tv Mayors Press Availability SFGTV February 22, 2024 6:00am-7:01am PST
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waiting patiently for this opportunity to really we celebrate selena in this way. um, because of what she does to bring so much joy and happiness and excitement to the tenderloin community and this community, more than any other community in the city, deserves joy. i know that it's been a very challenging time, and every single day with the work that
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we're doing to try and improve the conditions of the neighborhood, it's become because of people like selena who really put her heart and soul in the work that she does for her restaurant, but also the work that she does in order to improve the community for the people who also live there. and that's why today is important. and some of you may already know her story. i mean, the fact that she she came here, taught herself english and used food as a way to communicate and to bring people in. and it is really a testament to what so many of you all know about her is she is a loving person. she is a good person and she loves to take care of people with food, good food. i mean, let me
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tell you, someone could be really mad at you and you, you you you give them something to make them smile, give them some good food and it just changes the conversation. then it changes the experience. and we appreciate the fact that in addition to your restaurant, that you are willing to serve the city and county of san francisco. so in this capacity, and i truly believe that the work we need to do to improve the conditions of our streets, it starts with the people who are out there on the streets looking at what is happening and what is going on, and holding the people responsible for improving those conditions accountable to doing so. so that's why you are the perfect person to serve in this role. um we appreciate all that you have done and what you will continue
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to do to not only serve the tenderloin community, but to serve the city and county of san francisco. so at this time, i'm going to ask you to come forward, and we are going to swear you in. i want to hear you. all right. okay. so what you want to do? wait. let's put you over here so they can get some good pictures. you want to face me? there we go. i'm going to face you. and then a little bit this way. there you go. please raise your right hand and repeat after me. i state your name. i selena yusuf, do solemnly swear. do solemnly swear that i will support and defend that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states. the constitution of the united states, and the constitution of the state of california and the constitution
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of the state of california. against all enemies, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, foreign and domestic. that i bear true faith, that i bear true faith and allegiance and allegiance to the same that i take this obligation that i take this obligation freely, freely, without any mental reservation, without any mental reservation reservations or purpose of evasion. or purpose of evasion. and that i will well and faithfully, and that i will well and faithfully fully discharge the duties. discharge the duties upon which, upon which i'm about to enter, which i am about. i am
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about to enter. and during such time and during such time. as i hold the office of as i hold the office of member, member of the sanitation of the sanitation and streets and streets conditions in the city and county of san francisco. for the city and county of san francisco. congratulations. you're going to give you the official pin for the city and county of san francisco. welcome aboard. as a true public servant. thank you. yes, yes. so we're going to have you say a few words first, and then we'll get to you. carlo okay? okay. hi everyone. i can
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see your face, mayor. breed, your. you are the true embodiment of san francisco. dynamic rich, resilient and powerful empowerment and grit. i am truly honored and grateful for your trust, for allowing me to become one of the commission here in the city of san francisco. i'm a little nervous. i'm sorry. uh, my story is a typical immigrant soundbite. we left our country for pursuit of happiness, and along the way, we find our community that shares the same narratives and values. um, one of the values that i always stand upon is the responsibility that we have among each other, that is, to be at service of each other. um,
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measurable results with a steady momentum, collective effort, and the fairly distributed resources will bring the much needed improvement for the city of san francisco, especially in tenderloin street. and sanitation is a crucial part of our everyday life. it helps improve the residents and the businesses and the families that lives. not only in the greater san francisco, but tenderloin is such a beautiful little neighborhood that people should give more compassion and empathy to us. i hope my fellow commissioners and the department head will guide me and value my perspective. active in working together in making san francisco the greatest city on the planet,
