arrests, parole and probation violators, and seizure of large quantities of narcotics. in february, the plane closed units were involved in 50 incidents which resulted -- the plainclothes officers were involved and 50 incidents which resulted in arrests. 13 were on probation. they served two search warrants. there were large seizures. at 175 grams of methamphetamine, 366 grams of cocaine, three at 60 grams of crack cocaine, -- 360 grams of crack cocaine, numerous other drugs, assault weapons, and to be of handguns. in march up to yesterday, they made 46 arrests -- six parolees, 12 probationers, served eight search warrants, seized 105 grams of cocaine, $11,000, 300 grams of soft

cooking, 120 ecstasy pills, a 12 gauge shotgun and several more handguns. then we had three weekend violence abatement operations during that time. these three operations ran from thursday through sunday. they were four-day operations. we deployed 162 officers, 140 of whom were on duty, 23 working overtime for various times. it resulted in 50 arrests, 30 felony arrests, we ceased to guns, three knives, if you are weapons of other types, very productive. -- for weapons of other types, very productive. the bottom line is there was no gang violence. then i think the most important factor which could point to in

our success in dealing with gang violence is the collaboration with the mission community. we already had in place an open line of communication between station personnel and community- based organizations, such as the community response network, homey, lower 24th street merchants association, mission boys and girls club, the san francisco wraparound project, central latino senior center, and la casa. because of this open line of communication, we had a number of successes that we could point to. one was 17th and mission shrine for the homicide victim. we met early on with the committee outreach workers to clarify what our expectations were and establish with the

needs of the community were. it was very successful. there were a couple of incidents, one instance they put up a huge amount of blue balloons, which is basically advertising their gang colors. it was unacceptable. we were able to talk to a person from the community response network. he talked to the people there and have volunteered to take the balloons down. if we had interceded to take the balloons down, it might have developed into something unpleasant, and we felt it was not necessary. a couple days into the shrine, a tv cameraman was roughed up a little bit. but we got the word back, not got hold of the executive director of homey, told him that

was not acceptable and we cannot tolerate that. he went back and let people know there is a certain decorum that was expected, and a respected that. -- and they respected that. days after the homicide, a homicide victims funeral was scheduled. the victim of wasa soreno, and a funeral home was in norteno turf, as was the church but and cemetery. we cooperated with the community and they arranged for transportation of the srenos into the norteno turf for the wake, the next day for the funeral. the community workers stayed out. we provided a heavy presence and the was no violence. it was a volatile situation.

i mentioned the shooting at 24th and harrison on march 2. the victim was rushed to the emergency room of the general hospital. there was a large group of nortenos, very angry because this fellow had been shot. if you hours later, a soreno gang member was shot. he was coming to general hospital. we anticipated this was not good, a bunch of angry nortenos already there, with angry sorenos coming in. because of our communication, we give them a heads up. the immediate responded to general hospital with their workers and was no violence at the hospital. there was a big potential for that. i think these are three great

examples of the importance of an open line of communications with the community outreach organizations. further out ridge, we had the shooting march 2 and march 3. myself and the chief and members of the mission committee, and representatives from the response network, homey, mission boys and girls club, the wraparound project, all met at mission station to discuss various strategies that we could deploy to de-escalate the gang violence. in addition to that, we have conducted training sessions with the salvation army, staffing counselors for their back on track program, which is a program released back into the community.

we have held meetings with the parents of youth who are at risk of involvement and gang violence. i'm recently met with juan percy, the dean of discipline we also met with another high- school's dean of discipline. we met with supervisor campos and supervisor at kim to discuss ways they could be of assistance and weighs would further employed the community to work together with us to eliminate the violence. finally, our long term outreach. our easter rate cut and christmas giveaway for the little ones. this is a long-term investment in reaching into that commit -- reaching into that community,

letting them know that we are partners with them, that the police are their friends. the old axiom that we feel is very important to do these things. last year, we provided christmas gifts to 1,000 families. on april 17, we are having an easter egg hunt at the station. you are all invited. and with that, i am available for any questions that you may have. commissioner dejesus: thank you. who's your assistant? >> this is my permit officer. commissioner dejesus: thank you for that presentation. a couple of questions? commissioner hammer: captain,

thank you. some of us asked about this a couple weeks ago because of the spike in violence. i think it is clear from the presentation that all of the officers and a mission statement have done extraordinary efforts to bring that down. as we know, one act of gang violence ultimately leads to the next and the next. i think everyone there has been successful, and i congratulate everybody on that. the thing i am most moved on, to commend everybody, we talk about community policing. sometimes it is more talk, sometimes it is more action. there was a day in san francisco, in the best sense, when beat cops knew every kid on the street and every mom in the neighborhood and everybody took care of each other, everyone knew each other. we get sometimes now where our officers are very separate from the neighborhoods. we're not able to do our jobs well when that happens. the examples you gave, talking to the school counselors,

