According to this article about a SWAT raid that almost killed members of an immigrant family, federal agencies do not keep track of how often such raids occur. Is the SFPD keeping track of police mistakes that occur locally? If not, it should be.
All that you typically read in the police blotter reports in the local papers are success stories -- the police made an arrest, responded promptly to a crime scene, etc. Perhaps that is because the police themselves are writing the copy and feeding it to the news media without any independent oversight?
I'm afraid the public is getting an artificially rosy picture of law enforcement, one that downplays dangerous or costly mistakes, money wasted on non-priorities, the consequent failure to solve real crimes due to misallocation of resources, etc.
Until Supervisor McGoldrick spoke out about the outdated prostitution laws and it got some coverage in the media, who would have guessed that in liberal San Francisco the city government is spending over $11 million a year going after adults involved in consensual sex -- at a time when the homicide rate has jumped, the streets aren't properly paved, etc.? I urge you on the Board of Supervisors and the Police Commission who are receiving this message to investigate these matters.
Sincerely,
Starchild
Vice Chair,
Libertarian Party of San Francisco
(415) 621-7932