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i would like to thank for everyone that came here for spending your little afternoon, your time with us. um, your support, your generosity, your kindness is all the real talk. you know who you are. and, um, the unconditional love. and i hope i'll will be part of the san francisco and keep making the impact through my food and my story. and, like, maybe was saying joy, love and love and love. thank you. thank you. i'm going to. oh yes, of course. thank you. ah, i'm just so happy . so at this time we have a fearless leader who is responsible for public works here in san francisco. and i
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will say before i ask carla short to come up, that this city is really an incredible city and it's an incredible city because we have a lot of people who work for this city, who work really hard. and the person who inspires so much of the amazing team of public works to work very hard every single day is someone who is probably the person who loves trees more than anybody else. here today, and that is the leader of the public works department for san francisco, carla short. thank you, mayor breed, for giving me an opportunity to say a few words today about about azalina usop. i truly believe that she will be a great addition to the sanitation and streets commission with her background
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as a small business owner who chose to open her restaurant in the tenderloin, a neighborhood that can be at once beautiful and rough, vibrant and down on its luck, but always packed with life. if restaurants aren't just about food, then are also about hospitality and making people feel welcome and creating a good experience not only inside the restaurant but outside as well, is important. well, i first came to know about azalina through her amazing malaysian food stand at the market. the best laksa i've ever had. i got a glimpse of her passion and care for the community as she was opening her azuolynas restaurant at 4.99 ellis street, and wanted to make sure that the streets in the neighborhood were clean and looking good as you. as you all know, it's no secret that keeping the tenderloin clean is
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an ongoing challenge and that it takes a team effort to get the job done. public works has cleaning crews on the ground every day and every shift every morning, every noon, every night . but our work alone is not enough. the tenderloin community benefit district is an amazing partner, as well as other nonprofits. and then there are individual residents and businesses, and that's where azalina stands out. while she asked us to do more and do better, she also took the time to get a fuller understanding of our operation. both the opportunity and the limitations. as important, she asked what she and her neighbors could do to help, and as she said in her confirmation hearing for the commission post six peacefully solving problems requires collective effort as a new sanitation and streets commissioner, i and the entire public works team look forward to hearing her ideas seasoned by
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her experience as a small business owner in san francisco, about how we can do better to serve the tenderloin and all our neighborhoods. thank you so much for joining the commission. thank you. okay, azalina, it is time to sign the official paperwork and make sure that you're in there to do the job. um, last but not least, let me just say again, when the amazing, uh, public works department, uh, there are a lot of people who work for the department, and you'll get to meet them and see the work that they do. they take so much pride in what they are able to do for the city and county of san francisco. and i, i hope that they look at you and they get inspired by just what you have done and what they will continue to do and hopefully continue to do some great work in the tenderloin community and in the city and county of san francisco as a whole. uh, you're going to
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bring a lot of great excitement to the role, and i'm looking forward to it. so thank you for agreeing to serve as a commissioner for the city and county of san francisco. so let's sign this paperwork. let's make it super duper official, and then let's have a good time. all right. thank you all so much for coming. super. there we go. hey.
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under god. vice president carter, we don't like to take roll. please commissioner walker, president. commissioner benedicto pres. commissioner janez. commissioner janez, are you present? yes. i'm on. commissioner byrne here. commissioner yee here. uh, vice president carter oberstein, you have a quorum. commissioner. president elias is in route. also with us tonight, we have chief scott from the san francisco police department and executive director paul henderson from the department of police accountability. uh, sergeant, could you call the first item, please? line item one. general public comment at this time. the public is now welcome to address the commission for up to two minutes on items that do not appear on tonight's agenda, but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the police commission under
