. hello and welcome to kqed newsroom. the warriors record setting season and a look ahead to the playoffs and our reporters round table looks at disparities and reforms in two major bay area law enforcement agencies. first we all do it, stare at screens, tvs, tablets, computers and those smart phones. young people seem addicted to them and that has parents struggling over how to best monitor and limit their children's screen time. how worried should parents be and what does scientific research say about the effects of excessive screen time on brain development what the

doctor went out to learn with the new documentary. >> the young adolescent brain can oscillate back and forth. >> so distracted by my phone so it is hard to listen to a teacher. >> what is extraordinary on the studies about multi tasking is even though you are doing worse and worse on everything you are doing you feel as though you are doing better and better. >> who is there to catch you at home? your mom? mom, it's really hard. >> and joining me now is film maker and physician delaney ruston. what made you decide to do this documentary? >> i was really struggling as a mom. i had a teenager girl who wanted more social media and avoid one more video game. and i wanted to know as a physician the impact of all of this screen time but really as a mom i wanted to know what to do. so that's why i made the film.

>> so what is the impact? what is the scientific research show? >> well, i think there is evidence about this can effect empathy, development of empathy depends on reading social cues. and the science shows that when they take away devices, kids perform better on studies that look at their ability to look at the social cues. that makes me concerned. >> what about effects on learning and memory? has there been research done on that, as well? >> we have data that has just come out about mice. when they take young mice and they put them in a room with flashing lights and sounds to mimic the screen time of kids what is amazing is that the part of the brain that is responsible for learning a memory does not develop the same number of neurones as a baby mice that wasn't exposed to these. the effect is ultimately permanent and concerning. we can't do the same experiments

on kids but it is to note this is a developmental time that we are giving kids often excessive screen time. >> we did a poll on twitter because this is an issue that so many parents faced. 44% said they limit screen time. 38% said they try to and 18% said no we do not police it. what should parents do? >> absolutely what is needed is so hard to do but actually to have some concrete guide lines. the way to help kids to develop self-control is to have rules. it doesn't make sense. you think they should do this on their own. it is hard to decide what to do when it comes from conversations with kids, getting their input. i will give you an example. for us, for example, we don't use our cell phones when we are driving in a car. we talk.

we don't use them at the dinner table and in the bedrooms at night. they know it is interesting making this documentary i learned that parenting is so private. people would tell me all the time you know i'm having these problems and i would say what kind of solutions are you trying and people would be really hesitant to say, they felt really judged. that is why it is so important to have the talks about what we can do. >> there are many other parents facing the same issue and if we can work together maybe solutions can come out of it that all parents can find a way to negotiate. we also went to facebook and asked parents what they do about limiting their kids screen time. elizabeth burke said she didn't worry about it much. her son ended up getting a degree in aero space engineering. another woman said her son is on a full scholarship.

other parents said the opposite that they don't have cable, don't have dvds and do games and crafts and it doesn't become an issue. is there a middle ground here? >> in screen agers one of my favorite stories is a young girl who really wanted -- she was in eighth grade -- social media. when she couldn't have it she ended up sneaking it. when social cruelty did happen she was devastated that she couldn't go to her mom. the key thing is deciding within the family what seems reasonable but making sure there are guidelines. it's writing them down but being flexible and having weekly conversations. it is grabbing the device in the moment and it is just being reactionary and angry and setting up this cat and mouse thing isn't good at all for helping kids to navigate this. these weekly conversations on our website we really foster

this. >> i have a 9 year old. this is definitely an issue, an ongoing issue for us in the car, at home, in the bedroom. parents, though, are they setting a bad example, as well. they are constantly checking their phones. >> there are so many parents that talked to me when i was making the film, i feel so guilty because i know i should be modeling well and i'm not. what are your personal guidelines because you can never niche a goal if you don't have them. i go my goal is to do it less. as a physician i know behavior change never works that way. ultimately i talk to parents about setting one or two goals and talking to their kids about what they are trying to get better at. maybe they have been texting and they know that is not healthy for their communication with their kids. >> now that the film is out you have been showing it to schools and companies, pixar, what would you like to see happen next?

