part of my fire. that has evolved over periods of time. as somebody who entered into elected office with a district that was engulfed in violent crime, and depending which year, the second or third highest homicide rate, and the constant simmer of, you know, the incivility and distress. i advocated for my district. i wanted foot beats out there. no matter what other new laws -- i'm not really making reference to the current debates now. but in the past i really wanted to see a constant application of attention that was held accountable. this is where i acted out because i wasn't getting what we needed in order to remedy the problem. frankly, i was agast at the police department's response back then when i came into elected office, like stay out of it, it's not your jurisdiction. that's what i'm elected to do. it was like when the school

department was shutting down six 6 our -- six of our eight public schools, and it's not your jurisdiction. these things have a sinner gistic relationship. they're intertwined. if we give half a damn about any of our districts, or certainly the neighborhoods throughout the city and county of san francisco, it is the natural response. we want to take care of business. we want to work with the police department. we want to make sure that the streets are liberateded away from crime. -- liberated away from crime, and that people are not feeling hostage to their houses or to certain blocks because they can't cross the street. it was like pulling teeth in order to get the kind of response which i think should have been routine and normal for that level of concern. >> i apologize for that. again, unfortunately i wasn't here when this occurred. my concern is the reason i'm here today and the reason i'm an employee with the san francisco police department and very happy to be here is a result of you four and the voting which allowed me to be

here. my concern when i first heard about the initiative was, am i going to be able to manage the day-to-day operations or is there going to be legislation that will dictate how i have to manage the department. i have to be honest and tell you i was kind of taken back by that, thinking that i was brought here to make a change as a chief, and i have with transparency to crime lab and other issues. i'm sensing maybe i walked into this debate in the ninth inning. i can assure you that i will work with every person on this board and every person in the city of san francisco to assure them that we will work with them to implement the foot beat philosophy, the community policing philosophy. maybe these promises from me are too late. maybe at this point there's been too much rhetoric bring got here and you need to put that on the ballot. i don't think it needs to be a ballot initiative. that's my only argument. i agree we need foot patrols, community policing. i'm asking that you allow the chief and i to put that together and manage this department in reference of the community policing, in getting input from the supervisors, from the community that stands behind me.

all i'm asking is for a chance to remedy that. if i'm too late, i'm sorry for that. and i guess i'll answer any questions that you might have. supervisor mirkarimi: i think we're trying to take two negatives and put it into a positive in that regard there is no question for me about your level of commitment and sincerity on making this work as i believe with the chief. i think that when we have approached the mayor's office over the last few years about this, again, the response had been this is out of our jurisdiction. we get that. i think we need more on that before this is put for the voters. chairman campos: thank you, chief. the only thing that can i saycy appreciate the way you approach these things.

i think you're pretty straight forward. i am confident that things will be much improved going forward. i want to thank you for being here. supervisor mirkarimi: appreciate it. chairman campos: why don't we open it up to public comment comment. if there is anyone who would like to speak, please come forward. >> hello. i'm bicycle bob, as the neighborhood knows me. i'm chairman of the public safety committee for the hayes valley neighborhood association. we meet each month to discuss public safety issues in the hayes valley western edition. hey, crime is down. hey, we're having a real quiet

summer. why? community policing and foot patrols. if thrurp on may 27 at the meeting with 150 people, where the police department said that, community policing and foot patrols. you know, if you want to see about foot patrols, you should have been at the carnival last friday. that's the hayward playground, 600 kids running around having a great time and all going up to the police and shaking their hands because they know them. five years from now maybe they will be running around doing something else with the police. you know, you talk about staffing.

dealt with, but the relationships that have been built and support between police officers and scheduling providers, 8 organizations that have supported this, we have sen this in the neighborhood where things happen, and the police can call people and we need you to resolve this issue. last week some things have happened, and i was asking how we build up these partnerships. i have concerns because we are grateful the sargent is moving

to lieutenant, and he is someone who has been supportive and understands the community and dynamics. who will place us out there if it is not mandated? we had something happened a couple of weeks ago. they were able to follow up and get officers out to the situation because he knew the community and can deal with it. you know, i feel like we do need to put something -- we do need to put something in place, at least it is working, there is a good base there, but it is random. i know that there is a strong

sense she is going through her transition. people feel like the captain got it, he is great, they really miss him. in our neighborhood, we need something different. supervisor campos: thank you, ms. davis. next speaker, please. >> i am a western addition resident. we have had 4 captains i can count in these 7 years, and listening to everything today, that speaks a lot to why we need to institutionalize the baseline for programs like these that we know have been part of turning around what has been a terrible situation and is now a success story.

