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tv   [untitled]    July 15, 2011 12:00pm-12:30pm PDT

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fall down the belt. it moves the belt up, and if you turn that faster, the butterflies fall in the move of words. >> the art reflect the commission's commitment to acquiring the best work from the bay area and beyond. in addition to the five new commissions, 20 artworks that were already in the airport collection were reinstalled. some of which were historically cited in the terminal. it includes major sculptures by the international artists. as a collection, these art works tell the story of the vibrant arts scene in the early 1960's through the mid-1980s's. the illustrate san francisco's cultural center and a place of innovation that is recognized and the love throughout the
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world. one of the highlights is a series of three left tapestries. they are on view after being in storage for 20 years. these tapestries representing various gardens. from his years of living in san francisco. hydrangeas, chrysanthemums, and whilst dahlias in rich, deep shades as they make their way to the baggage area. they can access behind-the- scenes information and interviews with the artist through an audio to work. it features archival audio as well as interviews with living artists. he can be accessed on site by dialing the telephone numbers
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located near the artwork or by visiting the commission's web site. the public art speaks volumes of san francisco as a world-class city with world-class art and culture. for more information, visit >> reporting equipment in the room. would you please stand for pledge of alenalance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic from which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
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>> taking a roll call of commissioners. commission president thomas mazzucco. >> present. >> dr. joe marshall? >> here. >> petra dejesus? >> she's en route. >> commissioner angela chan? >> present. >> commissioner carol kingsley? >> present. >> commissioner james slaughter? >> here. >> commissioner julius turman? >> here. >> we have a quorum of commissioners and also joyce hicks of the office of citizens complaints and the chief of police. >> thank you, lieutenant falvey. welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the july 13, 2011 police commission hearing. ladies and gentlemen, tonight is what we call our discipline night so we have some closed matters, disciplinary hearings which by law have to be held in closed session so we have a very light agenda before that so we now move to line item
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number one which is general public comment. >> item number one, general public comment. the public is now welcome to address the commission regarding items that do not appear on tonight's agenda but that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission. speakers shall address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not individual commissioners or department or o.c.c. personnel. under police commission rules of order, during public comment, neither police or o.c.c. personnel or commissioners are required to respond to questions presented by the public but may provide a brief response. individual commissioners and police and o.c.c. personnel should refrain, however, from entering into any debates or discussions with speakers during public comment and public comment is set at three minutes. >> thanks very much. first speaker. >> good evening, commissioners. chief i don't see here. joyce i don't see here. my name is jackie bryson, jakkie, bryson, bryson.
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i live at 75 -- ore street apartment 206 at between ninth and 109, folsom and howard. first thing's first. i have some commendations to throw down. first of all, i'd like to commend the san francisco police department for their handling of the pride impromptu rave which happened on sunday afternoon. the officers whose noses weren't as acute as mine, once i pointed out as i was dancing around with these children who had taken part and their parents had no ideas what their daughters weren't wearing. i was a guidance counselor, junior high and high school, i used to chaperon the dances and they're rocking out and drinking and smoking and i found police officers and i said just take care of it
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because these kids shouldn't be doing that. my main concern was that there were so many young people crowded into one very, very small space. i was very concerned about that. i got the littler ones back towards me. i had a parasol. they wanted the instant shade and i said come on, dance by me and if it gets too scary, walk out of here. and the way the officers handled it was lovely. next year, work out some sort of crowd control plan because that scared me and i'm not afraid of no nothing. second commendation. i want to thank my boys down at southern station for those extra passing calls and it's lovely and those bicycle nazis carrying drugs, riding their bicycles on the sidewalks. thank you. and basically speaking, i say yes, sir, because you
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commissioners did right in your choice. joyce, i want to commend you and keep up the good work. you guys, you're a good-looking group. >> jakkie, come back any time you want. >> thank you. i shall. wait a second. i have 31 more seconds. a shout out to david lazard. let me tell you what jerry did. he figured out -- one of my favorite genini's, you need the door unlocked to tenderloin station because it's the only safe public phone. also, he managed, jerry just did it. and joe garrity, wow. john veranda is still the cutest guy on the department. ok. thank you. now i better get my butt home. thank you. >> good evening, sir, how are you? >> good evening, commissioners,
