Commentary It’s beyond time to start asking some very hard questions and demanding some actual answers, not crafted talking points, about the San Francisco Police Department’s problems. It’s no secret that the past few years have not been kind to policing across the United States. Retention of qualified officers has been a real issue for many departments. But why has San Francisco been losing so many cops? We have both a recruitment and a retention problem. We are in the throes of a death spiral from which we may not be able to pull out. Currently we have two classes in the Academy with a combined total of only 35 new recruits. Over the next couple of weeks, the department plans to promote a rumored 35 new sergeants. While I agree we need some more sergeants, promoting more people will be taking from the officer rank without anyone to replace …