i sort of have seen us go through the iterations and frustrations of dealing with people who get it and support it and otehrs who fighti t every inch of the way. we have something valuable, the relationship of officers with the community, whether it is kids that can go either way and will benefit from close personal direction with officers or be lost if the officers are just driving by. we are all happy with the results, we are all proud of the improved relations we have as communities with the improved effectiveness, and it just is knowing the history of what it

took to get here, to institutionalize a baseline commitment to community policing and officers will be negligent. so i am appreciative of this and appreciate the efforts bringing it to this point and hope you move forward on it. thank you. >> i am branch manager at the buchanan ymca. we have heard a lot about what is happening with the police, what was happening when foot patrols were cut back. i am going to go before that. i current live in the western addition and have lived in the north beach-chinatown area and now in the western addition.

i remember when i lived on polk street when there was a beat officer or two i would see on a daily basis. they got to know me, i got to know them. when we talk about citizens trust the police or don't, i always trust the police because i know them personally. back in the 1970's, things had changed where you could get to know the police officers like i did growing up, so there was that continuity of the relationships that kids and thec community have with their officers. things seem to be going well now. working with the captain at

the station, i havegreat relationships with the police officers, i know them and can call them at any time from the ymc or any community i know about. the question is, will this continue throughout the years? things may be fine now, but what about in the future, 5 years from now, 10 years from now? my experiences lead to where i do trust the police and has good communications with them. i want to be able to say that 15 years from now. thank you for all you have done. supervisor campos: next speaker. >> i am al simmons from the fillmore. i work there and see the energy

between my people and the police. i think we had compensation a couple of years ago that the beat works. keep it. place it on the ballot. you've got the votes. make it work. continue. if it's working, keep it. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. >> my name is bob westwood. i work in the center and spend most of my working hours there. last week i was standing and stopped to work a citation for an open container, which is against the law. and i don't know if you watch this frequently, but it can take a long time, especially if an officer decides to search.

and i noticed other problems going down. jaywalking, riding a bike on the sidewalk. i realized less than a block from me, there were people selling crack. why is the officer focusing on the container other than the drug dealers? i know who the dealers are. how do they not know? and i realize it is because the officer didn't have enough of a connection with the neighborhood. this gets expressed all the time in the tl. police are not dealing with drug dealing, because they do not know how -- who is selling. so you can have police stop

people based on instinct. people -- somebody is not doing anything, but it gives police a reason to stop them on a gut sense something is wrong. another is police actually spend time interacting with the populace. i want you to seriously consider the amendment proposed. thank you. >> good evening. i would like to commend my supervisor from the fifth district, because many years ago when we first came to these chambers, it turned out to be a wonderful program. the foot patrol is a wonderful thing, and we need to keep it. i am concerned about community

policing, because that is one of the components right at the height of making legislation, somehow the former chief -- we used to have community policing in all the cities in different districts. so i am here to say that we are going to start back the western addition community police relationship board. so i am here, i just happened to walk through, i do think foot patrol is a good thing. our new captain is wonderful. and congratulations to the sergeant, because when some of the officers didn't know who i was, if it wasn't for him i would have been down.