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police commission, rules of order during public comment, neither police or epa personnel nor commissioners are required to respond to questions by the public, but may provide a brief response. alternatively you may submit public comment in either of the following ways. email the secretary of the police commission at sfpd. commission at sf dot org or written comments may be sent via us postal service to the public safety building, located at 1245 third street, san francisco, california. 94158. if you would like to make public comment, please approach the podium. uh, good evening, commissioners. my name is charlotte and i'm a lifelong resident of san francisco, and i have some sentiments to express regarding this commission's years long meddling in the ability of san francisco police department to enforce the law against people who make a moral choices that violate the peace and rights of our bodies, our property, and our environment. far too many egos are oriented toward impeding law enforcement on sensibly to help us, but the consequences are clear a
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demoralized and undermined police force and a city abused and beleaguered by rampant crime and filth, both on march 5th, san francisco voters are faced with a choice of either ushering in invasive high tech to help police fight crime or continue in the vein of a hobbled police force. i refer to a proposition being put before voters that besides reining in some commission edicts, which is a good thing, would also permit facial recognition cameras, drones and other dystopian paraphernalia as policing tools. i place full fault fault squarely on the commission for putting us in this voters dilemma. you've done a major disservice to the people of san francisco with your holier than thou vision of the anointed. we the everyday people of san francisco, denounce your myopic and deleterious policies and attitudes that have led to this point. your abuse of power over policy has harmed us all. we see it. feel it, and experience it day in and day out. ironically
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however, this commission's ill conceived policing ideology has helped inspire residents and businesses alike to organize and shift the energy around whom we elect and who in turn pick those that sit upon that very dais where you all perch for now. good night. go ahead. hi my name is ashley wessinger. um, i used to be the president of the marina community association. um, i was a delegate for the democratic party. and i know my neighborhood extremely well. um, i was elected in as a delegate through my neighborhood, most probably. and with that, i'd like to discuss the special patrol police that i expanded in in the neighborhood due to the fact that we nobody really had a patrol in the area. we're a high profile shopping area. we have
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the palace of fine arts, and could everybody please look at me when i'm talking? because i really mean, i came down here from my husband's sick. i took the time out. and i would like you to get off your phones and listen to what i have to say. you have this, uh, patrol police has been 168 years in this city, and now all of you are going to end it. that's not acceptable, because let me tell you what they mean to us. they are family. they're friends. they're there when you pick the phone up, there's a lot of old people living in the marina, one of which, for example, was a 6087 year old woman who was living alone, whose lights went off. and she called alan bart. and within two minutes he was in the house because she thought somebody had broken into. he went up with a ten foot ladder and found out that it was a fuze that was broken. there's people that go away. some people arrive
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and they get their houses looked after while they're away because of the amount of crime, that property crime that's happening. there are people that come back in from the airport and they want alan to be at the door because they're afraid when they actually come home, somebody could be behind them. they represent an entity that protects us from having to call the police to escalate any problem. we have a mental health problem. we have a drug problem in our hearts. and also with the passing of prop f, when people don't have any money, more crime will go up. that will affect us. don't think for one second that that's not going to affect us when they don't have any money. so what i'm saying to you now is i heard that you were actually going to help revamp it. but as march the first, it ends, alan retires. thank you. i'm sorry. your two minutes is up. okay. thank you. i will connect with you, deborah, because i believe you're in your positive about this. is everybody else positive
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? thank you. ma'am okay. thank you. patricia marina, cow hollow neighborhood merchants. shame on you. for two years, we've had people that pass the background checks. you've done everything you can to thwart this program to make it their are six people who are who volunteered from our neighborhood that work to make this program viable and set up a program to help our beleaguered police department that's short of work throughout the whole city. not one person was put on that committee. i shame on you not one person and did you have a choice? you have eight days to hire the two people that passed the background checks to pass a law to allow alan to stay long
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enough to train them, as long as he does not have to spend the hours at night. it's very simple solution. if you guys do this today, you work it out. he'll stay long enough to train them, but shame on you for not even including any of us that work that set up this program and made it better and better and better. and then all of a sudden, nobody who's worked on it got on the committee. we have been shafted by whoever ran it from this board. and i take a complete offense on this. and shame on you. and if you're on any of these committees, you should accept phone calls, not divert them to call forwarding. if you can't take the flak, then don't be on the commission. shame shame on you. and we're very, very, very sad. and you
