good morning, supervisors. i would like to speak out in support of this item. i feel muni violence has long been overlooked, except when it is serious. unfortunately, our leaders tend to be reactive, rather than proactive. i find it kind of interesting, the earlier statement made on this item, that the two sponsors sponsored this particular item. according to my memory, in my opinion, the same two sponsors so far have not sponsored a hearing on chinese victims on muni violence. i find it interesting that this item came first, but so far the two sponsors have not called for a hearing before violence

against chinese victims. in my opinion, since i have lived in the city for 50 years, chinese victims have long been overlooked as muni victims. i think it is only proper to make the suggestion, if we are going to support this item, maybe we should consider having a hearing to let chinese victims of muni violence get a chance to say their peace. in regards to increasing penalties, i would suggest we have more publicity for police protection of witnesses. i feel chinese victims had been hampered in the past because many chinese-speaking witness says have not had the opportunity to know, if they speak out to report crimes on the muni, they will be protected by the police. in addition to increasing the

penalties, maybe we should have a section where witnesses of the pilots are given more information as to what is available to protect them as they speak out against the perpetrators. lastly, in regards to this item, if we are going to increase penalties, we need to increase advertisements in newspapers. maybe the newspaper should have a section dedicated to climb up on muni. if they had bad in the paper, it might encourage more victims to speak out so they know that when they do speak, it will be publicized in the paper, so that way, there will be more publicity, and maybe that will stop the violence. supervisor chiu: thank you. any other member of the public

that would like to speak on this item? seeing none, public item is closed. >> i would like to invite deputy chief murphy to see if he had any additional comments to make. he may want to add a few comments to this presentation. >> just a few comments. when i first went over to work at the sfmta, the mandate that chief gascon gave us was not only to reduce crime, but to reduce the fear of crime. we want to focus on the crimes that create that atmosphere of crime. those crimes are weapons possessions. if people feel like other passengers may be armed, they

are the ones creating the atmosphere where a crime may be committed. in short, these ordinances give us a tool by which we can use to basically in force htthe law strictly, as well as laws already in effect. >> if i could come up again, thank you for taking the time to see this item. again, i want to thank my colleagues who co-sponsored this. thank you for your support. if i could request that the committee send this out as a committee report, that would be great. supervisor mirkarimi: i want to thank supervisor carmen chu for

moving this forward. just a quick question, and this is related to public comment. do you think there would be any level of the efficacy posting what this law would be on muni itself? i know it gives law-enforcement another tool, but the question of deterrence, which is often the problem. as we do with other crimes, trespassing, loitering. if we were able to publicize on muni buses that these crimes will not be tolerated, these are the consequences of such -- >> absolutely, that is a great idea. we have been working to get the word out on the enforcement that

we have been doing. this is just one more thing. i agree with you. if we can deter the crime before it is committed, first of all, there would be no casualty, and it is cheaper. supervisor mirkarimi: just for consideration to the two authors, to yourself, the mta, if there could be a publicity campaign that uniformly speaks to what the law is as to concealing a weapon, what the violation is, like the other advertisements that we put on mta for everything else -- you think twice. i do not think they would want to lose $1,000 or worse, be in

jail. >> it just so happens our pio from mta is here, so i assume she is taking notes. supervisor mirkarimi: 5 would just recommend something that would highlight on muni, where is conspicuous to ridership, and any punk who wants to violate the laws knows what the consequences will be. supervisor chiu: thank you. could we have a motion to adopt the amendment as a motiowhole? without objection. the amendment will pass. if we could forward this to the full board as a committee report. without objection. that shall be the case.

