Joint Response to Public Comment Pursuant to DGO 3.01.04(D)
DGO 6.05 Death Cases
SFPD Department General Order (DGO) 3.01 requires that all policies under development be posted publicly to provide members of the public thirty (30) business days to submit policy recommendations.
Pursuant to DGO 3.01.04 (D), the Department and the Department of Police Accountability (DPA) jointly prepare a public response, which shall be posted on the Department’s website, outlining the recommendations included and not included in the DGO draft submitted to the Police Commission.
Joint responses are captured in the following recommendation grid which captures the original recommendation, whether the recommendation was included or not included in the draft DGO, and the explanation relating to the decision to include or not include the recommendation into the draft DGO.
The Department reserves the right to remove or not respond to comments if they are:
- Unrelated to the subject of the DGO
- Include private personal information (whether the commenter’s or someone else’s), including home address, home or cell phone number, personal e-mail address, or personal identification.
- Include profanity or obscene language
The Department received 49 recommendations for DGO 5.08, Plainclothes, Non-Uniform, and Undercover Officers from the public. DPA has no comment on the Department’s responses.
The Department and DPA extend gratitude to all who took the time to contribute recommendations to this policy.
| # | PUBLIC COMMENT | DATE RECEIVED | SFPD RESPONSE | SFPD EXPLANATION | DPA EXPLANATION |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | The End of Life Option Act says that someone can request a drug prescription to die, but then it also says that physicians cannot use drugs to end a person's life and they must pass away peacefully. How can both these things be true? (6.05.02 B) | 9/22/25 | Recommendation will not be included in Draft DGO | The policy does not say both things are true. The physician provides the prescription for the drugs to be "self administered for the purpose of ending their own life." The person then obtains the drug and chooses the time and place to self-administer the drug. The Physician does not administer the drug. | DPA has no additional comment. |
| R2 | What are the rare times that police will be summoned in End of Life Option? | 9/22/25 | Recommendation will not be included in Draft DGO | Rare times means it may happen occassionally. One example could be that a reporting party discovers the dead person, panics, and calls 911, and thus, police may respond. The section was created to inform Officers of the End of Life Option Act. | DPA has no additional comment. |
| R3 | Typo: Either "A member's primary" or "Members' primary" | 9/22/25 | Recommendation has been included in draft DGO | Typo will be edited. | DPA has no additional comment. |
| R4 | Is it the responding officer or the ME that notifies supervisors of all death cases in their district? | 9/22/25 | Recommendation has been included in draft DGO | Language was clarified to read as follows: "Members should notify field Supervisors of any death cases to which they've been dispatched." | DPA has no additional comment. |
| R5 | It is not clear what an 802 Standby is. Is this SFPD just waiting with the body until OCME shows up? Is this what SFFD does until SFPD shows up? If the responding officer is already on scene, can they do 802 standby? | 9/22/25 | Administrative Question and Answer-not for inclusion in DGO | The policy is for Police Officers. Police Officers are familiar with 802 Standby. To summarize, after contacting the OCME, the SFFD will request SFPD assistance if they aren't able to remain with the dead body. | DPA has no additional comment. |
| R6 | If SFPD is required to stay while OCME searches the body as stated in the previous step, how could they have left prior to property receipt issuance? (Procedures A 6) | 9/22/25 | Recommendation will be modified and included in the draft DGO | The section has been edited for clarity: "If an OCME Property Receipt is not issued, note in the incident report that none was issued." | DPA has no additional comment. |
| R7 | What is the alerts/teletypes/emails step about? Is it about notifying SFPD members of the occurrence of a homicide? It only says that members need Homicide approval to send emails? | 9/22/25 | Administrative Question and Answer-not for inclusion in DGO | The section exists so that the Homicide Detail can control the release of information regarding a homicide/suspicious death case. | DPA has no additional comment. |
| R8 | In the beginning the OCME is responsible for investigating OD deaths, but then later it says Narcotics is? | 9/22/25 | Recommendation will be modified and included in the draft DGO | Language has been clarified: "While the OCME is the primary investigative lead for overdose deaths, the SFPD Narcotics Unit will investigate specific drug overdose deaths with the goal of prosecuting a narcotics trafficker for distributing a controlled substance that caused a death due to overdose." | DPA has no additional comment. |
| R9 | The policy is unclear as to when an incident report is required vs optional. Are officers required to write a report anytime they respond to a death or do they have discretion? | 10/2/25 | Recommendation has been included in draft DGO | Policy has been edited to state that members are required to generate an incident report for every death case to which they are dispatched. | DPA has no additional comment. |