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have a choice. and this is a good program and it helps the police. but if you hold it back, just saying, oh well we'll have to wait until it. thank you ma'am. wait until we change the rules. you'll never have it. shame on you. i'm here to speak on behalf of. stop crime action. my name is frank noto. i'd like the first speaker. i want to comment on proposition e on the ballot, which intends to limit the powers of the police commission, but also allow for common sense changes to allow the police department to safely pursue criminals and reduce crime. i would ask that the police commission take no action on topics that might be impacted by proposition e, either today or
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at future meetings. don't try to do an end run around the voters of san francisco. um, commissioner, uh, if i could possibly have your attention. um, thank you. um, this is still a democracy, regardless of what some of donald trump's supporters may want to accomplish. and the power resides in the people. and here power resides in the voters of san francisco. now let's talk about traffic. san francisco traffic enforcement has already declined precipitously as you can see from the san francisco police department quarterly activity and data report, total traffic stops have declined almost 80% from 102,000in 2019, down to something around 17,020 23. um, that's a almost 80. is it any wonder that the public has lost confidence in the police commission? um. that is
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certainly the decline in starts is certainly a factor in crimes and traffic accidents in san francisco. um we support banning bias stops. we have not objected to banning pretext stops, but we oppose stopping enforcement of traffic laws. thank you. all right. before i get started, let me make sure this is ready. i'm ready. hi. my name is michael petrelis, and i am going to show a video, uh, that i
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obtained by filing a public records request. this shows a burglary in progress outside a gay bar in the castro district in september of last year. um, supervisor raphael mandelman had this videotape. for months, and he did not release it. and i am greatly concerned that, um, the public should have seen this video. um as the supervisor obtained it back in september and. and, uh, it raises a lot of questions. what we see in this video, which was, um, part of an nbc bay area news story last week. i i, um, really think that there needs to be okay, back to me sf gov tv. um, i think there really needs to be questions asked of the supervisor for why he, um, uh, held on to this
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video for months and didn't share it with the public. um, the public records request that i filed showed that, um, the supervisor shared this video with commissioner cindy elias at a meeting in january three. uh, a question why? why? um, the president of the police commission didn't put this video out when she had access to it. there really needs to be accountability of mandelman for holding on to this tape for so long. um, i don't see that the, um, burglary in progress is on your agenda today. i hope that the chief will discuss it in his report. i think it is vital to the discussion about community policing that everyone have, um, access to this videotape. thank you. good evening. commissioners
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always good to see you, chief scott. and it feels great to be back. my name is j connor b ortega. and while i'm not here as a candidate, i am here as a very concerned resident, as always, i want to thank our men and women of the san francisco police department for all the work they do to truly san francisco, and i would not be safe without them. however, this evening there will be very big topics concerning the restrictions that this commission will decide and whether or not to place on sfpd, which is why i want to take this time to say that any more restrictions you think are approving can be always undone. last year i warned this commission that if it did not cease its campaign to destroy sfpd, we are going to see ballot initiatives like prop e, which i'm very confident will pass
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where we san francisco stands on the side of officers, not bureaucrat officials. remember that when you vote in favor of to remove, pretext stops this evening. now, before i finish, it would not be fair to jennifer friedenbach if i only called on her to resign for conflict of interests to her commission seat . but a letter that d.a. jenkins named in the last, uh, previous police commission named commissioner president elias's husband an attorney who makes money suing sfpd, is involved in the situation between dpa and the da. so i am officially calling on president elias to resign due to a major conflict of interest. thank you. it's been a while. uh, but you
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called me back. otherwise i wouldn't be here. so. because i see no progress. yeah i look so forget from above now. okay, so there is nowhere to hide. nowhere you can't hide. you have to pay for what you do. we don't care who you are or where you come from. we don't care. the skies don't care. the only thing that matters is what you do. so you have to pay for what you do. no matter what. this year is about paying. are you going to do? are you going to pay? how do you decide to pay? so i'm going to tell you how, because one of the biggest problems we are dealing with is technology. the degradation of san francisco coincide exactly with technology. in the last 30 years. that's where we are now. we are stuck. so one of the way to pay is to try to get rid of this technology. you see, as much as possible, it looks like
