particular the cambodian, laotian, and now iraqi women are distrusting of government. i would like to suggest that maybe we can have partnership with our technology partners to have particular tablets and face time, and split screen. often times when we are speaking it is not just that we say or hear, but the body language as well. for these women from war-torn countries they are distrusting and if they cannot see the person they will hang up. >> that is an excellent idea. it is another homework assignment. will get it done.

i will see what we can do. we are coming up with computers and tablets and handhelds. if we can put that technology there we will work towards that goal. >> my question goes back to the ongoing issues. i would gather that this topic has been raised already with the police commissioner or discuss discussed at the commission level. the concern with immigrant communities is that interaction with the police could lead to either party, both parties, being deported and how that is being - whether there is training that sensitizes the least of this, or how is it handled? >> commissioner, it's been the

policy of the san francisco police department since the sanctuary city ordinance was passed over 30 years ago, before i became a police officer, it isn't just something we need to train to. it's always know. i can assure anyone watching on tv at this commission, san francisco is a sanctuary city. we are here to help regardless of your country of origin or language. we are working hard as you can tell to figure out the language. chief beal spoke about me doing those interviews. i don't speak korean and chinese. we do spanish radio once a

month, speak with marcos gutierrez about whatever they want to talk about; sanctuary city has come up more than once. it is not a training issue for us. it is department policy. it is city law. it is what we have been raised on. >> does the department have the authority to control that information within its own database so it is and shared with the federal authorities? >> what information is that? >> my understanding is there is no opt in and out. maybe commissioner chan can say something. >> secure communities is a post-arrest situation, a sheriff situation. those questions are not asked at the police department level. >> the chief has been extremely

supportive of efforts by community groups. chief beal recently met with community groups about the same issue, that is something they have been receptive, trying to address. -- has resulted in over 638 deportations as of august this year. it has an impact on the victims of domestic violence. it is a continual problem. >> but not from the san francisco police department. >> there is a reason case, longer story. not because of the specific police officers fall; this program has a direct connection to the immigration database. it is problematic.

>> commissioner cahn is passionate about. >> appropriately so. while it is a policy in the training within the police department, it is a sanctuary city however there is a reality of the federal program that does affect people's lives. that is a conflict that could bear some understanding, i think. >> commissioner kingsley. >> commissioner kingsley: not that this is necessarily the forum but i thought that in today's paper the attorney general indicated that it was optional whether or not a

jurisdiction wanted to turn over this data, and that we aren't under an obligation to forward data when low-level crimes. >> i spoke to the attorney general myself. i told her that we would continue to do, and that she understood that. but the notification is compulsory. >> i did not read the article that you're referencing. i understand that the issue was at california says it's optional. the federal government says it is not. in the meantime, this is what

i am addressing. >> commissioners i want to be really clear because this is on television. for anybody the lives in san francisco, we are a sanctuary city. your status living in the united states is not an issue. we will not report. please. trust your san francisco police department. call us. we are here to help. >> commissioner turman: thank you chief for pointing that out. we already had a constitutional law here, i'm not sure that it is hour is the best use. the attorney general did do a law-enforcement bulletin;

the issue is whether the local jurisdiction is obligated to use state resources to do a federal detainer; it is specific to the sheriff's department. part of the notion is that it is not the job of from my law enforcement to enforce immigration policy; we are here to keep people safe. we appreciate the chief's passion. and ultimately where people come is not relevant and using this forum is important to underscore that commitment, and i'm glad the chief is clear and unequivocal about that. >> victims are not at risk for deportation. that is abundantly clear from what the chief has said.

our next line item is regarding the san francisco police department special victims unit. >> i would like to introduce deputy director, lisa hoffman, waiting to tell you about the new system. >> sorry about that. >> good evening and thank you for letting me have a moment to speak. i will keep it brief. we have been in the process after procuring enough that you are 911 system. the current system we have is 12 years old, antiquated. we are not able to currently tell whether an officer have special skills so we don't is best based on skill sets. we will have a processes to

install, we upgrade to the new system in 2014 will have the capability to identify officer skill sets and identify and tabulate when we translate on a call. we have no way to currently manage the data to tell us when a call speaking a different language. one of the primary objectives of the new product is to have a system that allows us to determine when we translate for somebody. we have a large member of staff who are language proficient and come from primary speaking language, fluent in their native language. we are looking to get more dispatchers qualified and certified a second language proficient. we are taking information from line from a victim who is hysterical.