>> for me it is all about getting parents and kids and educators together. this is the biggest parenting issue of our time. it's not just a psychological issue. this is fizz lodphysiolockage. we have to get kids, schools and parents to find out how to find balance. that is why the film is all about showing in the community so people come together. the goal is a lot of conversations, weekly conversations rather than angry cat and mouse. >> all good advice. thank you. and thank you for the documentary. >> thank you so much. this week we want to turn our attention to three law enforcement stories around the bay area. in san francisco more questions surface about the recent police shooting. sydney says she often found a homeless man fixing bikes on the street. >> the person who was killed, i

have never seen him behave violently. all that i know from him is that he was friends with the other kind of residers on this block and that he fixed people's bikes. that was it. the other people really liked him and they were grieving over him. >> in santa clara county supervisors accepted sweeping recommendations to reform the county jail and heard a call to take control of the jail from the sheriff. this comes as deaths at the jail are being investigated. racial bias in traffic stops, new data. joining me now to discuss the stories are reporter aliceensly, beth willen and san francisco chronicle reporter joaquin pal aminto. the shooting was the first in san francisco, first fatal shooting since the mario woods

incident late last year, amid a lot of calls for change in the way to handle force issues. >> the san francisco chronicle late last week published some surveillance video of this shooting where you can tell it takes approximately 22 seconds from the first command an officer gives to the final fatal shot. and this seems to fly in the face of long standing policies which are in the process of being redrafted. still for about at least three years now officers have been being told and reminded again that when someone is not a danger to anyone else, a police officer or another civilian to foster time to allow de-escalation to occur before re-creating a situation that turns deadly.

>> 22 seconds does not seem to indicate that time and distance was really afforded in this situation? >> of course, you can look at the other side of that and law enforcement officials have said also that these events can tend to unfold really quickly. it becomes a question of policy but also who created the situation that didn't allow for that time and distance to happen. i have heard some of the strongest language around that that i have ever heard from both chief of police and police commissioners questioning what we have to do to make it stick that you are not to charge suspects who only have an edged weapon and aren't a danger to anyone else? you have to stay back. >> what has been political fallout? >> he has been very -- the one thing that he always does is makes himself very available to

criticism. he always holds a town hall meeting shortly after shootings and hears from anyone with issues in the community. those town hall meetings have gotten more and more strained as people sort of trust less the things that he says as these investigations developed in previous officer-involved shootings and some things turned not to be blown out by evidence. there is a lot of anger at the chief of police right now but he has good relationships in the city and some things like a 3-year-old bulletin on creating time and distance saying i'm trying to change this mentality in the police department. he doesn't get a lot of credit for that but it is things that he does as well as some of the other things such as selective release of witness statements that has drawn a lot of criticism. >> you believe, then, that the response is sort of getting more and more frustrated or angry?

>> i think. it shouldn't be lost that each of these are incredibly serious. we are talking about loss of life and at the hands of a law enforcement officer. so there are always going to be emotional, i think. i think that with each one that happens there is a growing amount of anger and a growing call for the police department and the civilian leaders over it to do whatever they can to reduce them. >> you pointed out that each of these cases involves a death and use of force but at the heart of it also issues of public trust and community faith in the police department. and that is also at the heart of a story. it had to do with racial disparities in the way that san francisco conducts its traffic stops especially including -- what is a consent search and

what did you find there? >> a consent search is when an officer asks a driver permission to search their car. it's rarely used in san francisco but it's really controversial. a lot of legal experts, civil liberty groups criticize it. unlike a search based on probable cause where cops point to evidence where i saw what appears to be a crime, a consent search can be based on -- >> sometimes people don't know they can decline a consent search. >> there is some debate over whether or not people hear a cop's question. >> so what was the racial disparity that you uncovered there? >> looking at about three years of data on traffic stops in san francisco and searches found that african-americans were eight times more likely to be asked permission to search their vehicle than white drivers. latino drivers were four times

