Community Policing for Comprehensive Public Safety

Aaron is the only candidate for Mayor who has pledged to establish the long-promised but never-delivered community policing strategy that is proven to keep residents safe.

Language-fluent foot patrols

In District 3, Aaron led the effort to bring Cantonese-speaking foot patrol officers to Chinatown so that merchants and residents could know and communicate with their own police officers. He will ensure that there are more police in every community who are fluent in the languages and familiar with the cultures of the neighborhoods they patrol.

Expanding community policing

As Mayor, Aaron will expand community policing from his district across the city, beginning with the Tenderloin, the neighborhood that has demanded and deserves community policing the most.

Forgivable college loans for community police

Aaron has proposed legislation to offer forgivable student loans to college students who seek a career in law enforcement, so we can break the police understaffing logjam and recruit officers from our communities to keep our communities safe.

Officers who reflect our diverse communities

As Mayor, Aaron will personally supervise the reform of our complex civil service hiring system to make it possible to bring our police force back to full strength. He will focus on hiring multilingual, minority, and LGBTQ+ officers, with extensive training in community relations and de-escalation training.

Using $230 million Walgreen settlement to combat drug overdoses

Closing down open-air drug supermarkets and providing medical assistance to prevent drug overdoses will be a strong priority for Aaron as Mayor.

Bolster Street Medicine Teams

To fight the opioid crisis which is destroying lives and undermining the safety of our city, Aaron is fighting to use the $230 million settlement from the landmark Walgreens settlement to bolster street medicine teams, putting more feet on the ground to respond to drug overdoses and medical crises.

Focus on drug-market hot spots

As President of the Board of Supervisors, Aaron was the first to call for an interagency task force to shut down open-air drug markets, a strategy that is making a difference. As Mayor, he will focus police resources on drug-selling hot spots, with a continued police presence to inhibit drug dealers on the streets that goes beyond 9am - 5pm.

Regional drug treatment and mental health care

Aaron has vast experience in regional government, and will use his know-how and working relationships to bring Bay Area leaders together around a plan to use Prop 1 resources to upgrade and renovate under-used regional health care facilities to provide comprehensive drug treatment and mental health care for those in need.

Treatment, not arrest, for drug users

Arresting all drug users is a pointless project that costs money, takes away valuable police resources and fills up our already overcrowded jails while doing nothing to address the problem. As Mayor, Aaron will focus police resources on arresting drug dealers, breaking up organized crime operations, and moving drug users into care.

Non-police responses to crime

We can only create robust public safety with a holistic approach which fully funds not just our police and sheriff departments but focuses on non-police approaches as well. 

Alternatives for juvenile offenders

As President of the Board of Supervisors, Aaron advocated and voted for the closure of Juvenile Hall and the expansion of youth services that provide community-based alternatives to detention. As Mayor he will fully fund the programs that give youth offenders job training, education and social support services to keep them from re-offending, while Mayor Breed has cut funding to DCYF and fully eliminated some youth programs in this year’s budget. 

Focusing on transitional-age youth (TAY)

Aaron has worked tirelessly with colleagues on the Board and the Mayor’s office to open San Francisco’s first Transitional Age Youth (TAY) Navigation Center in 2021, which is hosted in District Three. As Mayor, Aaron will continue to fight for preventative solutions and resources for our youth, along with workforce development opportunities to ensure their success. 

Expanding community ambassadors

Aaron fought the Mayor’s plan to cut city-run community ambassadors out of the budget. He believes that well-trained and culturally competent community ambassadors in the city’s neighborhoods keep people safe, and make people feel safer. This also encourages vulnerable residents like seniors to be able to leave their homes without fear. 

Expansion of crime victim services

Too many victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, property theft and vandalism are left on their own. Aaron has led efforts to increase funding for crime victim assistance, the Office of Victim and Witness Rights, counseling and restitution, victim legal support, especially for monolingual victims, and will fully fund these programs as Mayor. 

Playground director in every playground

To keep families safe and provide meaningful activities for children of all ages, Aaron will work to ensure that we have a Playground Director at city parks and playgrounds during after-school hours, weekends, and school vacations. 

Maintaining Police Oversight and Civil Liberties

Aaron salutes our police department for fully addressing deficiencies identified by the Department of Justice but believes we must continue to provide strong civilian oversight and protect civil liberties while protecting public safety.

Civilian Oversight of Police Conduct

Aaron strongly opposes efforts to eliminate the ability of our Police Commission to provide civilian oversight of police misconduct, including officer-involved shootings. This is a misguided attempt to shield police officers who break the law or violate police conduct regulations from accountability.

Banning facial recognition technology

In 2019, Aaron sponsored legislation to ban the use of facial recognition technology – the first city in the country to do so. In 2021, Aaron authored legislation to expand on this ban to include drones, audio recorders, and other surveillance technologies that threaten San Franciscan’s civil liberties and exacerbate embedded biases in policing.

De-escalation training

Aaron will ensure that all police officers receive the most extensive training in de-escalation techniques to prevent encounters from mentally ill and unstable individuals from escalating to violence.