San Francisco city leaders discuss the future of policing in reform meeting

SAN FRANCISCO - Protesters are once again taking to the streets of San Francisco calling for, among other things, money for police protection be reallocated to community organizations.

The mayor has spoken out in favor of shifting funding from police to community groups, the chief of police says he is open to the idea, and now protesters and leaders are trying to work out what the future of San Francisco police will be.

Protesters took to the streets of San Francisco calling for police reform. Organizer Alexis Lusk says it it time to rethink how to keep the city's communities safe.

"My community is looking for accountability, and for them to be accountable of their actions," said Lusk.

Lusk says she hopes city leaders listen and join the movement to divert funds from San Francisco police to community based organizations aimed at helping the community as a whole.

"We do want to see defunding from the police department and putting that into the brown and black communities," said Lusk.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed hosted a video conference aimed at exploring issues surrounding policing and the African American community.  "If we're going to make real significant change we need to fundamentally change policing itself."

She says although the city has a 6% African American population, they are vastly over represented in the city's homeless population, and criminal justice system.

The mayor is looking at shifting funds to help create real change in the city.

"Reforms go hand in hand both around police reforms and criminal justice reforms as well," said Breed. "We've seen in San Francisco a lot of real change, but also knowing that we have a lot more to do."

Police Chief Bill Scott adds that the city is making progress in the 272 recommendations from the Department of Justice five years ago to create a 21st century police force, but adds there a lot more work that needs to be done. "Even with the 61 recommendations that we have completed one of the things we had to work on is what's the continuous improvement loop," said Chief Scott.

San Francisco's mayor also released details on her roadmap to reform the police. She's calling for reducing the need for police to respond to non-criminal situations. Changing the departments hiring, promotional, training and disciplinary systems. Demilitarizing the police, and redirecting funding to invest in marginalized communities.