committee leaders, who can directly reach out to some of these kids and committee, it is powerful. i commend you. the only follow-up question i have is foot patrols in the mission. what is the status of that in this -- of that and is that being impacted? >> despite staffing challenges, we have a permit foot beat in the valley, we have a permit they watch and castro, and a night watch in the caster. we have a bay watch foot beat on 24th street and evening foot beat on 24th street. we havean 11:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. between 24th and 16th, and we have baby at least as often as we can -- and we have a beat that we staff as often as we can. commissioner hammer: are those

teams, especially in the tougher areas, around mission, although sometimes staffed by one officer? >> the only one we have is the noah valley beat which is 11:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., and the day watch castro beat as well. commissioner hammer: we heard about an assault on a officer working on his own. >> that was officer friedman. commissioner hammer: who was badly hurt, it could have been killed. it has caused concern, countering gang members by himself. what is the policy? >> that incident prompted me to issue a mandate that we don't have any one-officer units at night in the mission district. they watch, because of staffing, we're forced to have a lot of 1- officer units, but that time,

the swing watch, the 8:00 until 6:00 a.m., and midnight watch, there are no one-officer units. commissioner hammer: and that is a change after the incident? >> it is. i listen to some of the interviews. it was very gripping when he said at one point he thought he would never see his 2-year-old again. i said, well, time to make sure -- i like all the units to be two officer units. we cannot get the job doing that, but at least at night weekend. commissioner hammer: we all heard the story, and i was incredibly moved by it in the sense that he could have died. it is up to the department how you do staffing, but as a commissioner and someone from san francisco, i commend you for straightening out that

policy because of their safety. it is really important to us. thank you, captain. commissioner dejesus: commissioner kingsley? commissioner kingsley: thank you for your fine presentations. i appreciate the information. basically, commissioner hammer spoke eloquently around the community involvement collaboration that your district has done, and i just wanted to echo my congratulations on successful work within the community. thank you for that. >> thank you. commissioner dejesus: commission chan? commissioner chan: thank you both for your presentations and explaining these. i had a question about what this cooperation, and whether or not witnesses some of these crimes,

some of the incidents were during the daylight or very busy hours, very busy intersections and that some businesses. i am just wondering what is the number of those with stepped forward to cooperate? >> it is not very good often, the victim knows who shot or stabbed them, but they won't disclose because they plan to get revenge themselves. it is the gang lifestyle. then we have citizens who are afraid to come forward, and that is one of our major challenges, to try and build up enough good faith with the community so they are willing to come forward. but it is very rare. we have a lot of informants who will tell us who did it and

why, but they're not willing to come forward and testify in court or anything like that. commissioner chan: and why it to you think there are these challenges? is it different from the mission that other districts? and what are some ideas put forth that you may be thinking about to address these challenges? >> the challenge of unwilling witnesses? commissioner chan: yes. >> no, i think that challenge is universal in high crime areas. that is one of the major issues that are citizen advisory board is trying to work on, is how to increase confidence in the police within the community, and in the mission it is often the immigrant community who commented the country where --

who come from a country where the police are not to be trusted. so it is a double challenge. commissioner chan: thank you, captain. i am often in the mission and i would be happy to support any efforts in that area. >> great, thank you. >> commissionerdejesus? thank you. thank you for the results, and i am happy that you are working with the community. i was just wondering, are you going to be able to continue with the staffing which has kept the area calm, or will that change? i'm really glad you are working with the community, but i am concerned about the staffing situation. >> we're going to continue with

this priority. however, we have to cut back a little bit on the staffing because, we mentioned it beats, something like this, the beat is the first assignment to go. we have boulevard beat people back on beats now. -- we have all of heart beat people back on beats now. we have the prosecution car sometimes. we're still supplementing normal patrols, and we are trying to patrol and a smarter manner than traditional ways. commissioner dejesus: sorry, did not need to cut you off. >> getting away from traditional ways, often, one meets a lot of resistance. but we will overcome that resistance. commissioner dejesus: and are

you meeting with the community also? >> absolutely. absolutely. commissioner dejesus: thank you. wonderful presentation. >> thank you very much. >> we have one other item, status report regarding dna testing backlog. >> good evening, commissioners, directive hicks, chief sawyer. i am the captain of the forensic services division, here to give a report on the dna backlog situation. since i last addressed this commission last year, we have an implemented several protocols to virtually eliminate any backlog

in our dna testing. we have offenber labs audited, and we been using the vendor lab as a resource to work the overflow capacity of the case work. so we have virtually no backlog at this time. our analysts are currently working about 101 cases, and the offender lab has 123 of those cases. -- the vendor lab has those. they reviewed by our management, and those that are overflow that cannot be handled by our analysts are sent to the vendor lab. we get a purchase order, we have a property control officer bring them to the outside lab to get worked out. so nothing is languishing.

we currently have also, to help us out, we have more personnel coming for the crime lab. we have been testing. we have requisitions, active lists. we have just completed testing, and we have open positions for seven journeyman level dna specialized criminalists that at that two supervisors for those criminalists. we're currently hiring those people. it will not be instant relief because we have to go through the background process and have to be trained on the methodology that we use in our lab, our report running system, and such. but i am happy to report that the lab is in good shape and we have virtually no backlogs. the only thing that could be considered a backlog are the cases that as they come in are going through the administrative

process of getting a quote from our outside lab and getting purchase orders from the outside lab and being sent over to richmond, to the lab. >> anything else, ma'am? >> i am ready for questions. commissioner hammer: first, thank you, captain, for coming. when i put this on the agenda, the board of supervisors passed a new ordinance which is administrative code, section 2- a.89, requiring detailed protocols for the speedy testing of dna, including when it is collected and the rest of it. i asked the chief by e-mail today if there were any documents to provide us, and i was told there are not. but start with, what does the

department produce, if anything, in response to the legislation that has passed? >> i have the documents. i see as though you are ways of implementing the legislation. at first, -- i have four ways of at limiting the legislation. first is the victim dna bill of rights. this is our new form 540, which i can provide to you. commissioner hammer: when was that developed? >> over the past month. it fits in the tag books of the officers can hand it to the victim. we found no other agencies that we contacted who did anything like this. commissioner hammer: could you pass those up while you talk? thank you. >> this is quite innovative and providing this level of service to sexual assault victims. i will not raise the hole card,

but the basic dna bill of rights for the sexual assault victim is they have the right to know if a profile has been developed from evidence, from biological evidence that was secured from their case. normally, what is commonly called a rape kit. they have the right to know if a profile has been developed. they also have the right to know if that profile has been entered into codis, the data base, the combined dna index system. they also have the right to know if a match was made in codis from the profile developed. the match would be a hit to an unknown offender, a hit to someone who has been arrested, or out a hit to a convicted offender and the data base. that is one side of the card. the other side of the card, "a law enforcement agency assigned to investigate a sexual assault should perform dna testing of rape kit evidence for other

crime scene evidence in a timely manager -- in a timely manner to ensure a statute of limitations," and this will be issued to all sexual assault victims by the officers who come to make the initial report. commissioner hammer: is there a bulletin board department order requiring them to do that? >> darrius. we have a bulletin drawn up. -- there is. we have a bulletin drawn up. it explains the card, the picture of the card, explains when the card should be issued, who should be shielded, and why. commissioner hammer: the bulletin i am looking at says draft. >> and had a couple of typos, so it has to go back to the printer, but it should be issued tomorrow. commissioner hammer: and that is a department bulletin? >> it is, official department bulletin. that explains to the officers what to do with the card and its

use. the next thing on the legislation was getting sexual assault evidence to the lab within 72 hours. so it can start to get tested right away. what we had a sexual assault unit do was change their policy as far as collecting evidence from the hospital. commissioner hammer: can we pause, so the public and the commission knows, what gave rise to this was we have been picking so if someone were raped on monday, it may stay there for six days without even starting to be tested. that is one of the reasons for this innovation, so it is now required to be picked up within 72 hours? is that by bulletin? >> the inspectors who work in that unit are tasked with picking that up, so every monday, wednesday, and friday. commissioner hammer: excellent.

>> the inspector assigned calls the hospital and says, "do you have any rate kicks -- rape kits?" and if they do, they get them and book them. i will explain that in a moment. the stranger suspect cases. those goes right out to the laboratory to get worked up right away. commissioner hammer: when you say "lab," our lab? >> hours. there have been a few sexual assault cases that have gone to the vendors, but they are handled by our staff paquette -- by our staff. those usually get to a laboratory in 24 hours. so monday, wednesday, friday,

this will cover the 72 hours for getting the evidence to the laboratory. a third component of the legislation, which is the 14- day rule, to get that evidence tested in 14 days, so we get it out to the lab, but we do not wanted to sit, and that is why we triage them. if there is overflow, and we are working, say, 300 homicide cases, they do those, and they go out. commissioner hammer: to put that in context, part of what gave rise -- i worked with supervisor alioto. there was an example where there was a rape case where it went for two years, and in one case, one was raped, and the other was

murdered, so it is a public safety issue. can you show us about when samples are received to make sure we are living up to the 14- a protocol? >> that is going to be a spreadsheet, a collaboration system. it was from october when we first started working on them until now. there are many fields that are populated. you can look and see when the case happened, when the evidence was collected, by us or by the officers, depending on the type of evidence it was, when that evidence was picked up, when that evidence was delivered to the lab, when the analyst started to work on the evidence, and started to do their analysis, the results of the analysis, whether it was just screaming and was negative or they did the full work up, and it was positive, the name of the

analyst, again, and whether there was a profile developed, if there was a profile developed, what happened when that profile, was entered, was there a match, was there no match? if there was a match, was it a convicted offender or a match to an unknown suspect who was in the database? those fields will be populated. commissioner hammer: i think you said we started doing that in october, or we started entering data from october? i am not sure what you said. >> we wanted to provide that level of service to san francisco. she modified that program from a program they worked about five, six years ago with the department of justice. the department of justice did their last. they did the analyzing in the examination for us. now, we are doing it ourselves, now, we are doing it ourselves, but we are copying many aspects