San Francisco Police Department hired unvetted, undocumented officers to fill staff vacancies, audit finds

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San Francisco PD hired undocumented, unvetted officers amid staffing shortage, audit reveals

Former San Francisco police officer Joel Aylworth reacts to an audit revealing the department desperately hired unqualified officers to address staffing shortages after the mayor cut $120M in funding.

The San Francisco Police Department hired undocumented and unqualified officers to address a staffing shortage in the crime-ridden city, an audit has revealed.

Forty-five Bay Area officers hired since 2016 were flagged for not meeting hiring requirements, including missing fingerprints, proof of citizenship, graduation records, and incomplete psychological exams and background checks, according to newly-obtained state records.

Former San Francisco Police Officer Joel Aylworth joined "Fox & Friends First" to sound the alarm on the dangerous decline in vetting standards.

"I was never allowed these things," Aylworth said Monday. "I mean, the background process is very intense. It's about a six month to a year process. I mean, how does someone just [go], 'Oh, I don't know how the psych eval got lost.' Like, that's impossible because that person has to tell your background investigator before you can go on. So how any of this is even possible? I have no idea." 

CONCERNS ESCALATE OVER SAN FRANCISCO'S RISING CRIME HURTING BUSINESS

People sit in Alamo Square overlooking the city skyline in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, March 26, 2020. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Nearly 50 deputies in the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office were relieved of their police duties in September following "unsatisfactory" ratings on psych examinations dating back to 2016, weeks after a deputy who previously failed a psychological exam shot and killed a married couple. 

Aylworth said the SFPD training staff was consistently told to "lower the standards" for new recruits in recent years.

"At the academy, when I first got hired in 2013, we were running academies, five academies a year with 50 plus applicants. Now they are lucky to run three a year, filling that academy with 20 applicants. And the applicants they're getting are absolutely atrocious," he said.

Aylworth, who was fired for not getting the COVID vaccine, estimated the SFPD has lost 40-80 officers with at least five years of experience over the mandate, leaving 90% of the department staffed by "junior" officers.

Aylworth said he has "countless stories" of officers who made it into the academy when they should not have, including an individual who was wanted by the FBI.

"When it comes to integrity, if you don't catch this in the academy, guess what? You're going to see that manifest on the street. Then you're going to see some scandal on the news that this police officer didn't do this," Aylworth said. "The people that have higher standards and morals are not surprised. We're shrugging our heads going, ‘We could have told you that.’"

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"It's terrible," he continued. "I wouldn't want to be a San Francisco citizen, a resident right now. It's a terrible time."

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A San Francisco district supervisor meanwhile is calling for more policing in the city despite advocating to defund the police in 2020.

Hillary Ronen, a Democrat, represents District 9 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. During a Budget and Appropriations Committee meeting on Wednesday, she made an impassioned plea to add more officers to the Mission District, which she represents.

"I've been begging this department to give the Mission what it deserves in terms of police presence all year long," Ronen said. "And I have been told time and time and time and time again there are no officers that we can send to Mission."

Fox News' Louis Casiano and Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report