic might laugh at those stickers, and point out the city just shelled out $140,000 to the family of police shooting victim Luis Góngora Pat, rattle off additional victim names like Mario Woods and Alex Nieto, and remind you of a racist text scandal that rollicked the department a few years back. That prompted a 2016 U.S. Department of Justice report finding “deficiencies in every operational area assessed” and recommending 272 policy reforms. Only about a quarter of those recommendations have been enacted, though, and Mission Local reports that the California Department of Justice said late last year that the force was “not in substantial compliance.”
Comments (0)