>> would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance? thank you. we will be taking roll call of commissioners at this time. thomas mazzucco. >> present. commissioner marshall: present. commissioner dejesus: present. commissioner chan: present commissioner kingsley: present.

commissioner slaughter: here. >> michael sweet? >> here. >> commissioner chung? >> here. >> commissioner lee? commissioner davis? >> here. >> commissioner peer? commissioner ruiz? also joining us this evening, we have theresa sparks, the human

rights commission, gregory suhr, zoey polk from human rights commission. >> thank you, and welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting of the san francisco police commission for wednesday, may 18, 2011. tonight is a special meeting. it is a first. it is a joint meeting between the police commission and the human rights commission. it is a really big event to have them come together. they will discuss an important issue that we will discuss this evening. before we move to the regular agenda, i would like to take this opportunity, in light of the fact that this is a police commission hearing, we have had a development in the police department this week, the appointment of a new command staff. i spoke to mr. sweet.

he will allow chief suhr to start off with an introduction to the new staff. chief? >> thank you, commissioners. that phone has been troubled ever since i was appointed. i would like to introduce the new command staff, if i could get them to stand up. i will introduce them. they're not helping. we have commander tong, deputy

chief schmidt, commander militello, commander lee, commander beale, deputy chief of dudley, deputy chief cashman, commander correa, deputy chief shin, and commander tomioko. they are very experienced group. i look forward very much to working with them. i don't think we have had this much diversity your seniority on the command staff may be ever. at the same time, we were able to realize a $1 million-plus savings off the top echelon of

the police department in the assembly of the staff and the reorganization of other non- sworn personnel. we look very much forward to working with the commission and moving with the san francisco police department for. >> thank you, chief. we want to welcome you. as i said yesterday, you do represent san francisco. i am proud of the staff. you represent the city in every aspect. the staff is incredible. there's a couple hundred years worth of experience here. >> when you think of how old a couple of the mark, we may get over that. >> like i said yesterday, there is a collegiality in that back room. please don't lose that. thank you very much. commissioners, is there anything you would like to add? >> thanks for your hard work. i know you spent a lot of time

and thought into putting it together. this reflects san francisco and the best in the department. i would like to congratulate everyone. >> i was out of town, but i did read about it. thank you, chief. i would like to congratulate everybody. commissioner marshall: i set mine yesterday. commissioner kingsley: congratulations to each and everyone of you. i look forward to working with you. >> thank you. >> thank you and welcome aboard. [applause] president mazzucco: could you call line item 1? >> if i may reach before we began, i have to do this. i know we will have a great meeting tonight. i have the knowledge that the vice chair of the human rights commission is the former police commissioner, doug chan.

the executive director of the human rights commission is the former president of the police commission, theresa sparks. we're going to have a great meeting. >> thank you. president mazzucco: please call item one. >> general public comment. the public is welcome to address the commission regarding items that do not appear on the agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission. speakers shall address their remarks to the commission of a whole and not to individual commissioners. commissioners harlem not required to respond, but may provide a brief response. commissioners and personnel should refrain from entering into any debate or discussion with speakers during public comment. president mazzucco: this is for

general public comment regarding the work of the police department. good evening. how are you? >> ray hart. i have been attending the police commission meeting since last september. any meeting i did not attend, i have watched it on sfgtv. 40 years ago today, i stood in an examining station in florida. i raised my right hand and swore to protect and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic. i swore to their allegiance to the same. there are additional things about following order in the uniform court of military justice. i ended with "so help me god." the members know me all ready and i am sure they have gotten some impressions as to what they think i am after, what my objectives are. i have a funny feeling most of

those are not positive. i have never had conversations with you directly. how they form their opinions, i don't know. i am really concerned about the fact that i have seen over the last six months on numerous occasions people being denied the right to publicly comment. i had one determination finding this body in violation of the sunshine ordinance for stopping me making public comments and i observed them do it to other people. i have also watch them manipulate their agenda so they could skip public items, go into closed session, and then come back after the members of the public had left. it was easy to get through the rest of the agenda because they did not have to deal with the pesky public comment. it is very easy to get up before people and say "we support open government, we support the people coming before us, we

