Three more San Francisco police officers were assigned to Mayor Daniel Lurie’s security detail last month, a few weeks after a street altercation involving one of Lurie’s bodyguards, according to a memo obtained by the Chronicle.
The officers were moved from two district stations to Lurie’s security detail in late March, the memo said. The additions brought the number of officers assigned to the detail to 13, according to a source familiar with Lurie’s security. The person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the additions to Lurie’s detail, was granted anonymity in accordance with the Chronicle’s policies.
The mayor’s office and the San Francisco Police Department declined to say why the detail was expanded or answer other questions about the transfers.
“For safety purposes, we do not comment on security protection details for dignitaries,” the police department said in a statement. “Additionally, the San Francisco Police Department regularly makes adjustments to staffing assignments to police districts and units at the direction of our command staff.”
The move comes as SFPD, faced with a shortage of about 500 officers that forces the department to rely heavily on overtime to fill gaps, pushes to hire more officers.
The reassignments also follow the altercation between a man named Tony Phillips, the mayor and his security detail near Larkin and Cedar streets near the Tenderloin on March 5.
The run-in, which escalated into a scuffle, resulted in criminal charges against Phillips and raised questions about the mayor’s safety protocols and signature face-to-face encounters with community members on the streets. Phillips pleaded not guilty to assault and other charges.
The altercation, captured partly on video that was widely circulated online, started after Lurie asked his security detail to stop the car they were traveling in, prosecutors said in court records. Lurie told reporters he grew concerned after he spotted people sprawled in the street.
After the mayor and an officer got out, Lurie asked the group to move out of the roadway, prosecutors said, adding that Phillips became “argumentative” and “aggressive,” then moved toward Lurie. When the officer stepped in front of the mayor, Phillips stated: “Bruce Lee I’ll kick your ass!”
The officer then shoved Phillips, who tussled with the officer and took him to the ground. The officer suffered a large cut and a concussion, prosecutors said.
Lurie is known for walking around neighborhoods to check on street conditions, businesses and the homeless community. After the scuffle, Lurie doubled down on his hands-on engagement style, calling it his “job to lean in.”
“We all need to be out and about and seeing what our small business owners are going through and what our families and our children are going through,” he told the Chronicle. “Our elders have to walk down those streets, too.”
He added: “If I sat in this room and didn’t get out, didn’t walk the streets, I don’t think I could do my job. I couldn’t enact better policy.”