more likely to be asked permission. >> does that add up considering the demographics? >> it doesn't. it was about 50% of all consent searches were african-american daughters. this type of search is disproportionately used. justice system written broadly. how big of an outliar is san francisco. >> tons of research on traffic stops because it is sort of the most common interaction between police and the public. similar disparities found in other jurisdictions. what set san francisco apart speaking with district attorney and others here is that there is a sense that san francisco is different.

as a progressive we don't have the same issues with potential bias in policing. as you pointed out and all of these suggest there may be some bias. >> how much influence do social factors have on the data? for example, higher crime rates in certain communities or frequent police patrols? >> so social factors play a big role and no one can really parse out how big of a role police patrols in black and latino neighborhoods play versus what may be bias or something else. that is what when i spoke to sfp is saying crime is concentrated in african-american latino neighborhoods and cops search people at high rates. there was one other sort of metric that i looked at which was evidence recovery rate which

is called a hit rate. and that is following discretionary search. and the evidence recovery rate for african-americans and to a lesser extent latinos was much lower. >> has the chief of police or other high ranking officials in the san francisco police department responded to your story? did they talk to you for this? >> the chief of police was not made available for the story. i did speak to a commander of the traffic division. >> what did he have to say? >> she -- >> he, i should say. >> she distributed to social factors but said they were going to -- i gave them all my findings before i published anything. >> also want to talk about ongoing law enforcement issue in santa clara county. a blue ribbon commission formed after the death of inmate

michael tyree. the findings were presented to board of supervisors, what are some top recommendations? >> the top two recommendations that the commission wants approved are they want to take control of the jails away from sheriff smith. they want to open an office of inspector general who would be a watch dog, who would have oversight but would not control the jails. taking the jails away from smith is going to be problematic and it will be a long process because for starters there is a contract with the sheriff that the county has. there is a county charter and there is also constitutional issues on whether or not they have the authority to do this. it's extremely political, also. some call it a political land mind because you have a body of elected officials, board of supervisors trying to take something away from another elected official. it is an election year. you throw in unions and it gets

dicy. there is a long and sorted somewhat torturous history because there was a department of corrections in the 1980s than ran the jails. that was problematic. it was costly and for budget reasons and many other reasons they turned everything over to the sheriff. how often can you keep repacking that is a question? >> what is the sheriff's response? the recommendations and the suggestion that the jail be -- >> and she said she is in full support of having oversight, an office of inspector general. she said as a matter of fact that she recommended that in some of her sweeping reforms. as far as taking the jails away from her she said let's wait until the studies are in next week big study is coming out from the national institute of corrections.

they did an independent evaluation of the jail system. >> so the retired superior court judge chaired the commission. this week she compared sheriff smith to a pilot either indifferent or incompetent during a plane's descent towards crashing. is anyone calling on sheriff smith to step down. >> they are not asking her to step down or they are not trying to remove her. they stopped short of that and they are simply -- they are asking to remove control of the jails from her. at this point nobody is asking for that. to her credit she has been proposing these reforms. she wants to work with them as much as possible. she made that clear afterwards. and also she is not tried to cover anything up since the

michael tyree incident. he opened the department up. what is most problematic to her is that there were 300 complaints filed by inmates of use of force since 2010. only 14 of them were investigated and five of them had definitive action. that raises a lot of questions because why were these stopped at the front end? were people being protected? was the department being protected because of the optics of this? >> she is up for reelection in 2018. do you think she will weather the storm this time around? >> she said that i'm not a quitter. i want to see the reforms go through and i haven't started to raise money yet. she survived blistering campaigns in the past. been sheriff for nearly 20 years. >> thank you. thank you all for being here.

