| District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco | |
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| Type | District attorney |
| Formation | 1856 |
| First holder | Henry H. Byrne |
| Salary | $339,300 (2024) |
| Website | sfdistrictattorney |
TheSan Francisco District Attorney's Office is the legal agency charged with prosecuting crimes in the City and County ofSan Francisco, California, under Californiastate law. The currentdistrict attorney isBrooke Jenkins. Occupants of this office have gone on to higher elected offices, including:governor of California,United States senator, andvice president of the United States.
After the Consolidation Act of 1856 consolidated San Francisco as a city and a county, Henry H. Byrne was elected as the first District Attorney.[1] Twenty-seven people have held the title since Byrne, including Boudin.[1]
On January 8, 2004,Kamala Harris was sworn in as the firstfemale, firstJamaican American, and firstIndian American district attorney ofSan Francisco after having defeatedTerence Hallinan. She would serve as the firstIndian American district attorney inU.S. history, and the firstJamaican American district attorney inCalifornia. Harris was re-elected in2007 running unopposed, and was sworn in for her second term by U.S. SenatorDianne Feinstein. Subsequently, Harris becameAttorney General of California in 2011,U.S. Senator in 2017,Vice President of the United States in 2021, and lost the2024 United States presidential election toDonald Trump.
On January 9, 2011,MayorGavin Newsom appointedSFPD ChiefGeorge Gascón as district attorney to succeedKamala Harris, who had been electedCalifornia attorney general inNovember 2010. Gascón was subsequently elected in his own right inNovember 2011. On October 2, 2018, Gascón announced that he would not seek re-election, citing his mother's health.[2] On October 3, 2019, Gascón announced that he would resign as district attorney on October 18 in order to explore a run forLos Angeles district attorney.[3]
After Gascón announced in 2018 that he would not seek re-election, San Francisco anticipated its first open race for district attorney since 1909,[4] with candidatesChesa Boudin, Leif Dautch,Suzy Loftus, and Nancy Tung entering the race.[5] After Gascón announced his resignation in October 2019 prior to the November 2019 election,MayorLondon Breed appointed candidate Suzy Loftus as interim district attorney, whom Breed had endorsed in the November 2019 election.[5] Loftus served as interim district attorney from October 19, 2019, until January 8, 2020, when winning candidate Boudin took office.[5][6][7]
Chesa Boudin was sworn in as district attorney on January 8, 2020.[8] Heavily criticized for his perceived softness on crime[by whom?], Boudin was the subject of arecall election on June 7, 2022. In the recall election, 55.05% of voters supported removing him from office.[9][10] MayorLondon Breed, who had backed a more moderate Democrat in the 2019 district attorney race, namedBrooke Jenkins, a former corporate lawyer and prosecutor in the district attorney's office as Boudin's replacement.[11]
| District attorney | Tenure |
|---|---|
| Henry H. Byrne | 1856 |
| William K. Osborn | 1857 |
| Harvey S. Brown | 1858–1861 |
| Nathan Porter | 1861–1868 |
| Herry H. Byrne | 1868–1872 |
| Daniel J. Murphy | 1872–1874 |
| Thomas P. Ryan | 1874–1876 |
| Daniel J. Murphy | 1876–1880 |
| David L. Smoot | 1880–1882 |
| Leonidas E. Pratt | 1882 |
| Jeremiah D. Sullivan | 1883–1885 |
| John N. Wilson | 1885–1887 |
| Edward B. Stonehill | 1887–1889 |
| James D. Page | 1889–1891 |
| William S. Barnes | 1891–1898 |
| Daniel J. Murphy | 1899–1900 |
| Lewis Francis Byington | 1900–1905 |
| William H. Langdon | 1906–1910 |
| Charles Fickert | 1910–1919 |
| Matthew Brady | 1920–1943 |
| Pat Brown | 1943–1951 |
| Thomas C. Lynch | 1951–1964 |
| John J. Ferdon | 1964–1976 |
| Joseph Freitas Jr. | 1976–1980 |
| Arlo Smith | 1980–1996 |
| Terence Hallinan | 1996–2004 |
| Kamala Harris | 2004–2011 |
| George Gascón | 2011–2019 |
| Suzy Loftus (interim) | 2019–2020 |
| Chesa Boudin | 2020–2022 |
| Brooke Jenkins | 2022–present |
