Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has been promoting what he calls a “first-time” SFPD Police Ambassador pilot in Hayes Valley and the Fillmore — retired police officers walking the beat as the “eyes and ears” for both the department and the community.
The problem? This program isn’t new. Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Dean Preston rolled out the same initiative in 2023, deploying retired officers to multiple merchant corridors across the city. Later that year, the program expanded to even more neighborhoods, including several in District 5.
References
• https://www.sf.gov/news–new-expansion-sfpd-community-ambassadors-deployed-neighborhood-merchant-corridors
• https://sfist.com/2023/04/21/more-retired-sfpd-officers-being-deployed-as-ambassadors-in-a-half-dozen-sf-neighborhoods/
Which raises the question: why market it as a brand-new pilot? Either the Supervisor is unaware of recent history in his own district, or he’s banking on the public not knowing. Neither inspires much confidence.
It’s the same kind of selective storytelling we’ve seen with the Hayes Valley street closure… sell the public a “new” idea by omitting key context, all while avoiding the harder work of addressing the real issues impacting residents and small businesses.
A typical response of a politician make outrageous claims assuming you are speaking to an uninformed audience. A typical play of Trumps playbook. Only thing is the informed are able to mine the social platforms to prove them wrong. We remember & pay attention to the past so we have a clear view of what’s transpired. Only ego driven politicians are oblivious to the past & the truth it brings. Politicians of that mind set like Bilal are clueless to the fact that a leader listens to & learns from the past to make a better future.