Editor’s note: The original version of this story ran on March 5 to reflect the ballots counted on Election Day. It’s going to be continually updated as The City tallies votes.
A ballot measure centered on police staffing failed in The City’s March 2024 election.
Proposition B, which encourages the hiring of new officers and sets new police staffing minimums, was opposed by 72.5% of voters whose ballots have been counted thus far, according to the most recent vote totals posted by the Department of Elections on Saturday afternoon.
The measure has proven enormously controversial since its inception, with its leading proponent and detractor on the Board of Supervisors trading barbs on social media in the days leading up to the vote.
“We did it! We told the truth, and we won, and we sent a message to City Hall: Stop playing games on public safety,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who spearheaded opposition to the measure, as initial election results were posted. “We are in the midst of a voter revolt on public safety, and voters are still speaking.”
If approved, Prop. B would’ve established new staffing minimums for the police department and create a mechanism to fund enhanced recruitment efforts.
However, the measure earned the staunch opposition of public safety advocates and business groups, who warned Prop. B would be ineffective at remedying the department’s officer shortage because, although it creates a system by which to bolster police recruitment, it would not have a funding source until future voters approve a new tax or restructure an existing tax.
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Opponents of Prop. B out-fundraised its supporters by a 2-to-1 margin, raking in nearly $1.4 million, according to the most recent campaign finance disclosures.
Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who spearheaded the measure, argued this two-part process ensured that the concept of allocating money toward officer recruitment — which began with Dorsey — was done in a fiscally responsible way.
The City is facing a two-year budget deficit of about $765 million as it enters this year’s budget process, according to the most recent estimate from the San Francisco Controller’s Office. That number is only expected to increase in the coming years.
Safai and his backers — namely, the unions representing city employees who are not police officers — have argued that Prop. B ensures that scarce funding will not be funneled into the police department at the expense of other workers, such as 911 dispatchers.
That’s exactly what would’ve happened, they argued, if the original model of Prop. B designed by Dorsey had been placed on the ballot.
But Safai stepped in and amended Dorsey’s measure before it was approved by the Board of Supervisors and placed on the ballot.
The debate comes as the number of sworn, full-time San Francisco police officers has dropped below 1,600, far short of the minimum of 1,700 set by Prop. B in the first year it would take effect and the total of 2,074 it would aim to have on staff in 2028.
