San Francisco officials agreed to increase police officer pay in a new contract Tuesday amid concerns about rising crime, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
San Francisco is currently 562 officers short, and rising crime has prompted the city to raise the pay by 10%, at the cost of $166.5 million over three years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The officer shortage is due to retirement and retainment issues, and the increase in pay will make the San Francisco officers the highest paid among large cities in the Bay area.
The contract was approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
“People want our officers to focus on the open-air drug dealing, retail theft, home burglaries, and violence impacting our neighborhoods, but we need more police to deliver on those services,” said Mayor London Breed in a statement.
“While short-term solutions like using overtime funding to keep officers in our neighborhoods and responding to calls is critical, we also need to aggressively move forward strategies to stabilize and grow our police force in the long-term. This agreement is part of that work and is a significant step in retaining the officers we’ve trained and invested in, as well as recruiting police officers to fill our Academy classes,” Breed said.
The move to increase funding for police officers comes after a recent survey found that San Francisco residents feel less safe than they have felt in 20 years.
“This new contract is a clear indication that our City leaders are committed long-term to public safety, and to supporting the appropriate number of San Francisco police officers we need to respond to calls for service so we can better address violent and property crimes, traffic concerns, and open-air drug dealing impacting our communities,” said Police Chief Bill Scott.
Mayor Breed’s office and the San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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