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mr. harrison. i'm here to speak on behalf of my brothers children who cannot right now speak for themselves. once again, my brother charles harrison was murdered january 2011 of this year. his murderer is still unsolved. we have not been contacted in the last month as to an update to where the case is, so if somebody can get in contact with us to let us know, i just wanted to say that you notice the streets of san francisco are not safe as long as a man can open fire and gun somebody down, not in broad daylight at night but on video and the incident is caught on video. so we are planning businesses in san francisco. we're planning boating events in san francisco, but the people who were asking to come
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to san francisco and patronize san francisco are not safe, as long as you have people that will brazenly gun down people and take their lives. so i'm not going to be long. i just wanted to come and just keep, you know, this out there that the person that murdered my brother is still out there and i just need an update to know where we're at, what are we doing? is the case cold? what's happening? so that's basically what i wanted to say thank you for allowing me to come before you. >> mr. harrison, i think the chief has something for you. thank you, sir. next speaker. >> good evening, commission. commissioners. my name is doherty peterson and i need some information. over two years ago there was a murder in our development. i'm one of the early risers, 5:30, had a cup of coffee about
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6:00, saw the usual people going to work, about a couple hours later, i heard what i thought was firecrackers, didn't think anything of it until i heard all the drama, sirens, etc., etc., on my street. that's when i looked out the window. it was under control, went back to doing my dishes and cleaning my house. about three days later, inspectors knocked on the door. of course, the first thing i asked was where did you get my name and address? they said the owners of the complex gave us your name and address and everybody's name and address. it's on, you know. a sheet of paper, standard operating procedure. i said ok. come on in. i don't have anything to hide. i didn't see anything. told them point-blank i did not see anything, just what i communicated to you, i communicated to them. so to my surprise, yesterday i
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got a phone call saying they were going to give my name to the defense as a witness. and i'm saying wait a minute. how are you going to give my name to the defense. i told you, i did not see anything. i don't know anything. in addition to that, the young man who was murdered told anybody and everybody who was in earshot, including the police, e.m.t., and from what i understand, people in the hospital who killed him. in addition to that, the other young man that was shot told the police and everybody who shot not only him but the other man. i live in hunter's point. i'm 70 years old. there's obviously some drama going on between your foot soldiers and desk soldiers because when i got the call, the first thing the inspector says is i'm so sorry, i tried to tell them you don't know
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anything but they are going to give your name anyway to the defense. of course i called your assistant d.a.'s, first thing out of their mouth, do you want to be in witness protection program? well, duh? that's telling you that you just put my life in danger and i don't know anything. now who do i contact? >> ordinarily, man, we don't respond to questions but in light of the situation, this is an issue with the district attorney's office and it's not the police department. and the police department, they have a affirmative obligation in any case to turn over any information regarding any witness whether the witness saw something or didn't see something. your testimony as to not seeing something is equally important maybe to the other side as that of the testimony of seeing somebody. so you need to talk to those in the district attorney's office
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about this issue and explain to them. >> would you like me to tell you who i spoke with? >> it won't do any good here. >> i live in hunter's point. >> i understand. >> i know what happens to, quote, unquote snitches. now, i can understand if there was consensus, in other words if the people outside said hey, give her name but no, you have the inspectors outside disagreeing with your d.a.'s saying no, she doesn't know anything, don't give them her name. >> ma'am, the problem is that it's the d.a.'s call, it's not the chief's call or the department's call, it's the d.a.'s call. they're the only ones who can -- had a young lady in a similar situation i work with but it's the district attorney's office calling you, not the department calling you. there's not much we can do about that, unfortunately. >> ok. with whom do i speak? because it's like we have disposable lives and you wonder why we won't tell you anything. >> if you give your name to
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sergeant yamaguchi, we'll figure out who you need to talk to and broker that. >> ok. you also need to consider this is one of the reasons why the people in my community will not talk to the police. have a blessed day. >> thank you, ma'am. next speaker. good evening, sir. >> good evening, everyone. as i understand, my name is shawn myers, i'm here with my wife, sarah meyers. >> mr. meyers, speak into -- this is general comment regarding the police department. i know you're here for another matter and are free to talk about any matter. >> that was it. >> we recognized you. thank you, sir. any other general public comments? yes, ma'am. >> thank you. i'd like to thank the commission for allowing me to
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speak this evening. i had just a couple of questions and i understand that you're not obliged to answer me. i recently had to file a complaint with o.c.c. against a nsfpd officer. i had learned this officer who harassed and intimidated me had a record of violence. there was an earlier incident in which he beat a suspect who had already been detained so severely that an ambulance had to be called and i only know about this incident because it was reported in the "san francisco chronicle" because i had to file a complaint regarding this officer, i wanted to find out what had become of the alleged victim of this particular officer, particularly because one of the reported injuries, he had beat the suspect around the head, the torso, and the arms. and i've worked quite a bit
