>> alright. everybody. i'm san francisco mayor london breed. welcome to the innersunset! a wonderful community, a place where you can shop and dine and hang out and have a good time and a place that's extremely close to golden gate park and the botanical gardens. this is a special community. when i was supervisor for district 5, i represented this community. now, this is a part of district

7, so lucky you, visor myrna melgar, who is a biker, by the way. so, why are we here? for the much anticipated automatic license plate readers that are going to be installed in a hundred locations around the city with 400 cameras in order to help us continue the great work of addressing public safety in san francisco. in fact, what we have seen recent months and all of 2023 has been a significant decline in crime in san francisco. in fact, 2023 was the lowest crime rate we have seen in 10 years, not including 2020 during our global pandemic where we had to shut the entire city down, so we should be proud of the work we've done.

[applause] and that trend is still happening this year. we have 32 percent reduction in property crime and 16 percent reduction in overall violent crime and that has a lot to do with the extraordinary work of so many of our public safety officials that are joining us here today, including police chief bill scott and district attorney brooke jenkins. we appreciate all the amazing work they are doing. [applause] but just because it seems like things are getting better and the numbers are helping to tell that story doesn't mean we let up. we have to do everything we can to insure safety. so, when we are talking about car break-ins, and car theft, when we where talking about side-shows and other issues that happened in our city,

automated license plate readers can play a invaluable role in helping us to track some of the perpetrators of these crimes, and hold them accountable. this does not include speed cameras, it does not include facial recognition technology, but it will be useful for amber alerts as well as sometimes some of our elderly people who may have dementia or alzheimer's who might end up being missing. it will help us find people as well. it is extraordinary tool and we are really grateful for that. but let me say, because the voters pazed promsition a, i'm excited what that will mean for helping with surveillance technology and drone technology. well, you know how the police in los angeles i think they used to use helicopters instead will be using drone technology

to help us combat a lot of issues as well. so, there is so much here and so much to be excited about, and we are well on our way to continuing the efforts that we need to do to address public safety in san francisco and i'm proud of this and excited about what this means for the future of public safety in our city. and to talk a little more about the police role in helping us address crime and more importantly, how these automated license plate readers will be useful is our police chief bill scott. [applause] >> good morning and thank you mayor breed. i'll start with this, this is going to be a game-changer and want to thank mayor breed for her leadership and so many others who helped us get to this point. we got this grant and approval in october and 6 months later to introduce the cameras are up

and not only up, they are up and operable today. that is an amazing accomplishment. [applause] so, today begins a new chapter for san francisco in terms of our ability to fight crime. the city and county of san francisco is the tech capital of the world and now our officers have the technology that they need to better address the crime challenge in the itisy city and this is a very very exciting thing. over the next three months, these automated license plate readers go up throughout the city as mayor breed described. 400 cameras in hundred different locations, giving our officers incredible tools to catch criminals. this is all possible because the department secured a $15.3 million organized retail theft grant, but this grant does not limit us just to organized retail theft, because this will help us address all crimes.

homicides, robbery, assault, car break in. this helps address all crimes, and thanks to mayor breed, this was a expedited process. a lot of people had their hands in this. i was to give a special shout outd to ryan cowl for all his work putting this together. assistant chief david lazar and julia, the mayor staff. this was a team effort so let me end by saying a couple things. this city is a family and it takes multiple departments to address the challenges in the city. the san francisco public utility commission, sfmta, the sheriff who you will hear from shortly and district attorney, we are all a team, and we are going to work as a team to address challenges to continue to drive crime down and now we have a very very powerful set

of tools to help do just that. think about this, over 70 percent of crime involve vehicles. over 70 percent of crime involve vehicles. we have not had the ability starting today we have the ability to do which is track the vehicles, give officers advantage so we, we can catch people if they commit crimes in the city. we hope this will be a deterrent because san francisco a great city. we don't want people coming into our city committing crimes and people in our city commits crimes and if we do, we want to make sure we give our district attorney and her team the evidence they need to success fell prosecute these cases and we will be able to do that with this technology. crime has been dropping steadily this year and with this technology and our use of it, we think that tend will continue and think it will be expotential. i want to end by saying this,

again, thank you mayor breed, thank you da jinkerns and thank you to the public. with your support it is morale booster for our department and we get asked how to increase staffing shortage? meepal want to work with a department that has momentum and supported and believe me, our officers feel that support so thank you for everything you are doing to the public and again, thank you mayor breed for your leadership. with that, now we'll hear from our district attorney, brooke jenkins. [applause] >> thank you chief scott and thank you mayor breed. today is a great day in san francisco. it is exciting day in san francisco, because as law enforcement agencies we are being given additional tools to make sure that we can keep san francisco safe. the truth of the matter we are far behind the time to use technology to aid law enforcement velgz in the city and there have been road blocks

