The City is currently short 200 to 300 police officers in their force. Another 500 or so are up for retirement this year. Even with the increased pay offers and the high demand, there are just not enough recruits coming out of the Police Academy to cover the deficit.

Proposition B will create a new retirement program called the Deferred Retirement Option Program or DROP for short. DROP allows eligible police officers who are at the retirement point of their careers to continue to work for up to another three years after their retirement. Under this plan, the officer will continue to receive his regular pay and benefits and the retirement payments he would have received will instead be directed into a tax-deferred account run by the City. After he finishes the stint, he would recieve his retirement checks as normal along with payments from his DROP account.

The proposition will not incur any new taxes and the San Francisco Police Department can keep around some of their experienced leaders. This can also help ease the transition of training new leaders while absorbing the new recruits out of the Academy.

Pretty much a win-win in my book.