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a it's easy to do. you can do it . it's addictive. i know it's a problem, but that's exactly the problem. it's addictive. that's how you are controlled now you are stuck, but you have to pay. i'm paying too. for what? i have to tell you here. it's hard for me to do it. i'm paying, but i'm happy to pay. you see, it's another way. by pay to pay. but you can't lie anymore. that's the problem. you see, you have to use beauty. the concept of beauty. you can't fake it. it doesn't work. i'll be back. good evening. i'd like to use the overhead. um. i as i come here each time i'm talking about my son, aubrey aberra kassa, who was murdered august 14th, 2006. to this day, as cases unsolved, i, i, i clam up on poles and
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everything to put these posters up every day to get them tore down in my neighborhood. i live in a in a neighborhood, and no one wants to see this face up there. but i've been there for 40 years. 45 years. but i'm getting my pictures torn down by dpw and neighbors and everything. you know, and there's no statute of limitation for murder. so i've been asking about a venue to put up to get something permanent there for at the bus stops, clear channel, wherever to solve these unsolved homicides. kids, i come here with the names of the perpetrators that murdered my child. thomas, hannibal, or hannibal thomas paris moffett, andrew badu, uh, jason thomas, anthony hunter. if i'm saying their names right. and marcus morris, quarter, you have all
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the names the people that murdered my child de two corporates. hannibal thomas and paris moffett. they were the ringleaders. you have this. i didn't get this out of a box or a hat. the this came from the homicide down there when i was sitting down trying to identify who was what. i shouldn't have to stand over my son's casket and see this every day. not only see it, but i remember it's in my head of my lifeless son laying there, and his body from an autopsy, dead. and i come here every wednesday seeking justice for my child. and i need it soon. thank you. members of the public that have any information regarding the murder of aubrey plaza. you can call the anonymous 24/7 tip line. at (415) 575-4444. commissioners,
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there's no more public comment. line item three. chiefs report discussion weekly crime trends and public safety concerns provide an overview of offenses, incidents, or events occurring in san francisco having an impact on public safety. commission discussion on unplanned events and activities achieved. describes will be limited to determining whether to calendar for a future meeting. chief scott, thank you, sergeant youngblood. good evening, vice president carter, commission executive director henderson and the public. uh, just a very brief, brief overview of our crime for the week. we are still at a -31% in total. uh, part one crimes. that breakdown is negative 15, uh, violent crime, -33. and total property crimes, um, up. note our homicide are down 50. actually as of today, i think that number is 57. shooting victims down, uh, 14. and this year, this time last year, we
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had, uh, um, three, three homicides. i mean, seven homicides as compared to three year to date this year. as far as firearm recoveries, we are at 115 year to date, uh, with zero ghost gun recoveries. uh, as of this reporting date, there were no homicides to report for the week. but we did have two non-fatal shootings resulted in resulting in two victims who were injured from those shootings. um, on on february 12th at 10:53 p.m. um, this happened at an unknown location in central district. the victim was near several unknown individuals when a subject shot one time and struck the victim. the victim did not provide any additional information as to where the shooting occurred or any further descriptions of the suspect, so that case is still under investigation. on february 16th at 9:10 p.m. on the 1000 block of connecticut in the bayview district, officers responded to a call of multiple
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gunshots and located a victim suffering from gunshot wounds. the victim advised that he had exited his residence when he was shot at, and the victim was then transported for medical medical aid. there are no arrests made on this case, and this case is also still under an active investigation. a couple of significant arrests. uh, chp had a person evading them, which resulted in a pursuit. they asked for sfpd assistance when they reached city streets and the chp was able to actually block the subject in an underground parking garage. when the subject started to ram chp vehicles, sfpd officers intervened, helped, insisted on the arrest, and one officer received an injury to his hand. uh, during this incident, but the suspect was arrested. there was also a carjacking on know me on february 15th at 1:30 a.m,
