Sam Spade's San Francisco

Leadership Crisis Ahead

The San Francisco Police Department is fast approaching a very serious crisis. The leadership of the SFPD is very close to retirement and there are too few qualified officers waiting in the wings. By the end of this year nearly 500 members of the department will reach eligibility for retirement. To make a bad situation worse, all the captains have 25 years of service or more! Nobody knows who will ... or even can ... replace them.

The Sergeants

The real "command level" most in crisis is the rank of sergeant. Just as in any military unit it is the "non-com" who provides the real nuts-and-bolts minute-by-minute leadership for the SFPD. Promotion within the department is difficult and time-consuming under current policy. First an officer must be promoted to Assistant Inspector and then to Inspector. Once at the Inspector level the officer is eligible for appointment to Sergeant.

When the current lead officers retire there will be more than 500 positions coming available. To add to the problem, current policy provides for exams to sergeant, lieutenant and captain to be given only every three-years.

Reorganization and Strengthening

This means that we can no longer assure the people of San Francisco that we are going to be able to promote capable, qualified people for lead and command positions. Under current departmental policy we are going to be forced to take anybody and everybody who qualifies for promotion, whether that officer is desirable or not.

Reorganization and strengthening of the San Francisco Police Department is absolutely mandatory and time is running out.