SFPD Making Significant Progress on Hiring Sworn Officers 25-129

The San Francisco Police Department is experiencing the largest surge of recruits into the academy in five years under Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Rebuilding the Ranks initiative, which is leading to significant progress in overcoming sworn staffing shortages, Interim Chief Paul Yep announced Wednesday.

The SFPD academy has seen four full classes in a row with a fifth scheduled to begin in December, leading to a net positive increase in officers on the street for the first time since the 2020 pandemic.

The notable boost is thanks to an aggressive hiring strategy and competitive pay and benefits that are bringing in more high-quality applicants as well as officers from other jurisdictions.

In 2025, the SFPD has seen 3,375 entry-level applications – an over 40% increase in applications compared to 2024. What’s more, 195 officers from other jurisdictions have applied to the SFPD so far this year – a 364% increase in lateral applications from last year.

The time it takes to hire new recruits has been cut by over 50% thanks to more efficient testing and background processes. Additionally, graduation rates have increased by over 20% without any compromise to training standards.

“San Francisco is the best city in the world to be a police officer,” said Yep. “Our political officials and the public support our police, and we’re helping make San Francisco safer than ever before. Working for the SFPD and serving the community is an incredibly rewarding career.”

“Public safety has been and will always be my number one priority as mayor,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie. “Thanks to our Rebuilding the Ranks plan to fully staff our police department and sheriff’s office, we are seeing real progress: Crime is down 30% citywide and at its lowest point in decades, with more applications coming in, hiring moving more quickly, and more officers coming through the academy. We will continue to deploy technology and partner with state and federal law enforcement to ensure we are using every tool available in the service of public safety, and our local law enforcement will continue working relentlessly every day to keep San Francisco safe.”

The SFPD is currently short around 500 officers from its recommended staffing levels, following the 2020 global pandemic and subsequent national crisis in policing. Despite the shortage of sworn staff, SFPD has continued to provide world-class public safety services that have led to historic decreases in crime.

The Department has largely relied on overtime to meet the public safety needs of the city, which is more costly and burdensome on officers. With increased sworn staffing, the SFPD can continue its progress in public safety more sustainably.

Mayor Lurie launched the Rebuilding the Ranks plan in May, which outlined specific actions to increase staffing of local law enforcement. The plan included immediate steps to accelerate hiring, allowing recently retired officers to staff special events, and shift administrative work to civilian staff so more sworn officers can focus on core public safety duties.

In 2025, the SFPD has streamlined the hiring process and increased outreach and advertising, leading to more high-quality applicants. The Police Department has also worked with the Mayor’s Office of Innovation to implement operational and design improvements, deploy new digital marketing strategies, and test technology solutions to address hiring bottlenecks, such as background check wait times.

Similar reforms have also led to the largest increase in San Francisco Sheriff Deputies in a decade, driven by process improvements such as hiring additional contractors and retired deputies to assist with background investigations, and combining the written exam, interview, and physical agility test into a single-day assessment to accelerate recruitment.

“For the last three years, the San Francisco Police Department and Sheriff’s Office have been working tirelessly along with other law enforcement agencies and my office to make our neighborhoods safer and hold perpetrators accountable,” said District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. “Together we have driven crime down to historic lows, and now, thanks to the Mayor’s Rebuilding the Ranks program, we are closer to fully staffing our uniformed law enforcement agencies. I am hopeful that with more personnel, we will be able to pick up the pace and accelerate our work across the city, so that all of our residents, workers, and visitors can see and feel the difference.”

“Under Mayor Lurie’s Rebuilding the Ranks initiative, we’ve made real progress in strengthening our team and investing in the people who protect San Francisco every day,” said Sheriff Paul Miyamoto. “This year, we offered a salary increase for entry-level deputies — helping us attract and retain local talent who can afford to live in the communities they serve. We’re seeing more San Franciscans joining our ranks and a renewed sense of pride and commitment across the Sheriff’s Office. We will continue our recruiting and hiring efforts to ensure that we have deputies on the streets and in the jails to keep our community members safe.”

"The progress we’re seeing is the result of a close partnership between DHR, SFPD, and Mayor Lurie’s Office. By streamlining hiring processes, introducing new technology, and refining each step of recruitment, including offering multiple exams each month and expediting background checks, we’re making significant strides toward building a modern, resilient public safety workforce that reflects San Francisco’s commitment to excellence," said Department of Human Resources Director Carol Isen.

“The strong partnership between the California Highway Patrol and the San Francisco Police Department reflects our shared commitment to protecting the people of this city,” said CHP Golden Gate Division Chief Don Goodbrand. “By working together, we are creating a safer community and ensuring that those who live, work, and visit San Francisco can do so with confidence.”

San Francisco is one of the safest big cities in the country. So far in 2025, crime is down in nearly every category. Violent crime is down 18%, with homicides on pace to be lower than at any time in the last 70 years. Property crime, which is down 28%, continues to fall thanks to the hard work of officers on the street and new technology.

For more information on joining the SFPD, go to JoinSFPD.com.