thank you, supervisor chiu. item three. >> hearing to present the commission on the status of women's justice and courage oversight panel report "courage to change," documenting two years of work by city agencies to address gaps in the criminal justice system's response to domestic violence. supervisor chiu: thank you. this is a hearing that i have called for to examine the work that has been done in recent years, and how we as a city, can create a much more seamless response to domestic violence. in number of years ago, the justice and courage oversight committee was created in the aftermath of a tragic death of a woman. it highlighted the breakdown and coordination of various criminal justice agencies. this panel conducted an audit of the system and discovered gaps in our city's response to

domestic violence. in 2007, we issued a report which has 67 recommendations for various criminal agencies. there was an audit implementation committee that was created to work with these various departments as well as community providers to move forward with these findings. what i wanted to do today in the hearing was to go over the recent findings of the report that was recently released over the audit implementation committee to talk about the successes of the work as well as the work we still need to do. i want to thank the advocates in the city as well as in the community. without this partnership, we would not be where we are today. i feel comfortable we have made a lot of strides but we still have a number of miles to go. we have a number of people here today to assist with the presentation, starting with the head of the department of status

of women. >> thank you. good morning, supervisors. as you know, the police department handles about 4000 cases of domestic violence per year. this is not a small problem. we believe any one of these 4000 cases could become a homicide. but today, i have bent over all good news story to share. our department invest directly in services to victims of violence. we thank you for the steadfast support of the budget money, especially in these tough budget times. we focus not only on meeting the crisis needs of women, but also on long-term institutional policy reforms in the criminal justice system. that is what i am here to share with you today.

i know your office is dedicated to improving the language of access to victims. i think you will appreciate some of the reforms we are about to talk about. i want to introduce a few members of the panel. i will be introducing our policy analyst as well who will be providing details of the latest report. following ms. marshall will be a our newest chief probation officer. we are committed to continuing the progress that the adult program has made. she will be followed by the district attorney's victims unit manager. we also have with us police

captain jon ehrlich, who is responsible for the domestic violence response unit. so i want to introduce ms. marshall who will give a presentation on the report. >> good morning, supervisors. i provided some materials for you. supervisor chiu: if we could turn on the overhead, please. >> thank you for allowing us to provide this overview. i wanted to add a few more details. in the audit conducted in 2006, released in 2007, there were five primary gaps uncovered.

risk assessment, stalking, the language of incumbency, battery, and complexity of risk. how do we do with those victims with complex risk factors in their life but are not standard, being homeless, substance abuse issues come lgbt community, other things that create challenges for the criminal justice system. the 68 recommendations were designed to address those primary gaps. the audit implementation committee had been meeting monthly since 2007. it had representation from all of the criminal justice department's, so it was a collaborative effort. all departments provided quite a bit of time and energy through the process.

there were a number of accomplishments based on this work. stalking is a very significant risk factor, in terms of the legality of domestic violence cases. the fact that the criminal justice system has not been structured to address stalking was a huge gap. we created many new protocol that would help to address stalking. we created a new code for 911 so that they can track it from its inception. once a case is tracked, they are deferred to the correct units to better prosecute these cases. there were new trainings developed at the police department, new internet protocols 91.

the da's office also released a report to discuss how depends showed drilvictims should deal h instance is ofstalking. in terms of batterer accountability, the police department has made improvements in how they track batterers, how they are filling the requirements of their probation. so there are new methods of communication between the adult probation department, the court, and better intervention programs. field total cost to increase safety of -- increased safety of

field officers. being able to assess risk factors in the field was a huge gap that was uncovered. the police department and 911 created a promised alert in the system so that police officers responding to a call would be aware of history of weapons charges, or anything else, before entering the scene. there is also more training regarding risk assessment for police officers. advocates are training officers on how to conduct risk assessments with the victims in the field to understand if there is any fallon -- fallibility in the case.

the court is also going to create a number of new safety measures. there is a benchmark created. different issues that may arise. there is also a collaboration between the sheriff's department and police department, such as getting escort for families as they leave the courtroom. a 15-minute hold policy to allow petitioners to leave early before the batter leaves so that they can find safety. there are also a number of

community meetings to coordinate with other deadlines. training of officers has been an ongoing issue, need, adequate training. we had a number of grant programs to address this. bridges to freedom, language fluency project. this just concluded in june. it addresses the language needs of the towns by helping first

responders learn domestic violence-specific language in chinese and cantonese. criminal-justice agencies also had new training practices. the d.a. and police department collaborated on a four-hour training to address the need -- officers needed training on how to appropriately collect evidence when responding. community-based providers also provide training to the agencies. most recently, the mayor's office of housing received a three-year federal grant which

