San Francisco fire chief cites staffing moves, video outreach and limited progress engaging autonomous‑vehicle companies

Chief Janine Nicholson, the San Francisco fire chief, told the Fire Commission that the department is stepping up recruitment and public‑information work while continuing outreach to companies that operate autonomous vehicles in the city. "No real progress has been made with Cruise, or other companies in terms of sitting down with us with their engineering and policy people to meet with Chief Letthrop and our operations people," Nicholson said.

Nicholson said the department is developing a short video (a seven‑minute piece planned for the International Association of Fire Chiefs conference) and will increase use of SFGovTV and the department’s multimedia team to boost recruitment and public information. She named Justin Shore and Mariano Alliance as newly selected public information officers and said additional alternates will be trained to create a 24/7 operation with internal training support.

The chief also reviewed personnel changes at the command and training levels and said recent hires for training and an Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response assistant deputy chief will be introduced at a future meeting. Commissioners asked for more detail about outreach to autonomous‑vehicle vendors and for a clearer timeline to obtain engineering and policy briefings from those firms. Nicholson deferred technical answers to operations staff and said she would continue seeking meetings with company engineers and policy teams.

The commission did not take formal action on the report; public comment on the chief's report was closed with no speakers.