A new report shows police in San Francisco are disproportionately searching and using force on Black people more than other races.
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The San Francisco Police Department was 10 times as likely to search Black people compared to white people, and four times more likely to search them than Hispanic people in 2021. Police were also 12 times as likely to use force on Black people rather than white people, and five times more likely to use force on Black people compared to Hispanic people.
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott presented the findings to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday afternoon.
While the results might surprise some, Supervisor Shamann Walton told KCBS Radio it's all too familiar for the residents of the Bayview–Hunters Point neighborhood that he represents.
"The police department has to come up with something that's really going to address those biases," Walton, the board president, said prior to Tuesday's meeting. "The use of force, the issues that continue to disproportionately demonstrate that Black people are harassed more, Black people are stopped more, most certainly Black people are arrested more."
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice gave the SFPD nearly 300 recommendations for reform after some high-profile police shootings.
Use of force incidents have gone down by almost 60% since then, and Scott said in Tuesday's meeting that the department is in "substantial compliance" with 245 federal recommendations.
"Yes, there's been some movement towards addressing concerns, but the reality of it is we still have a long way to go," said Walton, adding that the department should focus on the 27 recommendations that are still incomplete.
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