NOVEMBER 2024 VOTER GUIDE
SHERIFF
What is the Sheriff?
The Sheriff’s Department provides law enforcement for San Francisco county, but is separate from the San Francisco Police Department.
The Sheriff provides security for government buildings in the city, operates two jails with over 1,100 beds, and serves warrants for wanted persons in and around San Francisco.
The Sheriff’s Department has a budget of over $250 million, approximately 850 sworn staff, and almost 200 civilian employees.
In 2023, the base salary for the Sheriff was $297,000.
Why You Should Care
Along with San Francisco’s police and District Attorney, the sheriff plays an important part in maintaining public safety. But like SFPD, the Sheriff’s Department has had to deal with a staffing shortage lately. And as city jails start to fill up from increased law enforcement efforts over the past few years, it’s more important than ever to have an effective, disciplined sheriff who can manage an extremely short-staffed department.
Our Vision for This Office
San Francisco’s Sheriff should manage their department in a competent, non-problematic manner. That’s not an especially high bar, but it’s one the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department has struggled to clear in the recent past, although the department appears to have cleaned up its act lately.
✅ Paul Miyamoto
It’s tough to run a department that has 195 vacant deputy positions, but Sheriff Paul Miyamoto has done an admirable job with the hand he’s been dealt. Since winning his election in 2020, Miyamoto has worked to reform the department from its problematic recent history, introducing programs to provide psychiatric care and structure for inmates with behavioral health issues. Under Miyamoto’s direction, the Sheriff’s Department has been a key partner in San Francisco’s efforts to shut down the city’s open air drug markets, seizing 1.2 kilos of narcotics and making over 300 arrests in the Tenderloin between June and December last year. His administration hasn’t been without incident—the accidental tear-gassing of children near a training exercise and the attacks on deputies earlier this year are noteworthy missteps. But overall, the Sheriff’s Department is trending in the right direction under Miyamoto’s guidance. We’re endorsing Paul Miyamoto for Sheriff because he’s an experienced, qualified leader who’s proven he can run an effective department with limited resources.
Paid for by TogetherSF Action. Not authorized by any candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate. Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.
