"You also have asked that your chief of police be transparent and accountable to you the community," he said. "Not only do I fully accept your expectations, I embrace them, and I expect you to hold me accountable to them."
Scott, a 27-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, cinched the high-profile post from a pool of about 60 candidates vying to replace former SFPD Chief Greg Suhr, who resigned in May following a series of controversial fatal police shootings.
Suhr was on hand for Scott's swearing in.
"I think he’s going to serve the department well," said Suhr, whose recent post-retirement gig consulting on security for the Golden State Warriors became the subject of protest. He and the team mutually parted ways.
"This is a veteran police officer that handled a very tough area in Los Angeles, and yet he has this very quiet, calm, humble, genuine, gracious persona," Suhr said. "Roll it all up, and that’s going to make for a great chief who does have a very hard job in the greatest city in the world."
Scott's experience working to satisfy federally mandated reforms in L.A. is widely believed to have helped him land the job in San Francisco, which in October got a list of 272 recommendations from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
The review found "concerning deficiencies in every operational area assessed," which included use of force, bias, community policing, accountability, recruitment, hiring and promotions.
While the federal review is non-binding, Mayor Ed Lee and Police Department leaders have called the report a "road map" and committed to implementing every recommended reform. SFPD is expected to provide the COPS office with a formal update on its progress in February.
But changing an entire police force isn't a simple task, and efforts to update the department's use-of-force policies have met strong opposition from the San Francisco Police Officers Association -- the union representing SFPD officers.
The POA's legal challenge to those use-of-force rules will be in court again in late February.
"The POA does have a challenge in court regarding the use-of-force policy, which we believe is flawed," POA president Martin Halloran said after Scott's swearing-in ceremony, "which we believe was forced upon our members for more political reasons."
Scott didn't respond directly, but appeared to address the statement in his speech.
"These are very challenging times for law enforcement, in our city and in our nation, probably the most challenging times in our era," he said. "Our department will have some difficult challenges ahead. We have been tasked with reforming our department, not for the sake of change, and not for political purposes as many have stated, but instead for the sake of making us better at what we do."
Halloran said he has not yet had a chance to speak with Scott about the union's position, but he was heartened that the new chief appears to support equipping SFPD officers with Taser weapons. That's been tried at least four times, each time either voted down by the city's Police Commission in the face of strong opposition or removed from consideration before it made it to a vote.
Shawn Richard, a San Francisco Bayview advocate with the nonprofit Brothers Against Guns, said he's very confident in Scott's ability to improve the SFPD.
"We have a fresh pair of eyes -- and a fresh pair of ears -- that are going to oversee this department and make sure that every officer in this city and everybody in the community is held accountable," he said. "It’s not just the officers that need to be held accountable. The community needs to be held accountable, too."