>> thank you. the sporting world was fixed on the bay area this week. on wednesday the golden state warriors jumped to the top of the nba history book with record setting 73rd win of the season. the warriors will set up for next challenge, a repeat championship win. for more on the team we are joined by veteran bay area sports journalist. pleasure to have you here. >> thanks. >> have you seen a lot of changes over the years. you have been covering the warriors for 20 years from the time they were door mats and now top of the league, non-basketball fans are fans of the team. what is it like for you to see the bay area swept up in warriors fever like this? >> it is incredible especially when compared to the team 20 years ago. it was a team that went through a stretch of 12 straight years

without making the playoffs. warrior fans were accustomed to the team losing year after year after year. in 2007 they made the playoffs with the we believe team which got some acclaim in the bay area. after that the team went down hill so if you are a long-time warrior fan you are kind of conditioned for something to go wrong. i always joke that long-time warrior fans are waiting for something to go wrong and can't quite appreciate this. the young people out there who don't know about the warriors history are on cloud nine right now. the bay area has been buzzing about this team for two years. >> what a wonderful moment. what is it about this team that you think allows it to keep shattering records. 73 wins. it's amazing. >> the numbers have been unbelievable. i think steph curry is where you have to start. he is the perfect leader for a team. he is the best player on the

team. i think what is most important about him is he is a very inclusive person and players, his teammates gravitate towards him not just klay thompson and dray monde green but also the guys at the end of the bench. that chemistry that i think he fosters goes a long way towards why they have such a good team. the nba for a long time is built on having one superstar and basically you give the ball to that guy and he makes all the plays. the warriors are very different in that respect. >> how much is that steve kerr's doing? >> he was a player under greg pop vich who is considered one of the best coaches ever. he is big on having five guys touch the ball and passing is most important not a player who can score. even though curry is the best player on the team everybody has a role on the team 1 through 12.

so they really have great comradery. that is what they are riding to success. >> you have watched curry practice. is he human? i read a washington post article on him. he has a great intuition for the ball. >> he is a natural athlete. he golfs. he is a great basketball player. he uses innovative techniques to improve his game, his ball handling. when he came into the league his ball handling is something many thought he needed to work on. here it is seven years later and people think he is the best ball handler in the league. so he has just been remarkable in terms of he has improved every year in the league. not many pros can say that. >> wednesday's game was historic for coach kerr, as well. the record that they broke was previously set by the bulls team

he was on in '95-'96. >> he says it was bittersweet. he was talking about how if he wanted to he could sabotage the team so they couldn't touch his record. what he did was he asked the team what they wanted to do, if they wanted to go for it and spent a lot of time and energy trying to get to 73 wins. they said let's go for it. he allowed them to pursue that path. that is another reason why i think he is a special guy because he puts all the responsibility in the players hands and they respond well to it because they are mu choor. >> it is fantastic that they broke the record. does it set up a new set of pressures now for them to win the championship because you reached that 73rd win mark you better do it now. >> no doubt about it. there is comparisons being made to new england patriots that went 18-0 and lost in the super bowl. there is no doubt if the

warriors don't win the title this is going to be a very disappointing season as great as it is right now. when you are the defending champions, the championship and winning it again is the most important thing and this team, like i said, they are smart, they are mature. i think they are really good at putting that part of the season behind them and now heading towards the playoffs where they are going to hope to repeat. >> if the championship, if they win it would you go so far as to say this is the single greatest nba season ever? >> yeah, i would go that far to say it is the greatest season ever. it is a good thing you didn't say team because i would have to think of other teams. you can't argue with it. 73 wins. nobody has done it. if they win a title this two-year run for the warriors is unprecedented. >> first playoff game this weekend. want to venture a prediction? >> warriors will win. as long as i don't have to get

more specific than that i'm probably safe. >> we will hold you to that. it is a good prediction. thanks so much for being here. >> thank you. and that is it for tonight. thanks for watching. for all of kqed's news coverage please go to kqednews.org.

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