4 ms·

I was expecting something longer and more thoughtful, instead it is essentially: high cost of living, and crime in his area became problematic/he personally was

I was expecting something longer and more thoughtful, instead it is essentially: high cost of living, and crime in his area became problematic/he personally was the victim of a crime. "We need more police. There’s a general lawlessness that’s just scary." is the kind of "hot take" I go to Facebook to read. I understand and sympathize that he personally experienced a crime, but it is wrong to extrapolate that into some wider trend without more data (and the proposed solution ("more police") even more so). What I am saying is: This article isn't very insightful/doesn't add much to any conversation. No doubt people will use it as a springboard into unrelated conversations they want to have though.

jeffbee 6y ago
"More police" has been on the menu for a long time. The SF police budget has increased 60% in real dollars between 2000 and 2020, and now stands at $5000 per household per year, which is absurd. Obviously, that's not working.
- brandmeyer 6y ago
  > The SF police budget ... now stands at $5000 per household per year, which is absurd. It is absurd. Its so absurd that I have a hard time believing it. Statistics in this article suggest the SF law enforcement budget is close to 10% of the city's general fund, about 700 $/citizen. Its neighbors spend a much, much larger share of their muni budget on policing. https://www.sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/slideshow/Defund-the-Police-Bay-Area-how-much-budget-cities-203722.php https://www.sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/slideshow/Defund-th... Policing efforts scale with the size of the populace. As a fraction of the city budget, it has decreased from 13% to 10% between 2010 and 2019. If anything, that is the absurdity. https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/After-years-of-spending-and-hiring-SF-police-15337484.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/After-years-of-spe...
  - jeffbee 6y ago
    I can't imagine why you would use the nation's most-derided newspaper as a source when primary sources are at your fingertips. "Percent of general fund" is misleading to various degrees depending on the city. Some cities have dedicated taxes for police, some don't fund police from the general fund at all. SF has a unified city/county government so the sheriff shows up in their budgets, as well as the courts and the rest of it. The whole category had a 2019-2020 budget of 1.72 billion. The SFPD alone was 692 million, so I don't know where the Chronicle came up with 606. The number of households in San Francisco, according to the census, was 346k.
    - brandmeyer 6y ago
      2k/household is rather different from 5k/household, no? 606 was the portion taken from the general fund. 606/0.88 gets 688 megabucks. The remaining difference could just be precision on the 88% figure.

jeffbee 6y ago

"More police" has been on the menu for a long time. The SF police budget has increased 60% in real dollars between 2000 and 2020, and now stands at $5000 per household per year, which is absurd. Obviously, that's not working.

brandmeyer 6y ago
> The SF police budget ... now stands at $5000 per household per year, which is absurd. It is absurd. Its so absurd that I have a hard time believing it. Statistics in this article suggest the SF law enforcement budget is close to 10% of the city's general fund, about 700 $/citizen. Its neighbors spend a much, much larger share of their muni budget on policing. https://www.sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/slideshow/Defund-the-Police-Bay-Area-how-much-budget-cities-203722.php https://www.sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/slideshow/Defund-th... Policing efforts scale with the size of the populace. As a fraction of the city budget, it has decreased from 13% to 10% between 2010 and 2019. If anything, that is the absurdity. https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/After-years-of-spending-and-hiring-SF-police-15337484.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/After-years-of-spe...
- jeffbee 6y ago
  I can't imagine why you would use the nation's most-derided newspaper as a source when primary sources are at your fingertips. "Percent of general fund" is misleading to various degrees depending on the city. Some cities have dedicated taxes for police, some don't fund police from the general fund at all. SF has a unified city/county government so the sheriff shows up in their budgets, as well as the courts and the rest of it. The whole category had a 2019-2020 budget of 1.72 billion. The SFPD alone was 692 million, so I don't know where the Chronicle came up with 606. The number of households in San Francisco, according to the census, was 346k.
  - brandmeyer 6y ago
    2k/household is rather different from 5k/household, no? 606 was the portion taken from the general fund. 606/0.88 gets 688 megabucks. The remaining difference could just be precision on the 88% figure.