San Francisco Police Chief and former Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief William “Bill” Scott is coming home. Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins announced that Scott is the agency’s new Police Chief and head of Emergency Services.
Sworn in as Chief of Police for the City of San Francisco on January 23, 2017, by Mayor Ed Lee, Scott brought to the Bay Area 27 years of experience from the Los Angeles Police Department, where he rose to the rank of Deputy Chief.
From his first day in San Francisco, Chief Scott was guided by a clear and
powerful vision: to implement meaningful, lasting reform rooted in 21st Century
Policing. His focus throughout his time as Deputy Chief here in Los Angeles as well as in San Francisco as chief has been centered on accountability, transparency, and trust.
Under Scott’s leadership, the San Francisco Police Department became a national model for reform. What began as 272 recommendations from the Obama-era U.S. Department of Justice evolved into a blueprint for transformation.
In 2021 as the first term of the Donald Trump administration ended federal oversight in 2017, Chief Scott refused to let the work go unfinished and partnered with the California Department of Justice to ensure that this work continued.
On April 1, 2024, the SFPD submitted its final responses to the DOJ reform recommendations. This marked an important step in building a department more accountable to the communities it serves.
Chief Scott’s tenure was defined not just by bold vision, but by steady leadership through some of the most difficult times in recent history. He guided the department through the global COVID-19 pandemic and the national reckoning on policing following the murder of George Floyd. Through it all, he remained focused on both public safety and equity—particularly in the communities most impacted by violence and systemic inequality.
Thanks to his leadership, San Francisco’s violent crime rates remain significantly below those of other major U.S. cities, while clearance rates for violent crimes such as homicide far exceed the national average. He also embraced innovation and new strategies to tackle auto burglaries.
Over the past several years, METRO under the guidance METRO President Stephanie Wiggins, has worked to address the many challenges of managing the nation’s second largest public transportation authority. While rider confidence has drastically improved over the past several years and commuter experiences have generally been positive, Metro has seen several high-profile crimes, which have overshadowed the generally positive experiences of the 900,000+ weekly riders who use the public transportation authority to commute to work, school and travel throughout the region.
According to a community member, “Wiggins’ hiring of Chief Scott with his long history of working in and around the Los Angeles community is a major step in addressing the high profile challenge to continue improving the quality experience for all METRO riders.”
