San Francisco Police Officer Pride Alliance

SFPD Statement on Passing of Recruit Officer Jon-Marques Psalms

 

The San Francisco Police Department is deeply saddened by the death of SFPD Recruit Officer Jon-Marques Psalms.

Recruit Officer Psalms suffered a medical emergency after completing a training exercise on Wednesday at the Academy.

Medical personnel treated him on site before paramedics took him to the hospital. Unfortunately, he passed away at the hospital on Friday. He was 30 years old.

Psalms was a San Francisco resident. He grew up in Southern California and went to college in Louisiana before moving to the Bay Area, where he worked in the tech industry before pursuing his passion to become a law enforcement officer.

Earlier this year, he joined Recruit Class 286 where he formed a tight bond with his fellow recruits.

The SFPD’s Behavioral Science Unit is providing support to Recruit Class 286 along with any other members who need services during this difficult time.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Psalms’ parents and brother who have asked for privacy at this time.

We will have more information about arrangements and how others can assist his family.

Wishing a speedy recovery. Every day SFPD members put their lives on the line serving and protecting our city. We wish them a speedy and full recovery.

Our statement on 2 of our motor officers being injured in a vehicle collision today. Special thanks to SF Fire, Paramedics, ZSFGH ER staff, and SFPD officers who responded and cared for our officers. Please send any requests for additional info to .

What a great Pride. The combined SFPD, SFSO and SFFD was larger than ever! Our members were out in force and showed their pride. We are grateful for the continued support of our LGBTQ community and our department heads at and

We were also joined by our brothers and sisters from .sanfrancisco and

Thank you all, together we make a stronger Pride Alliance, and can do more to advocate for LGBTQ people in public safety!

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Statement from SFPO Pride Alliance:

Pride weekend is a time of year all of San Francisco comes together to celebrate LGBTQ pride and celebrate the accomplishments of LGBTQ community. This year The San Francisco Police Officers Pride Alliance is deeply disappointed in the department for excluding us from this years annual Pride public safety press conference, an event we have been a part of for several years. Pride Alliance reached out to the director of communications early in May and was rebuffed and then ignored as we attempted to work with them on the planning of the press event. The SFPD chose to intentionally exclude the primary organization that advocates for LGBTQ police officers and for better relationships between the department and the LGBTQ community. This further reinforces why an organization like Pride Alliance is necessary and that the work we do is far from over.

San Francisco Police Departmentartment

You may have seen us carrying a large pride flag, this flag is the the pride flag that once hung at Ruby Skye. Keeping the memory of spaces we lost alive

For the first time every we marched as a joint contingent with San Francisco Fire and San Francisco Sheriffs. We are the first city to have our public safety agencies March together as one contingent in a Pride parade.

We are Proud to be a sponsor of this years Alice B Toklas breakfast.

Nothing of this could have been done without our tremendous sponsorships! 🌈 ✨🌈 ✨ 🎂

Press Release
May 23, 2022
The below press release is a joint statement from the San Francisco Police Officers Pride alliance and the LGBTQ+ members of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office (SFSO) and the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) in response to the San Francisco Pride committee’s decision to not allow uniformed LGBTQ+ members of police agencies to march in this year’s SF Pride celebration. The LGBTQ+ members of San Francisco’s public safety agencies believe that radical inclusivity is a core San Francisco value and are asking that SF Pride reverse its decision.

Over the past 18 months, the San Francisco Police Officers Pride Alliance members engaged in conversations with the board of SF Pride in response to the ban on uniformed police officers that was announced in 2020. We shared stories of the courage it took to serve as both a peace officer and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. The board of SF Pride offered only one option: that LGBTQ+ peace officers hang up their uniforms, put them back in the closet, and march in civilian attire.

The San Francisco Pride Committee has asked the LGBTQ+ peace officers to go back in the closet. San Francisco and the San Francisco Pride Parade have always embraced radical inclusivity as one of our core values.

The issues of police hostility are complex, and the modern LGBTQ+ movement was born out of response to police hostility in places like the Compton Cafeteria and the Stonewall Inn.

But that is the reason many of us took this job. We recognized the need for change within these organizations, and much of the time, we have been those
agents of change. We changed these organizations from within by providing a wider cultural competency that has made San Francisco home to the country's most diverse peace officer organizations.

In 2020, the world and the police profession were forever changed by the brutal and tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis Police Officer. This led to protests and conversations about police reform, and we all know that our work is not yet done. In response, Pride committees in major cities (including San Francisco Pride) questioned the role of officers marching in Pride parades. The board of SF Pride voted to ban the San Francisco Police Officers Pride Alliance, which included the LGBTQ+ peace officers of the San Francisco Police Department, from marching in uniform at Pride.

The board decided to punish LGBTQ+ peace officers for the failings of others. This is its own form of prejudice and further erodes the tenuous relationship between peace officers and the communities we keep safe. This decision ignored the history and accomplishments of LGBTQ+ peace officers, who made the SFPD and the SFSO more inclusive through their bravery and visibility. These officers have saved lives, made the City safer, and helped establish that in San Francisco, a LGBTQ+ peace officers could serve the City in uniform with pride.

Let us be clear: this committee would not order the leather community to wear polyester at the parade. This committee would not order the drag community to wear flannel. But they have told us, peace officers, that if we wear our uniforms, we may not attend.

For LGBTQ+ officers, this brings us back to a time when we had to hide at work that we were LGBTQ+. Now they ask us to hide the fact of where we work.
We wear a badge in the shape of a star. Our most sacred oath is made upon that badge: to protect and serve. And now they are telling us to hide that very badge.
As LGBTQ+ officers, we represent the diversity that makes this City so great. We are black, white, Asian, and LatinX. We are transgender, non-binary, gay, le***an, and just plain q***r. Some of us have been proudly parching in uniform in Pride for as many as 30 years.

We recognize that the uniform may not represent safety to some, but to many, many others, an LGBTQ+ officer wearing a uniform and a star means hope for a future that includes all of us.

We, the police officers of the San Francisco Police Officers Pride Alliance, stand firm in our decision that we will not be pushed back into the closet. We, the LGBTQ+ deputies of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office, will not hide from anyone who we are. In solidarity with their fellow first responders, the San Francisco Fire Department is standing with our law enforcement partners. Barring a reversal from SF Pride, SFFD will not be marching in the San Francisco Pride Parade.

We stand firm in our commitment to serving our City and our community as representatives of the LGBTQ+ community. We claim our place here as out and proud Le***an, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Non-Binary, Q***r San Francisco Peace Officers.

The San Francisco Fire Department, Police Department, and Sheriff’s Department stand with their LGBTQ+ employees and support their decision to not march in order to take a stand against the discriminatory actions of the board of the SF Pride committee. Our diverse workforces of dedicated public servants should be allowed to express their Pride and share their struggles by marching proudly and in uniform. Their experiences have made and will continue to make San Francisco a more robust and better place.
But please know that while we may not be able to march with our communities, we will still be here, working to keep you safe, because that is what we have sworn to do.
By bringing this to the public’s attention, we are hopeful that the SF Pride committee will reverse its decision and allow the LGBTQ+ and ally members of the San Francisco public safety agencies to proudly march in uniform with our community in the San Francisco Pride Parade.