rather then transferring them to a second party we want to do the translation ourselves. we have been fortunate although -- realizes that we have problems in getting people to certified translation, it is an expensive process. we are willing to wait. we took money out of our own budget the certify 7 new staff members. something in the best benefit of our clients. we are interactive with this process. we do a lot of outreach and speaking engagements where we take our staff that speaks the native-language to those events to make sure the public knows we are not judging them, we don't care where they came

from, we just care about getting services that they need. >> i would like for you to hear from -- in the trenches 24/7, working with people speaking many languages that have many different barriers. i would like to have -- come up and talk to you about this. >> thanks beverly. we are running really late. i will keep it brief. language access is a safety issue. we talked about officers securing the scene and worried about the safety of individuals and involved with their own safety when they come upon the scene trying to figure out what is happening. language access can be the difference between a dv homicide happening or not

happening. for my organization, where we work every day on civil/legal remedies and integration remedies for dv survivors it is something we encounter on record basis. the dv survivor community that we work with, primarily immigrant, limited english proficient, they will not be a big events or have all the access to some of the information that comes out now. in addition, they are also not likely to be people who will complain. the people who hear those complaints are me and other attorneys who do the kind of work that we do and legal services and social services agencies. they're not likely to call occ to make a complaint. i think anything that relies purely on occ complaints or

some other kind of data will be misleading. we are grateful to have this partnership. it is not often that legal services organizations get to regularly meet with law enforcement and learn about their experience. i really appreciate officer hall who is also in eric chang's position; our organization has been involved with this commission for six years. while we have made lots of progress distilled is appointed that on a regular basis, almost every day, i will talk to someone who said that they did not know that they could have an interpreter. they were not offered an interpreter. they did not even get to speak to the police officer on the scene because there was no interpreter or they have to wait an hour or something along those lines and when you think about for survivor, even if they know they will get to

have an interpreter, if they have to wait whether an hour or 45 minutes and during that time the officer is talking probably to the abusive partner, it changes the dynamic. the police come in but they're not always 100 percent sure that calling the police in the situation is going to be the most successful route. and then you have is a situation where they're not able to communicate, that don't know what is going on and the city officer talking to the abusive party who a lot of times is a lot more proficient in english and it creates a dynamic of mistrust, we are grateful to the officers who are willing to use their personal cell phones to call language line. the reality is, in the resource environment that we

are in, getting the bilingual officer to the scene is time-consuming and elongates the whole process. not having access to a cell phone for an officer forces him into position to use whatever is available or the personal cell phone. that should not be the case. one thing we do, i want to mention as a program, as a policy that we would like to see,we would like to see language line gets training on domestic violence awareness and maybe cultural competency issues. they provide a huge service to the city. the city is one of their biggest clients. i think there is a lot to be said for the idea that language in and of itself is not a panacea; it is not monolithic. there is a difference between saying a restraining order and saying something else, and how you even talk to the victim of

trauma is vital. we would like to see more involvement, rather than assuming that they are the experts which is i think how the police have looked at it in the past. language line is the expert on language, and they should teach us. we have a lot to teach interpreters as well about how to effectively communicate with them. one more thing quickly, for emergency protection orders, i am not sure how many people realize this but the judicial council has translated the emergency protection order into five languages. yet getting a copy of that along with the actual english version to the survivor is something that could easily be done by does not happen. i regularly meet with clients who for the first time understand what that emergency

protection order means either because the member from the staff is interpreting it or i had given them a copy in their language and they should not have to wait that long to understand what it means, which is why a lot of times they don't even agree because they don't know what they're being asked about. i want to say thank you and appreciate your time. >> one thing that was also brought up in the neighborhood meetings with the immigrant communities is that they often want to keep the family unit intact. although the victim won't be deported, she is concerned about the father of the children being deported. that has a chilling effect. that is a consideration that we as a community have to take.

