Public Safety Policy Platform

Public Safety Policy Platform

As I’ve been vocal and transparent about from the start of my campaign, I got into public service after struggling with addiction and living on the streets of San Francisco with an untreated AIDS diagnosis. Like many people struggling with addiction, I cycled in and out of jail for absconding from court-ordered drug court. I’m proud to have been sober for nearly 16 years – I was able to find recovery and get my life back after my time in the criminal legal system. And after serving time and paying significant restitution, I’ve also worked hard to make amends for the mistakes I made when I was in my active addiction.

Much has been made about this time of my life: reporters have written about it, people opposed to my candidacy have used it to try to misrepresent my positions on public safety, and I’ve been open and public about how much it’s impacted my view on how to make San Francisco safer for everyone.

The truth is, my history on the streets and in the criminal legal system is why I’m running to represent the district that gave me a second chance. I’ve seen the realities of our public safety failures from both sides of the sidewalk, and I owe it to every neighbor in District 8 to fight for safe and clean streets for everyone.

Since Mayor Lurie’s election, San Francisco has made meaningful progress. Overdoses are down and street conditions have improved in many neighborhoods. I will be an ally to Mayor Lurie on public safety, and will work with him to make meaningful progress.

Here’s where I stand and how I want to make our city safer:

A Fully Staffed and Funded Police Department

I had the unfortunate experience of being assaulted in broad daylight a few years ago. That experience shook me to my core – and then the police didn’t arrive for over thirty minutes after I called 911. Every San Franciscan deserves to have someone show up when they call for help. SFPD remains hundreds of officers short of its own recommended staffing levels, and that shortage manifests right now as slow response times and enormous overtime costs to San Francisco.

I will:

• Support the push to hire and retain officers until SFPD is fully staffed.
• Prioritize foot beats and consistent officer presence on our commercial corridors in Noe Valley, Glen Park, Cole Valley and the Castro.
• Back the arrest of drug dealers.
• Free up time for officers by moving civilian-ready work to civilian staff and sending trained clinicians to the calls they are able to handle.

Smart Technology with Strong Safeguards

I support SFPD’s drone program, with guardrails. Drones can get targeted eyes on a call in minutes and help officers know what they’re walking into. They make a short-staffed department more effective, and they work best alongside officers on the street while safely pursuing suspects.

Cameras can help solve crimes and give small businesses peace of mind, and speed cameras have been transformative for our streets. But how we store and share that footage is incredibly important in a time where the Trump Administration is sending ICE agents to kidnap undocumented immigrants and surveilling people who access abortion.

I support:

• Strong backend security, including encryption and audit logs for every data search.
• Clear limits on how long footage is kept and who can access it.
• Regular public reporting on the use of this data.
• Partnering with merchants and neighbors who want to connect their own cameras to investigations on a voluntary basis.
• Modernizing SFPD’s records and reporting systems so officers can spend more time out in the neighborhood.
• Expanding automated speed enforcement cameras near schools and on our most high injury corridors.

Invest in Recovery

I’ve been sober since 2011. Recovery saved my life, and I want every person struggling on our streets to have the same chance to get back on their feet after living with addiction. Everything we do needs to push people towards recovery so they can live healthier lives, off our streets.

That’s why I supported the RESET Center, which gives first responders a place to bring people so they can get stabilized and connected to care instead of cycling through either the ER or jail. I’d like to improve on this model with my plan for Behavioral Health Campuses on our hospital campuses throughout the city.

We must expand and fund abstinence-based programs, which is why I have served on the board of ARA (Alcoholics Rehabilitation Association) for over 5 years - the oldest abstinence-based 12-step guided transitional housing in the country. For many people, including me, a sober community is what makes recovery possible, which is why I also support recovery housing.

And yes, I also support “harm reduction” efforts that make our city safer and healthier – to keep people alive long enough to get into treatment and to stop the spread of diseases like Hep C and HIV. But my work and personal lived experience has shown me that harm reduction should be a doorway to treatment and not the end of the line.

I will:

• Fund enough detox/withdrawal management and residential treatment beds for anyone who needs them to get off the streets and into recovery.
• Build drug-free, recovery-focused housing for people who need a sober environment when coming off the streets, as long as we are not using encumbered permanent supportive housing funds.
• Ensure city behavioral health contracts include abstinence-based treatment and peer support.
• Track and publicly report how many people the City moves into lasting recovery, and scale up and fund the programs that are working.

Improve Our Street Crisis Response

Every District 8 neighbor has experienced or seen someone in a severe mental health or drug-induced crisis on the sidewalk. It is uncomfortable, upsetting, and can often make our city less safe. But right now, too many San Franciscans have no idea who to call for help if things escalate. That’s in part because the city has reorganized its street teams more than once in the past two years. Consolidation has improved coordination, but the newest model still isn't reaching the most challenging people in crisis and isn’t making our streets as safe as they need to be. We need crisis response teams that actually reach the people who refuse help and end up back on the same corner day after day.

I will push for:

• Modernizing the way treatment works, following the lead of Los Angeles County’s R95 program to address the 95% of people who either don’t think they need treatment, or don’t want to enter treatment - often considered “service resistant”.
• A home base where street teams can hand people off for care.
• Behavioral health campuses, starting at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, that bring crisis stabilization, sobering, residential treatment and transitional housing together in one place.
• Clear accountability for follow-up with people who repeatedly come into contact with street teams.
• Regular coordination with merchant groups, so street teams respond to what neighbors are experiencing.
• A block-by-block approach, where my staff and I are familiar with the name and situation of every person suffering on our streets and what the barriers are in getting the way of them being in treatment or a conservatorship.

Accountability for Every Cent We Spend

San Francisco spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on behavioral health and public safety. Taxpayers and patients deserve to know what that money is doing and what outcomes we’re achieving. Too often, the city signs contracts with providers whose programs don’t work. I know this system, and I know it can do better.

I’ll support:

• Stronger, coordinated metrics for behavioral health providers that measure whether people return to the streets or reenter the criminal justice system after treatment instead of how many people were served.
• More intensive contract oversight, with regular evaluations and contract revisions for providers that fail to meet safety and care standards.
• Funding tied to nonprofit performance, not ideology.

San Francisco both held me accountable and gave me a second chance, and I’m forever grateful for that. We need to make it possible for people who are in the throes of addiction to be held accountable, serve their time, and reenter society and make amends. That requires people in crisis getting care and facing accountability instead of spending another night on the sidewalk. Our neighbors and merchants deserve to walk their kids to school or open their shop in the morning without worrying about what they’ll encounter.

Public safety and recovery go hand in hand. As Supervisor, I’ll work with Mayor Lurie to make City Hall deliver on public safety for our neighborhoods. San Franciscans deserve streets that are safe for everyone.