Activists blast supervisors' approval of police contract and wages without advancing reforms
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco police reform activists on Tuesday blasted the Board of Supervisors for approving the city's renegotiated contract with the Police Department amid ongoing efforts to reform the department, which the activists say aren't moving fast enough.
Supervisors approved the new contract 9-2, with supervisors Hillary Ronen and Dean Preston voting against it, on second reading.
The latest contract approved wage increases for officers over an extended period of time.
But, according to Preston, Ronen and the police reform activist group Defund SFPD Now, the wage increases weren't leveraged to further implement all 272 reform recommendations outlined by the U.S. Department of Justice back in 2016 amid a spate of fatal officer-involved shootings citywide.
The city's most recent officer-involved shooting occurred just two weeks ago, in which officers shot 26-year-old Antonio Estrada during a confrontation along Market Street, leaving him with critical injuries.
"Time and time again, the Board of Supervisors has shown itself unwilling to fully acknowledge and address the brutal police violence that continues in San Francisco," Defund SFPD Now said in a statement.
The activists called the latest contract agreement "yet another bad deal for the city and for communities most impacted by police brutality in San Francisco."
Although during the previous supervisors meeting, San Francisco Police Association President Tony Montoya he'd be willing to sign off on many of the DOJ recommendations if the contract was ultimately approved, the activists accused supervisors of squandering yet another opportunity to advance reform measures through a possible "side agreement" with the SFPOA.
"The supervisors' failure to even address the lack of a meaningful side agreement raises questions as to whether their calls to end police violence are anything more than performative," Defund SFPD Now organizer Alex Karim said.
Ninety of the 272 recommendations have been implemented so far, 114 are in the process of being implemented, and the remainder are under review by either SFPD, the DOJ or by Hillard Heintze, the investigative and consulting firm hired to independently monitor the process.