San Francisco police officers are leaving the department in record numbers with many pursuing jobs at departments elsewhere in the state or around the country, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday.
The mass exodus, which amounts to 54 officers so far this year — with 23 leaving for other jobs and 31 retiring — comes as the city just approved a measure to defund the police and is debating other areas of reform as a result of Black Lives Matter protests.
In late July, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced $120 million in police funding would be redirected to address disparities in the black community over the next two years. That was just the latest in a string of abuses that police have suffered in the last decade.
Many officers are also reportedly frustrated working under California’s Proposition 47, a measure that reduced many nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors and has resulted in little or no jail time for such crimes as hard drug possession and theft.
Now officers are effectively protesting the changes by packing their things and moving on.
According to the Chronicle, the number of officers leaving the department is trending at a record pace. If they continue as they are, the department is “on track to lose nearly twice as many cops this year as it did last year and close to four times as many as in 2018.” – READ MORE
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