The San Francisco Police Department used force more often on Black people than other racial groups in the last quarter of 2022 — more than it has since a major policy revamp and reporting began in 2016 — according to a report from the department.
Black people were 25 times more likely than white people to have force used on them in the last quarter of 2022.
In the previous quarter, the disparity was a magnitude of 11, and the highest disparity on record dated back to 2016, when Black people experienced force from police 16 times as much as white people.
This data was collected by the SFPD and included in its Quarterly Activity and Data Report. But on Wednesday night, when the department’s Strategic Management Bureau presented highlights from the report before the Police Commission, this disparity was not included.
In his presentation, program manager Jason Cunningham presented a use-of-force disparity analysis that left out 2022 altogether.
Commissioners, with their president and vice president absent on Wednesday night — and perhaps not having seen the data buried on page 50 of the quarterly report — asked no questions.
The department already reported a spike in overall use of force in the second quarter of 2022 across different ethnic groups. The instances where force was used decreased later in 2022, but disparities were marked.
Cunningham, in his presentation, repeatedly referred to ongoing racial disparities in San Francisco policing, but offered no explanations.
“This presentation focuses very much on the what, the where, the when and the whom, but doesn’t spend time discussing why,” Cunningham said, prefacing his slides.
And the written report’s two suggested considerations regarding the dramatic jump in racial disparity fell short.
One “factor” it offered was that the department used a shortened reporting period, excluding the last two weeks of the quarter. Its other reason for the disparity: “While uses of force against Black individuals declined … uses of force against White individuals declined significantly.” And the population, it said, remained steady.
Commissioner Kevin Benedicto told Mission Local that he had not looked through the full quarterly report before the SFPD’s presentation on Wednesday, and had thus been unaware of the widening racial gap in police use-of-force.
“I was surprised to see the jump in disparities, especially given the multiple years of progress,” Benedicto said, adding that he would request an explanation from the police department.
In his presentation, Cunningham gave a “sneak peek” at the department’s findings from early 2023, and said a full report will be available next week.
The police department has, in recent years, improved its yield rate, or the rate at which illegal activity is discovered upon conducting a search. This, Cunningham said, could point to more objectivity and less bias when officers initiate stops or ask to search civilians.
But, while overall the SFPD has stopped, searched, and arrested far fewer people since 2020, longstanding racial disparities are prevalent in who this police enforcement impacts.
Though Black people make up less than 6 percent of San Francisco’s population, they comprised 35 percent of the city’s arrests, and 23 percent of SFPD stops in the first quarter of this year.
And as arrests have crept up slightly in recent quarters, the percentage of Black and Latinx people arrested increased, while the percentage of white people arrested decreased.
It’s a matter of the response to behavior. Who’s doing what.
Ethno-cultural-racial factors are evident as to how people behave, as a matter of percentage. A matter of relative percentage incidence for a given group identity.
Huh, maybe the Black mayor, Black police chief, and Black DA could all take a closer look at this.
And with Asians SFPD practices reverse racism? Report crime stats by race in the name of objective reporting next time.
Was there no use-of-force agains any Asian ppl in SF? They make up a good 1/3 of the City’s residents, but there is no use-of-force (or at least data about it) for them. Maybe there is something to be learned from Asian ppl. But we are not given the chance to even acknowledge it.
The misleading tone of this article makes me mad. I moved to SF, and specifically the mission, because it is one of the most diverse districts in the whole country. I want nothing more than to see every identity, race, and culture thrive. But, if someone is displaying antisocial behaviors and being a menace to society, regardless of their identity, race, and culture, it should be addressed. Certain races are more well-off and able to deal with these behavioral issues privately. That is a separate issue about social safety nets and support.
you should leave.
its easy as to why. the district attorney crook jenkins gave the police the green light to use force. reassurances that she would not prosecute them. they had been lame on the job as a protest, like slow quiting. they called it moral issues when really, they were worried they might be held accounyable for their abuse. even with banko brown. her actions support abuse of force. so they kicked it up, no doubt targeting blm, people that fit the description. if it wasnt racial, then they would have done it to light skinned people as well.
Wow these white people commenters are hella racist! So Black people deserve to have force used against them cause they’re more violent than white people? Is that it? Do Black children have lower test scores in school cause they’re dumber than white children? Yeah no. Racism. Black people are not more violent – cops use excessive force on them more because cops are biased and have irrational fear of Black people. Remember George Floyd!? My goodness.
I’m so ashamed of San Francisco right now if residents actually believe this racist garbage.
These caricature-like racist comments responding to the recent superbly researched ML articles (honored and picked up widely by mainstream media) are very suspicious. They all come out instantly reacting to ML’s investigative reporting about our local law enforcement agencies, including the DA. They could be posted by one or two people with several email accounts. They could be bots. They could be Jenkins’ inner circle cheerleader(s) deployed whenever there is a critique. Why would fascists be reading Mission Local? I refuse to believe these commenters represent the ML readership.
Maybe they aren’t fascists or racists. Maybe you should engage with what is actually being said rather than engaging in name-calling and conspiracy theories.
It seems to me that you are imputing to people sentiments that they have not expressed. You seem to assume — without any basis — that there could not possible be any disparity in the actions of different racial groups. One can believe in such disparities in a particular context without thinking they are inherent to a group.
I’m surprised ML still presents empty analysis this way.
The groups with higher arrest and use-force-rates could very well be committing more crimes. I’d bet on it.
Do you think your comment reflects “analysis”? I will bet you have never taken a moment to research any data relating to the disproportionate detentions, arrests, convictions, and sentencing of Black people, vs. whites. Amazing you are so confident in your ill-Informed statement that you publish your foto.
Here’s something to ponder: it’s hard to present misleading data about murders because they’re not subjective and usually well-investigated. We know both victims and murderers are disproportionately black. If you had a police force which only investigated murders, their use of force statistics might look “unfair” (using the equal rates definition of fairness). Would that be racist?
Would like to look at and be presented with crime data by suspect race. Would add more info to the data set. Seems needed if we are to look at and compare to use of force and arrests.
It would also be interesting to know more about the victims of crime. It may be that the SFPD is protecting minorities from being victimized.
This is an important point. There’s plenty of reason to believe the common relationship between crime and poverty is backwards: poverty doesn’t cause crime; crime causes poverty. How many people in low income neighborhoods have trouble getting out because they’re too busy suffering from the consequences of unchecked crime? How many have died or been injured by traffic violence in East Oakland?
Is it a disparity in use of force? Or a disparity in behavior by racial group? Or is asking such a common sense question too much of Mission Local?
This is a very misleading article for many reasons. Many police officers know chronic offenders who have been let out of jail with no consequence for previous crimes. Many police officers have no choice when they respond to calls or victims who point out the perpetrators who are black. The racial makeup of the sfpd includes many black and Latino minority policeman who are not racist but realistic about who is committing crimes. Police officers realize that race card will be thrown by many suspects who get contacted as such they only make an arrest when it’s totally clear that is what needs to be done. Politically speaking in the past police officers have been emasculated by the mayor and the Dei team and as such they’re very sensitive about contacting a black person
Please don’t ruin the narrative. Police are bad. Of course this has lead San Francisco to be the laughing stock of the world, but let’s just keep pretending.
Exactly. Mission Local can do better than writing such a misleading piece. This a good example of cherry-picking data to suit a certain agenda. Does the author think that SFPD is cruising around arresting black and brown people for shits and giggles? And using force because it is the easy thing to do? I’d wager that SFPD would much rather cruise around, NOT arresting people and getting paid.