Committee adopts amendments requiring quarterly domestic-violence reports from SFPD and DA

The Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee on Jan. 13 adopted amendments and voted to send to the full Board an ordinance that would require the San Francisco Police Department and the District Attorney to submit quarterly reports on domestic-violence cases.

Supervisor Catherine Stephanie, joined by staff from Supervisor Riza Ronan’s office, summarized amendments that expand definitions (including a definition of "abuse"), refine what constitutes a domestic-violence case for reporting, and require the District Attorney to report on cases presented by SFPD’s Special Victims Unit, cases referred to the DA’s internal domestic-violence unit and other domestic-violence cases. The amendments also add a requirement that the DA report on the number of crime victims to whom it provided or documented efforts to provide victim services in the prior quarter.

Stephanie said the ordinance, which the Board had previously passed unanimously, has been the subject of continuing collaboration between offices and advocacy groups. Nikkita, representing Supervisor Ronan’s office, and Beverly Upton from the Domestic Violence Consortium were cited as collaborators on the amendments.

Deputy City Attorney Pierson raised a drafting question about consistency between earlier drafts and the version circulated that morning and asked whether language protecting victims’ personal identifying information was intended to remain. Committee members confirmed they intended to keep the privacy-protection language.

There were no callers for public comment on this item. The committee first voted to adopt the amendments as presented and then voted to recommend the ordinance as amended to the full Board; Supervisors Catherine Stephanie, Matt Haney and Chair Gordon Marr each voted "aye." The ordinance as amended specifies the categories of cases to be reported (including cases under Penal Code section 273.5 and Penal Code section 243(e)(1) where applicable) and requires quarterly reporting of resolved cases and victim-service assistance metrics.

The committee sent the ordinance as amended to the full Board with a positive recommendation.