Our mission
The mission of the Department of Police Accountability is to promptly, fairly and impartially investigate complaints against San Francisco police officers, make policy recommendations regarding police practices and conduct periodic audits of the San Francisco Police Department. Civilians who have never been police officers in San Francisco staff the Department of Police Accountability. Our brochure is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic.
The Department of Police Accountability was originally the Office of Citizen Complaints which was created as a separate city department by an amendment to the San Francisco City Charter (section 4.127) in 1982 and placed under the direct supervision of the Police Commission. In 2016, an amendment to the San Francisco City Charter (section 4.136) renamed the Office of Citizen Complaints the Department of Police Accountability, removed the Department of Police Accountability from the police department’s budget and provided to the Department of Police Accountability the power to conduct periodic audits of the San Francisco Police Department.