San Francisco Is Short 200 Cops

San Francisco's minimum staffing levels for its police department is 1,971, and the city is 200 below that.

More murders could hit San Francisco streets if the San Francisco Police Department's budget isn't bumped up to hire an additional 200 police officers, police Chief Greg Suhr warned.

The police department's budget is scheduled to be $480 million for the coming year, but nearly 90 percent of that figure is pre-negotiated pay, the San Francisco Examiner reported. And that doesn't include hiring another 200 officers -- which is how far below the minimum staffing level of 1,771 San Francisco currently is, the newspaper reported.

Another 400 officers could be gone by the end of 2015, the newspaper reported.

"It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that when we’ve been over 1,900 officers, we’ve been at record lows for homicides," Suhr told the San Francisco Examiner.

Police academy classes have been delayed or canceled in recent years. SFPD is scheduled to  graduate one new academy class in June, which could bring several dozen officers onboard -- but Suhr wants five more, at $5 million to $8 million each, the newspaper reported.

Pay for new officers might be slashed by "5 to 6 percent," according to comments made by Police Officers Association President Gary Delagnes.

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