Data & Policy Analyst - SFPD (1823) - City and County of San Francisco

The San Francisco Police Department was established in 1849 and continually strives to become a more effective, inclusive and modern police department, while earning the trust and pride of those we serve and those who serve.  Our goal is to reflect on current SFPD initiatives, assess best practices across the country, and evaluate the changing environment in policing and within the City to arrive at a strategy statement that the Department and our community can embody every day.

The San Francisco Police Department stands for Safety and Respect for All. We will engage in just transparent unbiased and responsive policing. We will do so in the spirit of dignity and in collaboration with the community. And we will maintain and build trust and respect as the guardians of Constitutional and human rights.

The San Francisco Police Department is committed to excellence in law enforcement and is dedicated to the people, traditions and diversity of our City. The department provides service with understanding, response with compassion, performance with integrity and law enforcement with vision. The department has grown into a nationally known police department providing law enforcement services to one of the most recognized cities in the United States.

• Application Opening: September 06, 2024
• Application Deadline: Apply immediately, announcement may close any time after 2 weeks from posting date.
• Class & Compensation: $117,676 - $143,000
• Appointment Type: Permanent Exempt - This position is excluded by the Charter from the competitive Civil Service examination process and shall serve at the discretion of the Appointing Officer. The duration of the appointment shall not exceed 36 months.
• Work Location: SFPD Headquarters, 1245 3rd Street, San Francisco, CA 94158
• Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, Full-time, Hybrid Telecommuting work schedule available in line with CCSF policy.

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) seeks a well-qualified data analyst to push forward the boundaries of knowledge within the criminal justice space. Hailed by the New York Times in 2020 as a major city department “where police reform has worked,” the San Francisco Police Department’s commitment to top-to-bottom reform continues as an ongoing department-wide effort. Are you interested in using data to advance policing in the 21st century? To use your expertise to inform and shape policies and decisions of our senior leaders?

The Strategic Management Bureau (SMB) of the SFPD manages all major strategic projects for the department, including police reform, change management, technology implementation, auditing, data transparency and policy implementation. As our new data & policy analyst, you would immediately contribute to ongoing and yet to be approved projects at the department level, in one of the top 20 law enforcement agencies in the nation by size. This position would be on the Business Analysis Team, subordinate to the Strategic Management Bureau.

Under general direction of the SMB Program Manager and Business Analysis Team Lead, the 1823 Senior Administrative Analyst functions as a Senior Data & Policy Analyst employing generally accepted academic analysis techniques on dozens of available datasets. You will join our team as a ‘practicing academic’ to assist the department in the development of its internal evaluation and academic unit. You will help identify opportunities for experimentation in day-to-day operations and leverage your knowledge of economic principles and the social sciences to help improve the Department and the policing profession. You will work with a team of 2-3 similarly qualified ‘practicing academics’, or “pracademics” who work to generate and validate new knowledge around the best practices in policing, and how the SFPD fits into those practices to our Department, to our accountability partners, to local, state, and federal government entities, and to the public at large.

Key Objectives: You will work with a wide variety of data to produce answers to complex questions and tell human centered, data informed stories that increase transparency, efficiency, and advance the field of policing. 

Essential Duties:

• In partnership with peers in the department, develop new knowledge through experimentation, review and research.
• Conducting data analysis on a variety of datasets and issue areas; present and communicate the results of the analysis to a range of audiences.
• Cleaning, processing, and wrangling large and complex datasets into usable, accurate and accessible datasets using commonly available data tools. (MS Excel, R, Python, SQL)
• Development of data visualizations and other tools to support analysis using commonly available visualization tools (MS PowerBI, OracleBI, Pandas)
• Use of geospatial information software (GIS) in analysis, when appropriate (ESRI ArcPRO, ArcMap, etc) to help analyze data and tell data stories rooted in location data.
• Help develop recommendations for products, services, tools, or business process changes resulting from the analysis.
• Provide technical assistance and guidance to data analysts implementing their own analytical work.
• Performs related duties and responsibilities, as assigned.

In order to be considered, you must possess the following education and experience:

1. Education: Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university, 

AND

2. Experience: Three (3) years full-time equivalent experience performing professional-level analytical work. Qualifying professional-level analytical work includes analysis, development, administration, and reporting in major programs and functions of an organization in the areas of budgets, contracts, grants, policy, or other functional areas related to the duties of positions in the 182X Class series.

• Substitution:
  • Education: Possession of a graduate degree (Master's degree or higher) from an accredited college or university with major coursework in specialized subject matter areas such as public or business administration, management, business law, contract law, public policy, urban studies, economics, statistical analysis, finance, accounting or other fields of study closely related to the essential functions of positions in the Class series may be substituted for one (1) year of required experience.
  • Experience: Additional experience as described above may be substituted for the required degree on a year-for-year basis (up to a maximum of 2 years). Thirty (30) semester units or forty-five (45) quarter units equal one year.

Desirable Qualifications: The stated desirable qualifications may be considered at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred for hiring. 

• Personal Skills
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills.
  • Investigative ability and intellectual curiosity.
  • Ability to learn and embrace new technologies.
  • Comfort with risk and trying new things.
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a small team.
  • Enjoys collaborative processes and developing shared understanding.
  • Strong organization skills.
• Technical & Knowledge Skills
  • Proficiency with software programs that aid in data access and preparation, statistical analysis, and graphical presentation of data (e.g., Excel, GIS, R, SQL, PowerBI, etc.).
  • Excellent attention to detail and strong organizational, analytical, and project management skills.
  • Familiarity with statistical concepts, including descriptive and inferential statistics as well as experimental design.
  • Familiarity with economics, econometrics, and similar quantitative analysis methods to support data-driven decision-making and policy development.
  • Familiarity with experimental and quasi-experimental design, academic paper writing and the tracking and interpretation of the latest academic literature.
  • Demonstrated ability to integrate, clean, analyze, and interpret data from disparate data sets.
  • Demonstrated experience implementing dashboards and other visualizations.
  • Understanding ethics, equity, and bias as it relates to data and analytics.

One year of full-time employment is equivalent to 2000 hours. (2000 hours of qualifying work experience is based on a 40-hour work week.) Any overtime hours that you work above forty (40) hours per week are not included in the calculation to determine full-time employment.

Verification of Education and Experience: Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at https://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

All work experience, education, training and other information substantiating how you meet the minimum qualifications must be included on your application by the filing deadline. Information submitted after the filing deadline will not be considered in determining whether you meet the minimum qualifications.

Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed City and County of San Francisco application.

Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility or disqualification.

Background Investigation: Prior to employment with the San Francisco Police Department, a thorough background investigation will be conducted to determine the candidate’s suitability for employment. The investigation may include, but not be limited to: criminal history records, driving records, drug/alcohol screening, and other related employment and personal history records. Reasons for rejection may include use of  controlled substances and alcohol, felony conviction, repeated or serious violations of the law, inability to work with co-workers, inability to accept supervision, inability to follow rules and regulations or other relevant factors. Candidates may be required to undergo  drug/alcohol screening, and must clear Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprinting. Criminal records will be carefully reviewed; candidates who do not report their complete criminal records on their applications will be disqualified. Applicants will be fingerprinted.

Recruiter Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the Human Resources Analyst, Anna Duong at anna.d.duong@sfgov.org.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About The Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

SFPD Recruitment: https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/your-sfpd/career

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.