for years that prevented the san francisco police department and other law enforcement agencies from able to have the resources necessary to solve cases and prosecute those quhoo commit crime in the sit a eand this is a sign today that those days are over. we are moving forward as a city to make sure that people who commit crime in not only are caught, but when they are prosecuted they are convicted. as the district attorney i really want to stress the importance of the amount of evidence that we need in 2024 to prove that someone is guilty of a crime. our jurors in san francisco want to be assured that if they are voting guilty in a case that they are convicting the appropriate person who is cullpable for the conduct and a part of presenting adequate evidence is making sure we have all of the technological resources to prove to them not only the conduct committed, but

that we have the charge the appropriate person who committed that conduct. these cameras are going to assist in aid in our ability in the court room to do just that, so again, i'm very thankful to not only the state for providing the resources through the organize said retail theft grant to purchase the cameras but thankful to the city of san francisco to make sure this is something that happened today because at the end of the day the way we are going to solve the most pressing public safety issues in san francisco is not just through arrest, it is through making sure people are held accountable after that arrest in the courtroom. they have consequence and the goal is that as that word spreads, people will understand that they cannot do that here. that functions as a deterrent to those thinking about coming here to rob our most vulnerable and break into our cars, commit theft in the stors because now they understand we have the tools to catch them and to

prosecute them. so again, i stand with everybody's up here smiling because this moves our city forward to make sure we restore a sense of safety here. at this time, i'm going to turn it over to our sheriff, paul miyamoto. [applause] >> good morning everyone. to add to what has been said, by all the partners in public safety, one of the best things to happen here is not just the partnership and enhancement sof that for our local authorities and also the fact we can share information at the state level with our regional partners. we are not an island in san francisco and connected to other counties and as people commit crimes and move on our corridors, the traffic corridors they move to different places. we always had a problem with people coming here to commit crimes as mentioned by the chief. one of these tools will help us

and bridge the other regional assets to really track and hold people ap countable as they do types of crimes that bridge different counties. one other thing very beneficial for, as you can see and as we talk about the camera jz look up and see them, we are not going to have officers on the street every day to slow the traffic down, to have people obey traffic laws, this is a deturnlts. it is not just the work we do but having on the street in the public and have people be safe. my kids were on the corner sells things for the high school fund razor and have traffic and have people see things like this to know the information we share with the public at press conferences like this to know we are keeping people safe is the most important thing and we can't do that without the support of the community but the people that help with the budget and money

and process. as the mayor mentioned, this whole system has been streamlined for us to get to this point. some people that assisted in that have been our district supervisors and at this time i like to introduce district supervisor myrna melgar. [applause] >> thank you sheriff. i'll be brief. i wanted to make a couple points. this is wonderful use of technology and a appropriate use of technology and i want to thank the mayor so much for just being a leader in this. all of san francisco, right here in silicon valley could use this kind of initiative. it is cost effective and it allows us to focus our staff, wonderful police department on what they do best, strategy and able to analyze when a wrong has been committed, rather then you know, having folks be there

all the time watching when wrongs are not committed. i'm grateful for that. but the second thing i wanted to say, i'm grateful we are paying special attention to this corridor in this corner. as you can see, it is really busy. we have had our struggles with retail theft on this corridor and it is super important. we have ucsf parnassus behind us and golden gate park, so people come here, get off our trains and go to golden gate park where the county fairgrounds is in this corner is usually very very busy. there have been hit and runs and all kinds of things that having a camera here would be really really helpful in making supporting safety and supporting the community feeling safe. so, i'm very grateful for the attention. i'm so happy we are moving forward with this kind of technology, and grateful for the partnership of the merchants and folks in the

community who support safety in the community. it is my pleasure to introduce somebody who has been a partner and continues to do the work every day. our chair of our merchant association, susanna wise. >> thank you supervisor. as a member of the small business community, i am all too familiar safety and security challenges whether they are retail crimes, smash and grabs or broken windows plague our businesses trying to stay afloat. i want to express gratitute to the sfpd and all city partners represented here today for hard work, collaboration and dedication keeping our community safe and helping our community, commercial corridors thrive. and finally, i like to thank mayor breed for her vision and her commitment to all of us who live, work and care about san

francisco for implementing innovative solutions such as these cameras that can have lasting benefits for our community for years to come. and, now i like to introduce josh thomas the senior vice president of policy and communications from lock safety. [applause] >> thank you. my name is josh thomas. i work for safety and i are want to say quickly that, as a company we build hardware and write software providing the evidence to solve crime. what you heard today is a incredible testament to this city moving all in the same direction. you heard this from the mayor who i want to give thank you to the mayor and her administration. [applause] it is easy for people talk about wanting to do things and difficult to execute those things and you see the mayor deliver on her promise time and again so thank you mayor for continuing to do that frathe city. i'm from the bay area, i was