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and the 900 block of howard street in the southern district. the subject took the victim's taxi. the taxi company had a live tracking system, and our officers were able to locate the taxi on bayshore. uh, and paul avenue, bayshore boulevard and paul avenue. when the officers found the vehicle, they found the subject was already receiving medical attention from the san francisco fire department. the fire department said that the subject had flagged them down for help, and the subject was later arrested by sfpd after being cleared, uh, for those injuries, a couple of other, uh, no worthy cases. there was an elder abuse incident that occurred on the 15th of february at 4:08 p.m. at wentworth and jackson in the central district. the victim was sitting at the corner of wentworth and jackson when the subject came up to the victim and demanded money. when the victim said they had no money, the subject hit the victim with a metal pipe. the victim yelled for help and yelled for help, and several bystanders came to
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the victim's aid. chinatown foot beat officers were were close by and located the subject and arrested him. uh, robbery with a firearm at mason and jackson. this also occurred in the central district on the 17th of february at 1:05 a.m. the victim was walking with her sisters when three subjects began to follow them. the subject started running toward the victim and her sister saw the victim and her sister ran, but all three subjects followed. the victim. they threw the victim to the ground and demanded, uh, their belongings. officers responded and found all three subjects. shortly after all three were arrested without incident again, uh central district officers in the right place at the right time. so really good job. by these officers. last thing, uh, to report on significant incidents is, uh, pursuit into san francisco from an outside agency. this was on the 16th of february at 10:40 p.m. and it ended at taraval street and 17th
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avenue south san francisco police department was pursuing a truck entering that entered san francisco. they asked for sfpd assistance, but sfpd informed them that they would not be involved in the pursuit, but would monitor and respond to the termination site. the south san francisco police officers involved advised us that the subject tried to ram the sf. the south san francisco pd officers, and they eventually took the suspect into custody and recovered the truck. a couple of follow up from questions from last week from some of the commissioners. there's a question about autonomous vehicles, and it was asked if sfpd receives video from autonomous vehicles. the autonomous vehicle companies do not regularly or routinely provide video to sfpd, meaning that it is not automatic. however they have provided videos with some of our crash investigations. um but they are not required to allow us to
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access if they refuse. in a situation where there's a enough evidence to obtain a search warrant, the procedures that sfpd will obtain a search warrant. and then there was another question about it. the possibility of prohibited autonomous vehicles from narrow, one way roadways are currently that is regulated by the state of california, and there are no restrictions at this time. so the city does not have the jurisdiction to do that at the local level. um, commissioner, uh, carter stone asked about a hit and run pursuit involving a muni bus and what the injuries were. and i think you received this information, but the injuries, there were three, three people injured. uh, the driver complained of pain. the passenger, a passenger complained of pain, and another passenger complained of pain. um and their current conditions is unknown. at and the last two things to report just this week,
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there was a pro-palestine, uh, cease fire demonstration that occurred at octavia. and the 101 on ramp northern station was notified of this protest and which began around 12 12:00 at civic center plaza. the crowd was estimated in the hundreds, about 500 estimated at, and the number of personal vehicles and pickup trucks also, a number of personal vehicles and pickup trucks also had amplified sound. um. at about 1:00, the crowd marched southbound to polk and initial information was that the group was going to march to dolores park. our solo or motorcycle units, and honda units responded to assist northern officers and chp notified that they sent units to stage at the onramp of the 101 freeway, which the crowd eventually did, um, go on to the freeway and try attempted to block the 101 on ramp. chp handled that part of the protest
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, and the protesters and vehicles were not allowed onto the freeway. the group remained at uh market and octavia for about 45 minutes before turning around and walking away toward market and van ness. so there at the end of all this, there were no injuries and there were no arrests. and uh, there were there was no takeover of the freeway. there was one other thing of note, a hit and run with a involving a, a dui suspect for driving under the influence. suspect in which a sfpd officer was injured. this occurred on the 17th at 12:50 a.m. in the 1200 block of mission officers were conducting enforcement when a vehicle collided with their patrol vehicle. the patrol vehicle was launched forward, almost hitting the officers. the vehicle continued until it hit a fire hydrant. uh, the suspect was extracted from the vehicle and was arrested after the person was cleared medically and the officers are are okay on that particular incident. and that