value their ideas." the proof of the pudding is in the eating. the results come intended or not come is to force people to not have their day at the microphone. that is a violation of the constitution of the united states and the california constitution, the brown act, and our sunshine ordinance. i have several determinations' finding the police department in violation for various things in the ordinance. on your own agenda, it says "know your rights under sunshine." when someone doesn't know their rights, and does go to the sunshine ordinance task force to enforce those, the commission does not bother to show up, expect to send someone who is not a member of the commission, the secretary, and put them in the awkward position of trying to defend someone else's action, actions which they themselves

are unwilling to take responsibility for. president mazzucco: next speaker? >> commissioners, good evening. my name is emile and i have been a resident for 41 years. i am not going to address any specific commission tonight, but maybe both of you. i have lived in this city for 41 years. in the past six straight months, i have looked at the most wanted list in the city and county of san francisco. we live in a city with great diversity, which also creates the -- create diversity in numbers, names, and pictures on the most wanted list. they are no longer caucasian americans. most of the most wanted, nine out of 10, have different ethnic backgrounds from different

races. the police department has a tough enough job as it is trying to solve various crimes in the city, particularly murders. the murder rate in san francisco is running double what it was in 2010. the and the crimes and murders are attributed to one race, where the majority are. it creates a problem for the sfpd as well when there profiling one given race by numbers, and not getting into the background or reasons why the death rate and murder rate is off the wall or on the charts. i think if you look at race related to san francisco, if you look at profiling, if you look at some of the most wanted lists, pictures on the most wanted, you will only see one thing that is self-evident. the criminals today come across

a broad spectrum of different backgrounds, different races, different ethnic religions. to say that sfpd would profile just one group when they are a very small minority in the city and county of san francisco is probably not a big item on their list. i have been a taxi driver in the city and county of san francisco for 13 years. i have seen crimes take place with no policemen around. i have seen crimes of every background that you can imagine, everything except for a shootout, with no policeman around. i can say this emphatically. most of the crimes i have seen in the city and county of san francisco have been of ethnic

backgrounds that were not part of this city just 25 years ago. if the police department has to specifically look at some of these backgrounds, i think they have the power to. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. january 2 of 2011, my brother charles harrison was murdered in the tenderloin in san francisco. today, i would like to speak on something that was stated in the chronicle, i believe by a spokesperson from the san francisco police department. i was told two weeks ago when i come before the public that i should have my information as accurate as possible so that when i say something, you know, it reflects accuracy. so i believe, since i am being asked to be held to that standard, that the police department should also be held

to that standard. when you have somebody who says something more makes a statement to the public in "the chronicle ," they should make sure they have all their facts together so they are not painting an ugly picture out there about, you know, somebody's family. something else i wanted to talk about is that i have been watching the news lately and there has been a murder between a latino person and an asian person. they are using this person's tattoo. they have been advertising this on the news. they're using it to identify the person who was responsible. the police are interested in -- i am asking, can also the video that was gotten when my brother was murdered in the tenderloin, because a lot of it was caught on tape. i'm not sure how much was caught on tape. i have been told that the tape

and the film as grainy. would like to know if we can use what we can of that video. they're saying they have a hard time to identify the suspects. can part of that video be used to, you know, help identify the suspect in my brother's murder? i would like to say for myself and my family, we are law abiding citizens of san francisco and of the state of california, you know, and the pledge of allegiance you all pledge, justice for all, we want justice according to the laws of san francisco. we don't want just as any other way. we will not a lot of our way to do anything and take justice in our own hands, but we are looking for the police department to do their job in investigating thoroughly my brother's murder and making sure that the person who is responsible for the murder is

brought to justice so that it doesn't have to be taken, you know, outside of the proper way of doing things. i appreciate also all of the work that detectives have been doing on my brother's case. i don't want to make it like i am going off on the sfpd. i appreciate everything they have been doing. president mazzucco: think you, mr. harris. >> i filed a complaint against the san francisco police department. i alleged that over an extended period of time, the police department harassed me in an effort to get me to leave the city because i knew the identity of one of the confidential informants in the jackson street gang case. do you hear me? the occ ruled information only. they said the matters i brought