born here. i met my spouse in the city. my first apartment was a couple blocks away. i really love this city and i love seeing everybody working together for the purposes of trying to keep it safe and doing it in a way that is respectful of the values of this city. you heard from supervisor melgar. it is important we have good policy to keep us in line and make sure this technology is used safely and effectively and that's what we'll do. weep polk give chief scott and the team the tools they need to solve more crime and bring crime rates down. thank you for the opportunity, thank you for welcoming us in san francisco and let's build a safer community together. thanks everybody. [applause] >> thank you so much josh and i also like to acknowledge and welcome supervisor joel engardio and thank him for his work and advocacy on the issue as well. well, with that, make sure you

guys go eat in this neighborhood at the various restaurants and just take in the sites. ambience is a favorite store. if you need a gift for a lady, or a gentleman, you never know, it is a great place. thank you all so much for coming. [applause] >> my background is in engineering.

i am a civil engineer by training. my career has really been around government service. when the opportunity came up to serve the city of san francisco, that was just an opportunity i really needed to explore. [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] i think it was in junior high and really started to do well in math but i faced some really interesting challenges. many young ladies were not in math and i was the only one in some of these classes. it was tough, it was difficult to succeed when a teacher didn't have confidence in you, but i was determined and i realized that engineering really is what i was interested in. as i moved into college and took

engineering, preengineering classes, once again i hit some of those same stereotypes that women are not in this field. that just challenged me more. because i was enjoying it, i was determined to be successful. now i took that drive that i have and a couple it with public service. often we are the unsung heroes of technology in the city whether it is delivering network services internally, or for our broadband services to low income housing. >> free wi-fi for all of the residents here so that folks have access to do job searches, housing searches, or anything else that anyone else could do in our great city. >> we are putting the plant in the ground to make all of the city services available to our residents. it is difficult work, but it is

also very exciting and rewarding our team is exceptional. they are very talented engineers and analysts who work to deliver the data and the services and the technology every day. >> i love working with linda because she is fun. you can tell her anything under the sun and she will listen and give you solutions or advice. she is very generous and thoughtful and remembers all the special days that you are celebrating. >> i have seen recent employee safety and cyber security. it is always a top priority. i am always feeling proud working with her. >> what is interesting about my work and my family is my experience is not unique, but it is different. i am a single parent. so having a career that is demanding and also having a child to raise has been a challenge.

i think for parents that are working and trying to balance a career that takes a lot of time, we may have some interruptions. if there is an emergency or that sort of thing then you have to be able to still take care of your family and then also do your service to your job. that is probably my take away and a lot of lessons learned. a lot of parents have the concern of how to do the balance i like to think i did a good job for me, watching my son go through school and now enter the job market, and he is in the medical field and starting his career, he was always an intern. one of the things that we try to do here and one of my takeaways from raising him is how important internships are. and here in the department of technology, we pride ourselves on our interns. we have 20 to 25 each year. they do a terrific job contributing to our outside plant five or work or our

network engineering or our finance team. this last time they took to programming our reception robot, pepper, and they added videos to it and all of these sort of things. it was fun to see their creativity and their innovation come out. >> amazing. >> intriguing. >> the way i unwind is with my photography and taking pictures around the city. when i drive around california, i enjoy taking a lot of landscapes. the weather here changes very often, so you get a beautiful sunset or you get a big bunch of clouds. especially along the waterfront. it is spectacular. i just took some photos of big server and had a wonderful time, not only with the water photos,

but also the rocks and the bushes and the landscapes. they are phenomenal. [♪♪♪] my advice to young ladies and women who would like to move into stem fields is to really look at why you are there. if you are -- if you are a problem solver, if you like to analyse information, if you like to discover new things, if you like to come up with alternatives and invent new practice, it is such a fabulous opportunity. whether it is computer science or engineering or biology or medicine, oh, my goodness, there are so many opportunities. if you have that kind of mindset i have enjoyed working in san francisco so much because of the diversity. the diversity of the people, of this city, of the values, of the talent that is here in the city.

it is stimulating and motivating and inspiring and i cannot imagine working anywhere else but in sannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 22nd 2024. regular meeting of the san francisco ethics commission. today's meeting is live cablecast on sf gov tv two. live streamed online at sf gov. tv.org forward slash ethics live for public comment. members of the public may attend in person or may participate by phone or the webex platform, as explained in our agenda document. mr. clerk, would you please explain how remote public comment will be handled? public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. each member of the public will be allowed three minutes to speak for those attending in person. opportunities to speak