The San Francisco District Attorney's Office is the legal agency charged with prosecuting crimes in the City and County of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California, under California

state law State law refers to the law of a federated state, as distinguished from the law of the federation of which it is a part. It is used when the constituent components of a federation are themselves called states. Federations made up of provinces, cant ...

. The current

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

is Brooke Jenkins. Occupants of this office have gone on to higher elected offices, including:

governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The Governor (United States), governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constit ...

United States senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

, and

vice president of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest ranking office in the Executive branch of the United States government, executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks f ...

History

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. Twenty-seven people have held the title since Byrne, including Boudin.

Kamala D. Harris (2004–2011)

On January 8, 2004,

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...

was sworn in as the first

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, first Jamaican American, and first

Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...

district attorney of

after having defeated Terence Hallinan. She would serve as the first

district attorney in

U.S. history The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...

, and the first Jamaican American district attorney in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Harris was re-elected in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

running unopposed, and was sworn in for her second term by U.S. Senator

Dianne Feinstein Dianne Emiel Feinstein (; June 22, 1933 – September 29, 2023) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from California from 1992 until her death in 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 38th ...

. Subsequently, Harris became

Attorney General of California The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the government of California. The officer must ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" ( Constitution of California, Article V, Section 13). ...

in 2011,

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

in 2017,

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest ranking office in the Executive branch of the United States government, executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks f ...

in 2021, and lost the

2024 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 2024. The Republican Party (United States), Republican Party's Ticket (election), ticket—Donald Trump, who was the 45th president of ...

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

George Gascón (2011–2019)

On January 9, 2011,

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom ( ; born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 201 ...

appointed SFPD Chief

George Gascón George Gascón (born March 12, 1954) is an American attorney and former police officer who served as the District Attorney of Los Angeles County from December 7, 2020 to December 3, 2024. A member of the Democratic Party and a former member of ...

as district attorney to succeed

, who had been elected

California attorney general The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the government of California. The officer must ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" (Constitution of California, Article V, Section 13). The ...

in November 2010. Gascón was subsequently elected in his own right in November 2011. On October 2, 2018, Gascón announced that he would not seek re-election, citing his mother's health. On October 3, 2019, Gascón announced that he would resign as district attorney on October 18 in order to explore a run for Los Angeles district attorney.

2019 district attorney election

After Gascón announced in 2018 that he would not seek re-election, San Francisco anticipated its first open race for district attorney since 1909, with candidates

Chesa Boudin Chesa Boudin (, ; born August 21, 1980) is an American lawyer who served as the 29th San Francisco District Attorney's Office, District Attorney of San Francisco from January 8, 2020, to July 8, 2022. He is a member of the Democratic Party (Uni ...

, Leif Dautch, Suzy Loftus, and Nancy Tung entering the race. After Gascón announced his resignation in October 2019 prior to the November 2019 election,

London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who served as the 45th mayor of San Francisco from 2018 to 2025. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the Board of Supervisors from 2015 to 2018. Raised in t ...

appointed candidate Suzy Loftus as interim district attorney, whom Breed had endorsed in the November 2019 election. Loftus served as interim district attorney from October 19, 2019, until January 8, 2020, when winning candidate Boudin took office.

Chesa Boudin (2020–2022)

was sworn in as district attorney on January 8, 2020. Heavily criticized for his perceived softness on crime, Boudin was the subject of a

recall election A recall election (also called a recall referendum, recall petition or representative recall) is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a referendum before that official's term of office has ended. Recalls ...

on June 7, 2022. In the recall election, 55.05% of voters supported removing him from office. Mayor

, who had backed a more moderate Democrat in the 2019 district attorney race, named Brooke Jenkins, a former corporate lawyer and prosecutor in the district attorney's office as Boudin's replacement.

List of San Francisco district attorneys

References

{{authority control San Francisco District Attorney's Office Government of San Francisco 1856 establishments in California District attorney's offices