San Francisco voters will face an unusual decision in November: whether to create a new police division.

A ballot initiative introduced Tuesday by Supervisor Scott Wiener would mandate that the police force operate a “Neighborhood Crime Unit” of at least 60 officers. Such staffing choices are usually left to police chiefs, but the measure is the product of three distinct features of the city: a multiyear epidemic of auto burglaries, a high-profile homeless problem and a fractured Board of Supervisors.

Wiener said the unit would act as a specialized support force for district stations in investigating and dealing with break-ins, car boosting, vandalism and homeless encampments.

Police said 15 to 20 officers are now assigned to a citywide car-burglary task force and 26 focus on homeless issues. The measure’s backers say it won’t take away officers from other units like homicide, because department hiring will provide resources.

“We have a large and growing problem in San Francisco with neighborhood-level street crime,” Wiener said. “People have had it. People are sick of waking up in the morning and seeing five cars on their block with their windows smashed in. They’re sick of seeing tent encampments where people are not being transitioned into shelters. They’re sick of having their homes broken into.”

Wiener had needed signatures of Supervisors Malia Cohen, Katy Tang and Mark Farrell, and the support of the Police Department and Mayor Ed Lee to qualify the initiative for the ballot.

“We want residents to feel safe in their homes and their neighborhoods, and (homing) in on the very crimes that threaten this safety is the responsibility of this unit,” Lee said.

Increased scrutiny

The move comes as the police force seeks a new chief and faces scrutiny over fatal shootings by officers, as well as over the property crime surge. Supervisor John Avalos, one of the board’s progressives, wants to withhold part of the police budget unless the Police Commission enacts a strict use-of-force policy for officers on Wednesday night.

Wiener said he wanted to take the initiative to voters to bypass not only the politics of the current Board of Supervisors, but also the potential for future opposition.

Should the initiative pass in November, he said, the Neighborhood Crime Unit would have a minimum staffing requirement of 3 percent of the force. Lee has been pushing to bring the department back to the City Charter’s mandate of 1,971 officers.

“Unfortunately, a number of my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors have shown significant hostility toward efforts to improve public safety,” Wiener said. “It’s time for the voters to take charge and set some clear priorities for how we do neighborhood policing in San Francisco.”

Avalos hit back Tuesday, accusing Wiener of pandering to powerful interests with this proposal.

“Generally, it appears to me he acts on whatever positions the police officers’ union — the biggest impediment to police reform — wants him to do,” Avalos said.

Deputy Police Chief Michael Redmond said the department would be able to staff the Neighborhood Crime Unit without additional funding. Such a unit was already in the department’s plans, but a ballot initiative would mandate minimum staffing.

Questions of scope

The unit would focus on both deterring and investigating crimes, would help respond to 911 and 311 calls for service, and would look for patterns, officials said.

“I think people want to see more cops,” said Redmond. “This refocuses the department in support of all the district station captains. The job of this unit will be to add that support to them to make the neighborhoods safe.”

Wiener said that even though homeless issues would fall under the new unit, officers would continue working with human services agencies and the Department of Public Health to try to connect people with housing and services.

But Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness, said tackling homelessness under the umbrella of neighborhood crime is not appropriate.

“It sounds like this would go against the public policy recommendation of their own budget analyst office and institutionalize a police response to homelessness,” she said.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo