>> a pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> conducting roll call now. president mazzucco: present. vice president marshall: en route.

commissioner de jesus is excused this evening. commissioner hammer: present. commissioner chan: present. commissioner kingsley: present. >> james slaughter is excused. also with us is the assistant chief of police and director joysticks, of the office of citizen complaints. president mazzucco: welcome to the regularly scheduled san francisco police commission hearing meeting. tonight, we are going to do some in camera disciplinary matters, but will start with a brief agenda. please call line item # 1. -- number one. >> public comment. members of the public may address the commission for a time not to exceed three minutes on items within the subject

matter jurisdiction of the commission that do not appear on the agenda. president mazzucco: line item 4, a discussion of possible action to adopt a resolution advising criminal background checks pursuant to state law, for the purpose of investigating applicants' -- we have asked to take that off calendar. that item will not be on the agenda tonight. we can therefore move onto line item 1, concerning the business of the san francisco police department. good evening, nate. how are you? >> [unintelligible] i have been here for many years, complaining about situations with the police department. i am very happy. i want to congratulate the

police department in the accurate ending of the [unintelligible] how shall i call it, assassination? i woke up that morning with my heart [unintelligible] a great-grandfather of doctors. for something like that to happen to my children is unacceptable. i am appalled that there are leaders who oppose out here when there is a photo op. i am appalled that a our ministers were not outraged to go to the streets after that. but i am here to congratulate the police department. i know that is weird, but i am. what you have done here is remarkable, and you should be commended for that.

if you need an ace on the case, you have it. i would like to commend the north station and the captain who led the officers. my hat is off to them. meanwhile, to get back to business, i would also like to extradite -- i put in applications for press passes for my organization. i have been in city hall for 20 years. i would like to submit something next month. next week, and will be commended -- i will be commanded by my peers in san francisco for 20 years doing the work i am doing. hopefully, we will have somebody from police department or city hall. i want to commend the police. for my community, i will talk to some of the african american youngsters. they were really happy that that happened. he needs help. pray for that person. that was something our community was really set about. for the police to act like that was outstanding.

so thank you very much. >> give it to the police commissioner. pñ5@w>> i would like to have ths perhaps looked at and reviewed. i have been here 20 years. the people who have hired me for black history month -- hopefully that should extradite that. i want to assure our community we do have responsible people working with the police department. i commend the san francisco police department for being on the case. president mazzucco: thank you, mr. washington. any further speakers during public comment? good evening, clyde. how are you? >> i am a little appalled some of our media outlets. some of the nonprofits are really playing this up. i know a lot more about these officers. i know a lot of them. they do not run around shooting

people in wheelchairs'. they do not find somebody who looks a little weird and draw a 40 and shoot him. nonprofits are playing this up in the press. some of these people in wheelchairs' do not really need wheelchairs. walk down fifth street. there is a guy who gets $10 from tourists and walks to the tenderloin. we really need to look at this mental illness issue. how do we do mentally ill? our police department to stomach the habit of just shooting mentally ill people. if they had occasion, maybe it would not had to go like that. i am sorry at the murder rate the past few days. it is horrible. what that man did burning the car with that lady is puzzling, the most puzzling thing i have ever read. i wish him the death penalty. he would get the death penalty, a pri. president mazzucco: hearing no

other public comment, please call line item number two. >> it is reports to the commission, beginning with the chief's report of recent activities. >> how are you? president mazzucco: very good, sir. >> i would like to update you with the most recent department crime statistics from the last 28-day cycle, which ended on the 22nd. total crimes are down 21%, year- to-date. violent crime is down 4%. property crimes are down 20%. there are 99 to work part 1 crimes this year than at this time last year. -- fewer part one crimes this year than the time last year. island crime is down 7%. property crimes are down 17%. the only uptick we have the test is in homicides. we have eight homicides here to

date, instead of four for 2010. president mazzucco: thank you, chief. any questions? commissioner hammer: could you talk to us a little bit about the homicide rate that is going on? has the department thought through any way in which these homicides are tied together, why it is double last year's rate? with the small data set, it is hard to extrapolate. but what the sea with the trends so far and what we are doing to reverse it? >> i did not see any trends. before i came to the meeting this evening, i compared this year's homicides to the last four years. it is higher than it was last year. it is for higher. i have looked around the region and have noticed that the homicide rate for the three largest cities -- oakland, san jose, and san francisco -- are all higher than there were last year. i think we are noticing not only

in the bay area but across the area -- across the country that there has been an increase in violence. there have been 13 police officer shot in the last six days across the country, four of them fatally. no one is sure if this is a random statistical anomaly or if there is something else of work here. commissioner hammer: i have gotten inquiries from the public about what the department is doing. is the department taking any particular steps to address this again, or are these one-of homicides in your opinion? >> having looked at all eight of them, four of them occurred in doors. the department, since february 2008, has had a concerted violence reduction program, which has been very successful. the ones that have occurred on the street have been primarily related to disputes between people. the have occurred around the clock and the have occurred in vastly different parts of the

city. -- they have occurred around the clock and they have occurred in vastly different parts of the city. the most affected areas are the bay view, the western addition, and the tenderloin. commissioner hammer: i don't know what you have this data. homicide's themselves can be misleading. i think one of the more telling statistics would be to see whether there is an uptick in the shootings. to we have to tell looking at shootings this week instead -- do we have shootings -- do we have data looking at shootings this week instead of last year? we have one of the best, hospitals in the country. people have gotten -- we have one of the best trauma hospitals in the country. people have gotten better at

saving people. so i think that is a more telling statistic. >> item 3, routine administrative business. >> the only thing i would like to report on is that the occ funds are operational again. they were out of order monday and tuesday. no one was able to call or fax or office. the department of technology was advised as soon as we were notified by police department that there was a problem. they looked into it to determine whether or not it was an equipment failure. it was not. they notified at&t on monday. it took at&t until tuesday afternoon to come and troubleshoot the problem. it was an at&t network problem. we are operational again.

that concludes my report. president mazzucco: any questions? >> item 2c, commission president's report. president mazzucco: i would like to brief the public and the remainder of the commission that we have had very productive meetings regarding mental health issues. last week, a number of us met at my office to discuss this. we had a great conference with members of the memphis police department. it was incredible to learn about the man does model, how that department deals with mental health issues. following that meeting, yesterday, myself, commissioner hammer, and commissioner chan

had another productive meeting. we are looking at mental health issues we have to do with in the city, including issues of our officers are dealing with regarding their own mental health. i think we are going to make great strides. i will allow both commissioners to give you their opinion. commissioner hammer: i want to echo what he said and want to particularly thank you. commissioner chan took extra time to reach out to mental health advocates in the city. it is becoming clear to me that most successful models involve real partnership, not just in the training stage, but as it goes on. we train specialists not just for a 24-hour course. the central part of what they do

when they are not patrolling -- they are called to scenes, where they become experts. there are less injuries to our officers and other people. it is extraordinary. i am incredibly encouraged by the chiefs. but during 9, when we have this hearing, we can move the department -- but february 9, when we have this hearing, we can remove the department for work. we have the chance to avoid violence, to help our officers get to a situation where they do not have to use any kind of force. i want to think commissioner chan -- think commissioner chant for bringing mental health advocates -- thank commissioner chan for bringing mental-health advocates back into this process. commissioner chan: i want to thank my colleagues for addressing this issue head on. i have received a lot of

feedback from community groups about this prioritizing of mental health of february 9. the feedback has been extremely positive. that has been a step in the right direction in providing guidance and leadership regarding mentally ill members of the public. i was extremely impressed by the man does model. talking with major cochrane and dr. dupont, who have been doing this work for decades -- having two or 3 officer-involved shootings of mentally ill folks in 23 years is a an incredible number -- is an incredible number. i am excited to meet them in person when they come to san francisco, to pick their brains even more. training is important, but it is about using that training every day in a thought out manner. there is a critical

intervention-trained officer during every station at every time. i think those are some of the key things. there is a meeting occurring in los angeles, and i want to think the department for arranging for that trip for us, to make sure we do all of our homework in preparing for this upcoming commission hearing. commissioner kingsley: i was the only commissioner who had not participated in this meeting on friday, until dr. marshall appeared. i just want to thank you on behalf of all the rest of the commissioners, director hicks, and the three commissioners to participated in this and are -- and are participating in an ongoing fashion. in has been earmarked by the police commission as being our number one priority. you are doing a lot of the book work and outreach on this. -- but work -- footwork and

outreach on this. the training has been incredible, and the continued coordination. let us move forward into the future. on behalf of everybody else, thank you. >> you walk down a city block and see mental health issues. i witnessed two young girls offer a homeless person a cupcake, and he responded by smacking her in the head. mental health issues. the officer responded and took him in for a 5150. we are at a crisis point here. thank you, commissioners, for getting on top of this. the next part of this is a status update on the search for the chief of police. we have already picked dates where we intend to have three

names to the mayor by march 15. in doing so, we had to put out a job announcement in case there was any sort of mystery that there was an opening for the chief of police position in san francisco. commissioner channel rewrote the job posting we used last time, but they did it. that has been forwarded to the appropriate agencies in the city. on monday. >> monday afternoon. president mazzucco: we have given the due date for the return of the applications. what is over due date on that? -- our due date on that? february 8, 5:00 p.m. the will be on a tuesday. hopefully, the police commission will have the opportunity to review those applications and start the initial process. we have that done. thank you very much, commissioner cahan.

she was given the assignment, and by 11:00 it was done. a plus. [laughter] the process is in place. our ultimate goal is to do that. the next step is community outreach and community input. one other commissioners said there was not a violation of the brown act. i suggested we have three community meetings. keep in mind, as we stated earlier, we did close to 5018 months ago, and went -- close to 5018 months ago. -- close to 50 18 months ago. the was suggested we do three. one will be at the lgbt center. one will be at the bayview. for the third, i suggested the

terrible -- taribel. i thought that would cover the entire city and give people the opportunity to chime in. commissioner chan: that sounds good to me. i think we should get this ball rolling and have some dates picked up so we can start getting the word out. among all of us, on as the purse a commission as this is, i think we can do a good -- among all of us, as diverse a commission as this is, i think we can do a good job getting the word out. i am going to reach out to agent -- to the asian police officers association. i am happy to do any other type of out reach needed. president mazzucco: the other thing we need to do is get together with the police department about meeting again

with the members to see what they are looking for, give them another opportunity, in light of the fact that this is the first time the have had a cheap come from the outside in a long time. we need to hear from the rank and file about how that works. we need to set a date for that. that is another meeting for law enforcement officers. three for the community. if need be, myself and other commissioners will make ourselves available. it does not have to be a full quorum. commissioners can go out to the various chiefs' meetings. so long as there is not four of us there, we can hear what is going on there. we can go out and meet with the asian police officers association, and various police officer groups. we can go to their meetings, and even the district's stations. it does not have to be as thorough as the first one. commissioners, check your

calendars. let's pick the per se community meetings, where there will be a quorum. we can go to the applications as we receive them while going through the community process. vice president marshall: those meetings do not necessarily -- if there is a quorum, it has to be calendared. but do all of us have to be there? they can be informal, to the extent they do not have to be recorded. i do not want to hold things up because a quorum cannot be there. president mazzucco: we do not necessarily need a quorum. our expert is shaking his head. secretary reilly: do you want to ask the city attorney about the notice requirements? >> if you are going to have a quorum, you need 15 days notice. vice president marshall: that is

what i am concerned about. >> if you want to expedite it, you might want less than a quorum. president mazzucco: lt. reilley ran the last police chief surgeon on his own and did not have a the suggestion would be maybe we should schedule with these three meetings -- and did thes/t a quorum.ings -- and did the suggestion would be maybe we should schedule these three meetings. let us pick some dates and schedule the first meeting as a quorum 15 days from today, 15 days from tomorrow, which is a thursday evening. secretary reilly: we could do that. we have to confirm that location and make sure the location is available tomorrow in order to make the 15 days. commissioner hammer: just briefly, the think you were reading of my notes. i agree with everything you have

said in terms of the number of meetings and the locations. i am open to accepting them if others are as well. i think it provides access to people from different parts of the city. i think the most important stakeholders are police officers, 2000 folks about to be led by somebody else. i want to hear their opinions about what they think they need to do to move the apartment -- department for work. i think we have to move very quickly. if we are going to have meaningful interviews with these candidates, i think we need to hear from the community first, and from the stakeholders. i do not know how we start interviews without having a meaningful discussion with the people of san francisco. i would suggest we have our first forum soon. i think if we are going to try to keep to a fast schedule, perhaps we ought to set some of these up for three