George Gascón
District Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco
George Gascón is the District Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco. He is the first Latino to hold the office in San Francisco and the nation’s first police chief to become District Attorney.
Since his appointment in January 2011, Gascón has earned a national reputation as a visionary in criminal justice reform. Throughout his tenure, he has implemented out-of-the-box solutions to build a public safety model predicated on reducing and preventing crime. Such initiatives include trailblazing the global effort known as the Secure Our Smartphones Initiative that resulted in SB 962 and the drastic reduction in robberies involving smartphones to pioneering innovative platforms such as the Alternative Sentencing Program, Crime Strategies Unit, and the Young Adult Court.
With the same conviction, Gascón has taken substantial steps to reduce over-incarceration, creating Neighborhoods Courts, the San Francisco Sentencing Commission, and Make it Right. He was also a driving force behind Proposition 36 and Proposition 47. More recently, he was the leading voice opposing the construction of a new jail in favor of more resources towards mental health.
In the many positions Gascón has held throughout his career—the Assistant Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Chief of Police in Mesa, Arizona, and as Chief of Police in San Francisco—he has always prioritized creating a fairer criminal justice system for all. As the District Attorney, the same has held true. He has supported legislation to expand the rights of victims, welcomed two new victim services dogs to the office, and partnered with community organizations in high-crime and violent neighborhoods through “Safer Together,” an initiative to bring a trauma-informed approach to helping victims. At the same time, he assembled the Blue Ribbon Panel to investigate the SF Police Department in the wake of a scandal involving more than 14 SFPD officers exchanging racist and homophobic text messages, and, most recently, secured funding to create the Independent Investigations Bureau within the office to independently investigate acts of unconstitutional policing.