up raised issues that were beyond the jurisdiction of the occ. the definition of "information only" is the actions described were not permitted by sworn member of the department or the story told is so unbelievable that it cannot be accepted by a competent authority. they also said, regarding the statement in the letter of finding, that it was beyond the jurisdiction of the occ. one of the investigators told me that the fbi [inaudible] the policemen that i named in the complaint was retired and therefore they did not have jurisdiction over that police officer anymore. tonight makes my fourth attempt to get clarification on all of

those findings. i went and met with the occ investigators at the end of their investigation and try to get them to clarify what they are telling me, and they would not. i sent a letter to the occ director and she refused to explain the findings for me. i came before the police commission on the 27th of april and requested clarification. between that time and now, i met with one of the investigators. she basically told me to go screw myself. so i am here one last time, hopefully, to get clarification on what the occ's findings were. what i would like would be to get a letter from the occ describing what they mean by " information only." it is a story that i told -- is the story i told unbelievable?

if so, why? were the actions that i described not committed by a member of the department? i would also like clarification on what the minimum -- [inaudible] i am hoping i can get that letter sometime soon. [tone] president mazzucco: all right. thank you, sir. good evening, clyde. >> a note to the people making public comment. please speak directly into the microphone so sfgtv can pick you up. >> i would like to address the police chief on derogatory, disingenuous, and mean comments, publicly, privately, against our

city public defender. you may or may not agree with him publicly or professionally or his point of views. to walk on the street and the mean that man because of his race, because of his financial status, i know that. i ran into the head of the poa and he disgraced me publicly. it is true. it is wrong. i don't have to agree with your opinion. you do not have to be mean the person because of his ethnicity. we must debate issues, not slanderous attacks. a lot of these police officers should be ashamed of themselves for doing that. thank you. president mazzucco: any further general comment? hearing none, he -- colorado item two. >> the response to concerns raised by the human rights commission's september 23, 2010 hearing report, "from -- ,

"community concerns of surveillance, racial and religious profiling of arabs, middle eastern, muslim, and south asian communities and potential reactivation of sfpd intelligence gathering." >> when several members of the police commission attended the original meeting, september 23, 2010, there were concerns addressed by the public regarding their perceptions about what the police department is doing in their participation with the joint terrorism task force and other concerns. these are things that affect their life. these concerns were taken to heart by the police commission. when we received the report, there are allegations in the support, but there are not factual findings.

there are concerned. these concerns have escalated to the point where the police commission feels we need to address these concerns. in doing so, background. how did we get here this evening? there has been work between the issuance of this report and to night's hearing. under the direction of the director of the human rights commission, theresa sparks, we probably had a good 8 to 10 meetings involving different participants. those participants are the aclu, john crew, the law caucus, and members of the san francisco police commission, myself, commissioner slaughter, and commissioner dejesus. members of the police department command staff, we have met to discuss what changes we think we need to happen in order to alleviate the concerns of the community and to change the perceptions. we have met with the police departments. we have met today with the u.s.

attorney's office. we have met with the special agent in charge of the federal bureau of investigation. we have taken every step we can to address these concerns before coming here this evening. before i speak any further, let me say this commission takes your concerns and perceptions to heart. the san francisco police department has a policy against profiling, against racial discrimination. you can see from that command staff that did before you tonight, we are a diverse department to represent san francisco. we take this very seriously. we put a lot of work into tonight's hearing. i hope everybody is responsible in their comments. i ask that you be direct. in our meeting today with the attorney's office and the fbi, give us evidence. we will look into it. they are concerned. i am listed as the first speaker. before we move into this meeting, to set the tone, i will move to the last speaker, chief greg suhr.

he will make announcements that will take -- that will set a good tone for this evening. chief? >> thank you, commissioner mazzucco. first of all, i would like to affirm everything the commissioner said as just so. i appreciate the outreach by the human rights commission to the community. i want to acknowledge the validity of the perceptions raised by the community. that said, we have very strict policies in san francisco police department in place so there is appropriate oversight for all investigations involving activities. 8.10 came about in 1994, has been revised once, and i believe mr. crew collaborated significantly on the original significantly on the original version of this order.