San Francisco police, still hundreds of officers short of recommended staffing, are pulling detectives who normally chase burglars and robbers off their cases to help patrol parades, protests and street festivals. The Investigations Bureau has already sent staff to Dreamforce and to the Kings in the Streets lowrider event in the Mission District, according to officers familiar with the reassignments.
The moves are part of a broader schedule shift for some officers in SFPD’s Investigations Bureau, which includes inspectors who work burglaries, robberies and retail theft, as reported by The San Francisco Standard.
Not every unit is affected. The Administration Bureau, the Homicide Unit, downtown drug enforcement personnel and the Real Time Investigation Center are all exempt from the change, per the same reporting. SFPD has not required every bureau to make the switch.
Officers Say the Promise Has Already Been Broken
That stipulation is exactly what has some officers upset. One SFPD officer told the outlet, “The promise was that the investigations bureau would not be used for preplanned events. Well, they’ve already reneged on that promise,” pointing to the Dreamforce and lowrider-event deployments as evidence. Another officer put it more bluntly, warning that “it’s going to be a complete disaster. Costs will skyrocket. Half of the investigations bureau will be off during the week, which is the only time they’re available to do the majority of their investigative work.”…