NOVEMBER 2024 VOTER GUIDE
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
What is the District Attorney?
The District Attorney is San Francisco’s top law enforcement official, in charge of prosecuting all criminal cases, issuing arrest warrants for people charged with crimes, and providing sentencing recommendations for offenders.
The District Attorney’s primary focus is on criminal investigation and prosecution.
In 2023, the base salary for the District Attorney was $337,000.
Why You Should Care
The District Attorney has the enormous responsibility of delivering justice for the victims of crimes. An effective District Attorney works cohesively with law enforcement, and represents the city’s attitude towards public safety.
Our Vision for This Office
San Francisco’s District Attorney should be compassionate, disciplined, and dedicated to the law. They should embrace San Francisco’s values as a liberal city without being afraid to enforce the laws, so San Francisco can be a model for effective liberal governance.
✅ Brooke Jenkins
Brooke Jenkins has served as District Attorney since 2022, when she replaced Chesa Boudin after his recall. Jenkins walked into a difficult situation with a chaotic office after the recall, but she’s proven to be an outstanding District Attorney, applying a real-world pragmatic approach to San Francisco’s various public safety problems. The city’s drug crisis has been the root cause of many of those problems, and Jenkins has prioritized ending the crisis. Her office has made prosecuting drug traffickers a top priority, revoking lenient plea deals, aggressively seeking pretrial detention for serious drug dealers, and establishing a mandate to connect people cited for public drug use to services and treatment programs. Under Jenkins, the District Attorney’s conviction rate in all cases is up by four percent over her predecessor, and crime has steadily decreased across the board. In the first four months of 2024, the number of reported crimes fell by 30 percent compared with the same time period in 2023, with double-digit drops in violent crimes and property crimes. Even our frustratingly persistent car burglaries are declining—larceny is down 35 percent this year from last year. While the District Attorney isn’t solely responsible for those decreases, better cooperation with the city’s law enforcement agencies makes a difference, and Brooke Jenkins has a much healthier relationship with law enforcement than her two predecessors. We’re endorsing Brooke Jenkins for District Attorney because she has her office aligned, focused on the right issues, and effectively prosecuting crime.
Paid for by TogetherSF Action. Not authorized by any candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate. Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.
