Amid a police reform movement, London Breed picked S.F. police spokesperson. It wasn’t an accident

When Breed declared the emergency in the Tenderloin in December, she said that the city should always offer treatment and services to those struggling with addiction, but that law enforcement can have a role to play in some instances. Dorsey hasn’t yet laid out policy specifics, but he told the Chronicle that “it’s hard to say that we are holding drug dealers accountable.”

In many senses, Dorsey — an HIV-positive gay man — does not fit neatly into the city’s tribal political categories. He’s run on progressive slates at the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee and served on the left-leaning Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, though many viewed his move to the Police Department’s command staff in 2020 as a conservative shift, in a city where crime has become one of the most hotly contested political issues.

Dorsey’s appointment came as voters gear up for the recall election of District Attorney Chesa Boudin in June, the next major probe of residents’ views on public safety and their desire to stay on a path that emphasizes criminal justice reform. Several leaders of the recall campaign attended the swearing-in ceremony, as did Boudin, who stood off to the side and said he was trying to get a sense of the mood at the event.

If Boudin is recalled, Breed will appoint his replacement. Since she appoints the police chief, she’d then be seen as responsible for the city’s crime problems — including car break-ins, organized retail theft and in-your-face drug dealing, much of which is clustered in the South of Market Area of District Six. In picking Dorsey, Breed indicated that she is ready to take ownership of these challenges.

While Dorsey declined to take a position on the Boudin recall, he laid out several public safety priorities, including pushing for drug treatment and, potentially, supervised injection sites, and bolstering what he sees as a short-staffed police force. He tried to portray himself as a compromiser on the often fractious board.

“There is no shortage of examples of cities — whether it’s Lisbon or Amsterdam or Barcelona or Frankfurt or Zurich or New York City — where they’re having better interventions in preventing drug overdose crises,” he told reporters after the ceremony. “And the one thing they all have in common is they’re not fighting like we are.”

Tom Wolf, a formerly homeless addict in recovery who works with the Boudin recall campaign, praised Breed’s pick, saying Dorsey would shepherd recovery in multiple forms, not only for drug addiction, but also for the city’s economy.

“To bring someone in who’s going to bring people together from all sides, and take a pragmatic approach to helping our city and this district get better, I can’t think of a better person than Matt Dorsey,” Wolf said.

Gary McCoy, co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, who is also a former addict and works for the city’s largest provider of drug treatment— and an adamant supporter of Boudin — said he had faith in Dorsey’s ability to mediate between warring political groups and ideologies.

“I have known Matt Dorsey personally for a long time,” McCoy said. “I’m confident that he’ll be able to bring folks to the table and kill this idea that different options for treatment or recovery and for harm reduction are oppositional to each other. They’re actually part of a continuum of care.”

Yet Dorsey’s appointment also inflamed critics who view the new supervisor as an apologist for law enforcement.

“We’re having both local and national conversations about police media units, and what’s informally been referred to as ‘copaganda,’” former Police Commissioner John Hamasaki said of Dorsey’s former role as a police spokesperson. “For those of us who are more reform-oriented, Mr. Dorsey’s tenure there is something that raises red flags.”

Hamasaki pointed to Dorsey’s role in shaping the Police Department narrative around a recent feud between Boudin and Police Chief Bill Scott, the city’s two most powerful law enforcement officials, over an agreement that allows prosecutors to take the lead in investigations of officer shootings and other serious use-of-force cases.

Dorsey will have to work with another police critic on the Board of Supervisors to tackle the drug and homelessness crisis that now straddles two districts: SoMa and the Tenderloin. Supervisor Dean Preston is now the Tenderloin’s supervisor, after the troubled neighborhood was moved out of District Six and into District Five during a contentious citywide redistricting process. Just last week, Preston held a hearing to air concerns on “copaganda” emanating from the city’s Police Department.

Preston, who has frequently clashed with Breed, did not show up to the swearing-in ceremony, though several mostly moderate colleagues attended.

After the swearing-in, Breed underscored that her choice of Dorsey came down to conversations with District Six residents, including some San Franciscans she grew up with who now live there.

“We’re talking about people who grew up in affordable public housing like I did, and are talking about safety,” Breed said. “That means we got a lot of work to do and we need someone who has the courage to do what’s necessary in order to protect the people of San Francisco.”

Chronicle staff writer J.D. Morris contributed to this report.