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concludes my report. director henderson. oh, i saw your name in the queue. on accident. okay. false alarm. all right. commissioner benedicto. all right. um, my report, i was like, okay, thank you, chief, for that report and for sharing some of the responses to questions we'd raised at the prior meeting with respect to the specific incident with the waymo that was, uh, destroyed in chinatown. do you know? i know when we spoke at our last meeting, you said the department had not requested, uh, any video footage from the company at that point. can you provide an update if that's still the case, or has a request been made? uh, the department does have video depicting the suspects. i don't know if it came from the waymo itself, but there is a lot of video that we were able to obtain. okay, follow up on. and
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we're following up on whether. okay. um, you mentioned in your report that there was, um, that sfpd was asked by chp to provide assistance, uh, with a pursuit, right? yes that request, uh, and sfpd granted that request. yes um, and so there wasn't anything that, uh, prevented sfpd from assisting chp with that pursuit, right. uh, with the pursuit of the chp vehicle, there was nothing i believe the, uh. let's see. let me go back to it. looks like the sfpd officers actually responded and assist it when the chp officer blocked the suspects in after the suspects went into an underground parking garage. and that's where the arrest was made. okay, what are, uh, do you have there? what the underlying offense was that chp was initiating the pursuit for, um. no, i don't have it on this update. uh, but i will follow up with that. thank you. um, i
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recently met with a community group that was where we, uh, the topic of the stunt driving events came up, and they had a specific thing that i don't think we've talked about, which is the sort of stunt driving events that involve, um, motorcycle. i know a lot of the focus we've had are the vehicle ones. can you talk a little bit about if i know we have a stunt driving task force that applies to those motorcycle ones as well or what? and what sort of unique issues the motorcycle events can present. the department motorcycles are a lot more challenging. um, they're a lot harder to contain motorcycles. it's really hard to they go up on the sidewalks and, uh, particularly some of the dirt bikes that we have had challenges with dirt bikes can go off road. and so it's a really, really challenging tactically to deal with the motorcycles. we usually what we try to do is break those events up. and oftentimes when we come in, particularly if we come in with, uh, in mass, they'll scatter. um, but they go to other locations around the city or they go to other cities, but
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they we're still trying to really figure out tactics that we can deal with these motorcycle, um, exhibits because they are much more difficult to they are extremely difficult to contain. that's very helpful. i think it makes sense. i mean, i know from your reports that there have been some success with the stunt driving task force on on the vehicle ones, but i think the motorcycle ones are still proven vexing to community members. and so i think i'll ask, uh, sometime, maybe in the spring to be agendized, a full presentation on maybe other, you know, ways that the department can try to tackle those so we can provide that information to the community. yeah and we have had some success, um, with, with individuals that have in the group where we have confiscated, you know, motorcycles or dirt bikes and off road bikes. um, but it's still a challenge. and then we've had some success after the fact where we've been able to go and make some seizures and arrests after the fact. but again, it's challenging. absolutely. yeah. i look forward to hearing more
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details on that. i do want to thank, um, the coalition for san francisco neighborhoods who raised, uh, whose members raised this to my attention. uh, that's all for me. commissioner yee. hey, thank you very much. vice president carter. uh, chief, i'm just looking at your crime statistics and looking at the total, uh, from, uh. 2023 to 2024. total crime dropped down by 31, which, uh, took a look at the figures. just like, uh, 11 1172 crimes that have dropped. and looking at the homicide rate, uh, which is i guess we're pretty blessed with the department. um, i guess figuring out, um, where to apply the staff's and usage on there, because once you have a homicide, it entails quite a bit of resource. you know how many officers would be call out on a homicide? it varies. um and it
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depends on really the complexity of the case. yeah. because when you have those, uh, violent incidents, that's where staffs are. uh, i did see quite a well in when my, um, in chinatown, i started seeing, um, street violence intervention program, um, the group from san francisco. i guess the bay view. and they're they're out there. so i'm glad to see them out there. keep, uh, hopefully continue to keep us safe. any thoughts on, i guess, uh, the reason for the drop in crime? um, or is it this our our time? well, i'd like to think that some of our strategies. i do think that some of our strategies are working, actually, um, but it's, you know, it's early in the year, but it's this is going to be anecdotal at best. for instance, you know, the focus that we've had on, uh, car burglary crews, we've made some, some what i think are high impact arrests.
