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KALW is proud to partner with The San Francisco Public Press on coverage our 2024 election coverage.

San Francisco Prop F - Allowing retired police officers to continue working

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Proposition F allows retirement eligible police officers to stay on the job while receiving both their salary and pension for up to five years.

The new Deferred Retirement Option Program would be available to officers who are at least 50 years old with 25 years of service.

Supporters say the measure would help sustain staffing while recruitment and training fills about 500 vacancies.

Here’s Supervisor Matt Dorsey during a Board of Supervisors meeting last July.

We are facing a cliff of sworn officer retirements. This is a fiscally responsible narrowly crafted finger in the dam that buys us some breathing room. That staunches the bleeding on retirements.

Opponents are against the idea of paying some officers as much as half a million dollars in both pension and salary.

And they say the Police Department has already received tens of millions of dollars for under staffing while other city services flounder.

Here’s Supervisor Hillary Ronen during the July board meeting.

Creating this much disparity is not only a poor use of our resources, it also starts to build resentment. If I was a social worker, or a 911 call operator and I saw these figures, I would be appalled. And I would say, ‘I'm doing extra work every single day because there's not enough people staffing my department.’ 

The San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System says Prop F could cost

$3 million a year if most participants enter the program with maximum pension benefits.

Or it could save the city $300,000 a year if most participants are younger officers with lower pensions.

Prop F needs a simple majority of yes votes to pass.

This election brief was reported by San Francisco Public Press reporter Sylvie Sturm, read the full analysis of Prop F here.