only one more foot note, when i'm talking about community relations, with community activists and the police department, they do not know who i am and people talk about what they say, and i have talked to the captain to reconvene the board so we can find out who are the new officers and they can find out who we are. i serve just as well as my community policeman, and i would like to see a stronger relationship, and we are going to start the meeting real soon. i want to commend supervisor ross. this is a wonderful program, and

you are doing a good job. thank you. >> any members who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. supervisor mirkarimi? supervisor mirkarimi: we did not call for people to come to this. i thought the conversation would work itself out, and people in districts who have engaged in their own right on questions of public safety and policing, i'm not looking for this to be anything more than a collaborative strategy and vehicle for law enforcement and citizenry, and that is why i feel we are at a tipping point in institutionalizing something that is not well-grounded that

can guarantee or help guarantee community policing. and yet i am inspired that they will make every effort to affectuate the things they have spoken about. but no matter how modern our department becomes, and they need to be with the deficiencies they have suffered, that while they strive to become a system-oriented police department, nothing will ever, ever replace a people-oriented department, and that strategy is really what i think is commensurate with what makes san francisco so special, which is why make references to push

buttons, but we are a world famous city, but also rather small in a way that makes us accessible and special. geographically because of 47.5 miles, but also because of how unique our individual district supervisors are. and that merits sensitivity and tailoring of a public safety strategy, and i do believe in this iteration they also want to see it come to fruition. but if they are not there, we are reminded of what remains. the good will could remain. the archival information as to how to get it done. but even with current efforts underway, if you take off and

put it in some other neighborhood and place it with somebody who does not have that level of institutional or neighborhood knowledge in that area, it only shows why the wholes are that much deeper. if you look at it as a pie in 10 slices, maybe 1 slice is foot patrols. there are so many other elements, and i think the system chief is speaking to that. i just want to put it into a place where we are unified in our commitment. treating this as someplace that might be contrary to the view of the police department, that

helps tip it in the question that obligates city government to look at other resources and support a strategy enacted by the voters. thank you. >> i agree with everything you are saying, that we need to work together and foster more cooperation. but what i found interesting is the woman that stood behind me, every woman behind me said the same thing. keep the foot beats working. foot beats are working. i was encouraged that everybody was complementary. therew as -- there was not any

disagreement. during this conversation, i have never uttered budget and resources. at the end of the day, we can implement policing without legislation. i thank you for your time and for allowing me to address this board. supervisor campos: thank you, captain. we look forward to continuing to work with you. supervisor alioto-pier. supervisor alioto-pier: thank you, chief. nice to have you here. through the chair, we wrote

here during the last foot beat debate -- unfortunately, supervisors campos and mar missed it. but part of the reason why, actually the great reason why the mayor vetoed that piece of legislation was because that legislation was aggressive in that it charted out specific beats, and my biggest concerns at the time, the first was i believe then and believe now that should be the jurisdiction of the police department. i think a policy surrounding that is probably one of your

biggest responsibilities. so that was one of my objections to it and probably the mayor's biggest objection to it. both supervisor mirkarimi and i have the distinct pleasure of sharing stations, and as part of that, the coverage of chestnut and union street was moved to district 5. the one beat cop i had was taken from me. and i don't think those are the types of fights we should be having. ultimately, we fought hard to get that guy back and have him now, but those are not the types of fights we should be having in san francisco, and i think there are two reasons why that

legislation would have been vetoed. frankly, i'm not sure this would be vetoed, and if it were, i'm not sure it would be able to withstand an override. i don't think it would go that far. it talks about community policing policy, and i don't think anyone objects to that or to the police commission putting it together, particularly when you have people like joe marshall on the commission. i do think the police department should be active in that. but it doesn't seem to me to be that controversial. a foot beat patrol program again, the chief of police would draft it with the involvement of

the department. i don't think anything would be workable, necessarily, but it seems tweaking a little here and there would get unanimous support of the baord. -- board. i don't agree it would go against the same threshold as the first beat legislation. i think they are very different, and i don't think anyone would argue. everybody believes it, and that's one of the reasons i objected so greatly the first time. i was having my guy taken away from me, and i had just one. so we are excited for the people we can get. these are different things, even

though we are talking about the same topic. very different pieces of legislation. this is an example of voters saying, wait a minute, why did that come to the ballot? why didn't they just pass it at the board? it could be passed at the board, and i am saying that as part of a different side than my extreme colleague. so i applaud supervisor mirkarimi's efforts and do not think there is a person on the body who would not support a robust police foot patrol program. supervisor campos: thank you, supervisor alioto-pier. supervisor mirkarimi? supervisor mirkarimi: it is

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