Mayor Daniel Lurie said Wednesday that San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott, one of the city’s longest-serving top lawmen, is leaving after eight years. During his tenure, Scott oversaw major reforms, sparred with a progressive DA, and dealt with a crime spike following the pandemic — all as SFPD ranks thinned.
The announcement comes a month after Scott’s second-in-command, Assistant Chief David Lazar, said he plans to retire at the end of May. Sources previously told The Standard that Lurie, who has replaced multiple department heads since taking office in January, had considered firing Scott.
Scott is the longest-serving chief after Thomas Cahill, who led the department from 1958 to 1970. On June 23, he will start his new job as chief of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Agency’s yet-to-be-created police force.
“This was an incredibly difficult decision, but at the end of the day, I was given an opportunity that I simply could not decline,” Scott said in an email to SFPD staff that was obtained by The Standard.
Scott will remain with the SFPD until late June, he said in the email.
While announcing his resignation at a press conference, he became emotional.
“Never in my wildest dreams — when I told my wife in 1987, shortly after we were married, that I wanted to live in San Francisco — could I have imagined that we would get here by me becoming the chief of police of this great department in this great city,” Scott said. “But some things are just meant to be.”
Paul Yep, Lurie’s public safety czar and a former SFPD commander, will serve as interim police chief. He said he is not a candidate for the permanent position.
Lurie praised Scott for his work reducing violent and property crime.
“I want to express my profound gratitude to the chief for his service to our city. And I wish him and his family nothing but the best,” Lurie said. “I am committed to building a leadership team in the SFPD that builds on our early progress, strengthens and deepens the ranks of our officers and command staff, and uses all the tools available to continue our comeback.”
The Police Commission will now be tasked with finding three candidates for Lurie to choose from. With a newly appointed mayoral majority, the options should be to his liking.
Scott, a former Los Angeles police officer, was hired in 2017 by the late Mayor Ed Lee. He led the department through federal reforms meant to reduce bias and shootings by police, among other initiatives. But soon after he became chief, those reforms were threatened by Donald Trump, whose first presidency led to Scott breaking with federal law enforcement and removing the SFPD from a joint terrorism task force.
During Scott’s early years as chief, car break-ins were a hot-button crime, for which he set up a special task force. But the pandemic changed the SFPD’s focus to open-air drug dealing and retail theft, which coincided with progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s time in office.
Scott’s recent years have focused on a short-staffed department tasked with stamping out the drug dealing that has plagued city streets since the pandemic. He has also led the police through a scandal with the department-affiliated nonprofit SF SAFE, which was dissolved after financial impropriety came to light. While the nonprofit’s head was charged for misusing the organization’s funds, Scott has said the department will never find out how millions of its dollars were spent.
Former San Francisco Police Officers Association President Tony Montoya criticized Scott.
“Bill Scott was never committed to San Francisco. His heart and loyalties remained in L.A.,” Montoya said. “He always had his eyes on leaving. I was in a one-on-one meeting with him when he got the call from [former L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti] notifying him that he didn’t get the chief’s job in L.A. and it was given to Michel Moore.
“Scott isolated himself from the rank and file and never did anything to endear the cops,” Montoya added. “He was a yes man to the politicians and never stood on his own two feet or stood behind the rank and file. He was a nice man but definitely not chief material. He only had one qualification for the job and was a DEI hire.”
Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said that Scott served with “humility, fairness, and dedication” while facing public crises like the fentanyl epidemic.
“Chief Scott has been an unwavering champion of social reform and change in law enforcement, even amongst dissenting voices, blazing a trail many would not have dared to take,” Miyamoto said.
Until recently, Scott had suggested he wasn’t going anywhere.
“I have important work to complete here in San Francisco that includes continuing and sustaining our reform efforts, addressing crime, helping our city recover economically, and rebuilding our police force to ensure we have the staff to meet all the city’s challenges for years to come,” Scott said in January 2024 amid speculation that he would try for the chief’s job in Los Angeles.