>> i will chime in on behalf of the domestic violence community; it has been a high priority for us to change the role of california and other states, operating with secure communities for many reasons; one of the major ones is the chilling effect on victims come forward, concern for their own safety or the deportation of the father of the children or their partner. we work with angela chan and the statewide organization against domestic violence; angela did a webinar, a top priority. we will support tom -- introduced on monday to strengthen california's response to this. we are living in san francisco

where things are not quite as bad. you can speak to anyone no matter where they are on the continuum of immigration reform about the chilling effect of domestic violence survivors and families, and why the federal initiative is dangerous. >> that is not what i was appear for; i wanted to talk about how honored i have been to be here for two years as part of the language workgroup; access to criminal justice, community day services, justice, safety. it is homicide prevention. as we know from many homicides that we work with families, we have done court watches over the years, and the tragedies that we have seen, language

access makes a difference. the trust and logistics of those languages being available has been a real honor. i cannot thank chief -- and deputy chief -- and deputy chief beal, and the two language officers have been so helpful. language liaison henry hocht came out to a community domestic violence meeting. he came, handed out his phone number, everybody got to meet the liaison an officer chan will help us do that as well. it helps when officers can tell

clients that they know the language liaison officer for sfpd and he can help them to get where they need to be in a they have an issue they can bring it to the table. it is tremendous. the hour is late. this work could not be done without -- and the team from occ, and the leadership of sfpd to meet with us on almost monthly basis where many of these issues are spelled out every day. it is a pleasure and an honor and a vital goal for all of us. we have to do this. we are doing it. thank you. >> we will call our last item on the agenda, report from the

chief, and captain flaherty from the special victims unit, san francisco police department. >> i know that the hour is late. i'm greg suhr, chief of police for san francisco. it is important what commissioner marshall spoke to earlier, and echo about the tragedy in kansas city. we are talking about the 22-year-old mother who was killed and leaves a three-month-old baby. that is with these conversations are about. even though we are in a staffing crisis, the mayor and the people who sit on these chairs will address this but we are still down about 300

officers. thank you for your comments and the material beverly upton who keeps moving around back there. concerning our most vulnerable. in october we built a space in our most secure floor, behind locked doors, a place for children, and many of the folks behind me contributed to making it nice. everybody has been sitting together, we are altogether all the time anyway. in october, domestic violence, elder abuse, missing persons, juvenile violence, came together under one roof.

a putting the human trafficking task force regional effort. even though we are in the middle of hiring 1000 officers over the next six years, a critical piece of that and i will read this draft, officers convicted of domestic violence shall not be considered. it will be policy. we have about 5000 applicants so far in the first 10 days. i want the message to be clear that there is no place in the san francisco police

department for those folks. that is my shtick. the captaincy work hard to bring you up to speed about the domestic violence unit, now part of svu and what they do in san francisco. we are committed to keep san francisco safe regardless of the place of origin or language efforts. the things that we can do easily we will go quickly. the things that will take a little bit of work or money we will figure out. captain? >> thank you chief. i'm sorry. i am the last one up. i have been asked to speak on a few items. i will try to get through it as quickly as possible.

bear with me. when i get to the presentation, once i am completed i will be happy to answer any questions you may have for me. >> good evening everybody, i am denise flaherty, the captain for the special victims unit. our journey starts in 1995, the formation of the domestic violence response unit going back to the time when the department had separate investigative unit. for years domestic violence, sex crimes, youth crimes all work independently.

the investigative bureau was fragmented and never work together closely. through the years we have improved, evolved. under chief surh, in october, 2011, the special unit was created. the mythic violence is no longer an individual area of investigation. in order to serve those who are most vulnerable we must not only examine the crime that has occurred but also identify the services and support that we can provide in order to prevent future victimization. we have 40 members that investigate domestic violence, sexual assault, internet crimes against children, human trafficking, elderly abuse. we have 20 very talented investigators who focus on domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse.

we recognize the benefit of formalized training offered by post, then we have been diligent and assigning individuals for training as it becomes available. formal training of the members is essential so we don't forget the value mentorship and hands-on training. we have investigators with fast experience and knowledge. our investigators at svu have over 300 years of experience and are able to investigate high-profile crimes efficiently and effectively. a good example of the recent investigation and conviction of the 24th st. quarter rapist. we have purposefully partnered with the most senior investigations with the new generation of investigators.

we have great success with these partnerships passing the knowledge, investigative techniques, and expensive cannot be found in the classroom. another example was a series of cases where suspects preyed on elderly members of the asian committee. investigators have done an excellent job. cases such as these are demanding requiring patience and understanding and compassion for the victims. financial crime members are also responsible for elderly abuse both physical and financial. while the majority of the cases are financial in fiscal year 2011-2012, we served 54 cases of elderly care abuse, in most cases the family member was identified as a perpetrator. these were difficult cases to prove due to the close