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we've arrested members of crews that we believe are very prolific in terms of breaking into cars around the city and in the bay area. uh, some of our burglary arrests, the same thing where we have made some significant arrests of people that we know based on their histories, have been very active in those those areas. organized retail theft, same thing. you know, we're focusing on the people that we know are active and we've we've had some success there. so i think those things do do matter. you know, our crime in san francisco is really driven by property crime. that's our year in and year out. our highest category of crime. so if we have reductions there, it really kind of swings the bigger picture. um, our robberies are down this year. you know, we we've also made some significant robbery arrests as well. um, so some of it, i think is focusing on the right crews and the right people. um you know, i don't think we know totally what the answer is in terms of the total reduction in crime, but we do know what we're what our focus
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is. and then just one other thing on the violent crime and the shootings. we do have, uh, a lot of effort that we put into identifying the people most at risk for shootings and that the community safety meetings you're calling people in offering services, trying to get them to, um, really engage with people that can get them off of that track of being at risk for shootings that we believe is a very effective strategy. you're trying to get to get to people before they become a victim or a perpetrator. so we do think that that is something that has paid some dividends. uh, thank you very much, chief. i guess the visibility is out there, too, as well. on seeing them. uh, that's that's a deterrent. and i'd drop in 31. is not this a little small figure? it is a substantial, bigger figure. so i want to thank your team. and then your, um, all the members
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and doing such a terrific job. uh, i know we can't keep everybody safe every every minute, but but at least we're in the right direction. thank you very much, chief. thank you. sergeant, can we go to public comment for members of the public that would like to make public comment regarding line item two, the chief's report, please approach the podium. go ahead. okay. michael petrelis again, what i'd like to address, chief, is, um, the omission of the release of the 42nd video showing the burglary in progress. uh, last september and the, um, police officers who showed up, um, uh, a few minutes into this burglary, we see on the video that, um, one squad
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car shows up and is right behind the, um, getaway car. uh, we then see two burglars. suspect. suspect coming out of the gay bar in the castro getting into the vehicle and then doing a u-turn and heading down 16th street. a few seconds later, we see a second squad car come down. uh, 16 street going after them. um, i think it needs to be explained to we, the public, like, um, why the first officer, uh, did not shoot at the tires of the getaway vehicle. uh, i think we also need to know the, um, the difference between chasing, uh, doing a car chase after the suspects versus just following them. um, as i said during general public comment, i put a lot of responsibility on supervisor rafael mandelman for
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withholding this tape for four months and not putting it out before the public. um, i think that, um, there is a need for you and the department to bring a lot more information to what we're seeing in that video show and how it may relate to, um, better community policing and also helping the small businesses across the city, not just the small businesses in the castro. so i wish you had addressed that during your comments. thank you. thank you. uh, if i could just and i apologize because you did ask me to address that. um, there was a press release that the department put out just on that particular incident. so just for the public, the incident that was referred to
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was a burglary in the castro. uh, that happened in september. um, there was a press release that was put out, i think nbc bay area had a story on it last week. and, um, the department review, body worn camera footage on that. and this is what is in the press release as far as the first responding officer actually did try to make a felony stop, he actually had the car at gunpoint. the individuals who had burglarized the business got in the car and drove off the second responding officer actually followed the car. they did not go in pursuit. uh, as a matter of fact, on the body worn camera, you hear the officers saying that they're not in pursuit, but they did try to follow the car as far as they could before they lost it. so that's basically what was put out in the press release. and thank you for raising that. thank you for responding. good evening. um, i like to use the
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overhead again, and then you can give it back to me about i came here, uh, uh, last weekend and weeks before concerning, um, this article that was in the san francisco police department had paid zero rewards to solve homicides in nearly a decade. so i'm back again. you know, i know they were saying, you can take that off. they were saying that, um, bringing that that i'm still waiting to see. do you know, so i can let other mothers and fathers know because you were going to agendize this to with, uh, dpa and the san francisco police department are collaborating together about finding ways to solve undefined unsolved homicides, paying tipsters to, um, to do this. so
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i would like to know when is this going to happen, you know, i mean, so that i can let other mothers know to if that dpa and the san francisco police department is going to do a presentation. so i want to i'd like to know when that's going to happen. and because it was promised last year and it was agreed upon last year. i don't like being told something. and it don't happen. i'm a mother that have been coming here for years and i'm looking for action for my son, let alone other mothers and fathers out there that are dying. i bring this picture with me all the time, of all the unsolved homicides, and in just my child, it's not just my child, it's all of our children that are dying here in the streets of san francisco, and their blood is running down the street. i'm just one mother that won't give up because my
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son existed and he would be 30 something if he had lived. he was murdered when he was 16 years old, so how long am i going to do this? when is this presentation going to come out? finding other ways. and not only that, let my let the, uh, thank you, miss brown. okay i'll come back up. commissioners, that is the end of public comment line item three dpa director's report discussion report on recent dpa activities and announcements. commission discussion will be limited to determining whether to calendar any of the issues raised for a future commission meeting. executive director henderson. good evening. uh, so currently we. uh, so currently we have, uh,
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