Petrelis Files

SFPD Spent $45,000 Sending Officers to Cop Funerals

The San Francisco Police Department needs to explains why it's supposedly part of dozens of brass and beat officers to attend funerals of cops shot in the line of duty. Tragic as those deaths are, I don't see a compelling reason why SFPD must take cops off their regular duties and pay them to be at funerals.

My recent public records request to the department for names and costs associated with all out of town funerals attended by SFPD personnel in so far in 2015 produced this document, pertaining to the April funeral of San Jose police officer Michael Johnson. The total for SFPD personnel's attendance was $13,816.

The September funeral for Hayward cop Scott Lunger cost the SFPD $30,994, when dozens of our police officials participated in the event, according to public records sent by the department's legal affairs officer Briseida Banuelos.

Grand total for San Francisco taxpayers so SFPD could be very well represented at these two Bay Area cop funerals comes to $44,810. That amount is excessive, in my view, and we need to have a City-wide discussion about keeping our cops on local streets or at stations doing their required duties. Making appearances at funerals should not be part of those duties and we shouldn't be footing the bill.