is being implemented, and they will be training hundreds of police officers over the next two years of domestic violence. based on the findings of the audit, we secured a line of contract services. all departments that use that for a telephonic translations. there were problems with the prior telephonic translations. different agencies were using different providers and some are not as high quality as others. also, at the same time, we received donations from at&t, mobile phones. these are funds that officers can use in the field if they are responding to a case of someone

not having an in-person translator. then they can use the mobile phone to receive translations. all criminal justice departments have protocols for injuring limited english driver's seat language of corporate services. so these are some of the high- level successes that we have had. the report also details some of the other protocol changes that have happened. there are also things that we need to work toward. one is the creation of a city- wide mou. in 2007, after the release of the audit report, major new some issued an executive directive to ask departments to work with us on this. in that directive, he also

recommended creating a city-wide mou to implement these changes. the justice oversight panel is currently drafting this mou to try to bring these changes into a more institutionalized setting. also, to address some of the more high level issues that have yet to be implemented. and there remains some issues around restraining order protocol. the court and police department are continuing to negotiate with one another about the entry of restraining order information and how those agencies will communicate with one another when issues arise -- arise. both departments have protocols that worked pretty well regarding restraining orders,

but the problems come up when there is cross-department telecommunications. as i mentioned, stalking is an important indicator. it is important that all departments have protocol on how they can identify cases of stalking when they see it, how they will refer victims to assistance. some of the departments have internal protocols. not all do. we need all departments to have internet protocols for around and then find stalking cases, and then we would like to have that the city-wide. this is something that could be developed as part of the stalking task force.

training is an ongoing need. there are a number of grand- funded training projects that have been implemented. unfortunately, when budgets are tight, training is often the first to be cut. that can be very harmful to victims if officers, staff are not aware of the current bishop -- issues, trends, have been in appropriately trained. all of the officers have training, but often, they are ad hoc training, provided free of charge by the community, other agencies, and we would like to see more institutionalized training. not only domestic violence, but cultural competency issues, underserved communities, risk factors, the specific type of training that needs to be regularly offered. one of our recommendations, too,

is to have an audit to assess the quality and quantity of system-wide trading practices -- training practices. the hall of justice's has had some structural issues. the domestic violence court room as many prepare needs that are a continuing concern. there is also some safety concerns at hall of justice. often the department is responsive to addressing them, but not much is done to keep victims aligned with the victim services safe as their case is coming up, other places within hall of justice.

this process was possible because of the open communication, willingness of the department to come to the table and work on these hard issues, open themselves up to criticism as well as getting what they need to make the changes. i commend the department for being so willing to do this hard work. remaining recommendations ask for that same level of engagement. you can find out more -- other reports that we have mentioned today. all of that is on our website. happy to answer any questions that you have here, or i am happy to turn it over to chief stills.

supervisor chiu: thank you for the presentation. it has been 10 years since that case. while i think a lot of us feel like progress has been made, all of my colleagues share the desire to move these recommendations and finish them. one question to you, hearing what is left open, it does not seem like there is much left over from the legislative and. most of these on completed tasks are administrative. could you let me know if there is anything that i am missing, any thing that the board of supervisors can do to move this more quickly? >> there does need to be top- down. especially when we look at

training, looking at training budgets, you mentioned the budget. continuing to prioritize those types of training budgets in the department, technology budget in your consideration. that is an important asset -- aspect that we need support fron from top levels. supervisor chiu: and number of us and you this as a lack of city corp., not pushing these reforms. that is a point well taken. on the issue of technology, i refer to the project. i am still uncertain as to who is responsible for the justice program. that is a project that has been sitting in limbo for many years.

i would love your comment on the impact of that. you alluded to it. if the police lack access to certain limitations -- could you talk about that? if there are other speakers that have point that they would like to add -- the data issue. the justice system would definitely support the work once it is fully implemented. we also had a number of recommendations from this audit implementation work that could be followed through, could use the justice system, such