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with head injury patients and i wanted to know whatever became of this person afterwards, did his life ever get back to normal and frankly i felt it had something to do with my own sense of safety and security. i was bounced around after going to o.c.c., i was bounced around from really a very large number of city agencies to get this information and i kept getting the run-around. ultimately i was sent to the police commission and a clerk, i believe she was a clerk. i don't want to give her name here but i think the clerk, i don't know her actual title, told me that the city attorney had informed them the 2006 copley press decision by the california supreme court was retroactive on the advice of the city attorney. i thought that was rather disturbing because basically that means that the taxpayer doesn't have access to information about police misconduct even when it's an
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egregious police misconduct and even when they might have valid questions about why this officer was not only reinstated within sfpd but actually promoted and in fact when i look at a report this incident, it's quite possible that this was all a misinterpretation of events and who knows, he wasn't beating the man, he was simply cuddling him, i don't know. but the point is it this information is kept apart from the citizenry, we'll never know and unfortunately it feeds into a certain cynicism about the police department, and i do feel the taxpayer has an obligation to know and a right to know, and i'm wondering how your department is trying to -- especially in light of the f.b.i. investigation of sfpd, are you making a link between this 2006 copley decision and how it may have fostered a hostile environment for good cops and a nurturing environment for bad cops.
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can't believe that was three minutes. >> again, we're not allowed to respond but there is the copley decision and the police officers bill of rights so by law we're forbidden, prohibited from discussing those matters, as in any other profession, you said you worked with people of head injuries, the medical profession, when there's reviews of doctors and hospitals, that, too, stays confidential and is privileged. >> not this confidential, i should note. this is like communist china confidential. it's pretty extreme and i think the citizenry and taxpayers have a right to be concerned. >> you're not alone in that consideration. this commission has talked about that, too. >> thank so you much. >> any further general public comment? mr. grove. >> good evening, my name is barbara grove, i'm a resident of san francisco. i'm quite concerned about the
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efforts being put forth for the psychiatric profession being -- broadening their scope around this fine city and in fact the whole country, so it's a lot of false allegations that come forth about how good they are. anybody has the ability to think normal. i put on 100 pounds in one month's time while incarcerated , and the psychiatric profession did that. the psychiatric profession, so my ex-husband doesn't have to pay al moan. we're finally at the end, my inheritance is gone and we'll see what happens to him to be able to back out so he doesn't have to payal mone out of my inheritance instead of out of his own pocket. this is legalized fraud. thank you. >> any further public comment? hearing none, public comment is now called. please call line item it. >> reports and announcements.
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item 2-a is the chief's report, it's a report on crime statistics and review of recent activities. >> good evening, chief. >> good evening, commissioners. >> as far as crime goes in the city, again, week to week it remains relatively the same. we did have some shootings in the past week and we put in redeployment strategies. we put the beat officers back on third street as they were last summer. i know that was of tremendous benefit to me as the captain, we've done that. we've asked the task force to spend more time on the market street corridor since some of the shootings down there are gang-related, and gangs not attributed to the mid market area, some have been from divisidero street, alamaney and bay view and we had a quieter week on the street because of that and will continue to redeploy through the summer. i saw director hicks had her half yearly statistics.
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we'll be reporting ours next week and then also speak more to our summer deployment and second half of the year reorganization, if you will. we had a busy week otherwise in the department, probably the big thing, and i wanted to really commend the p.o.a. and the rank and file for voting overwhelmingly 81%, approximate, to accept the renegotiated contract reopener from the mayor's office which essentially closes my budget gap for this year which is great. and much appreciated. we continue to communicate with the community regarding the substation, myself and the command staff walked sixth street on monday morning with clyde, actually, at sixth and market, met a couple of the merchants that had been a little bit upset and it looks decidedly better and hopefully it will stay that way, at least the cops will be there.
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the core development project and the community oriented police department is moving forward. there's a meeting tomorrow morning. i hope the commissioners were made aware of it now. >> it was today, this afternoon? >> it was today? >> right about now. >> oh, ok. >> couldn't make it. >> i'll keep putting it through lieutenant falvey. first class of cpsa graduate this week, after a little bit of -- if you'll pardon the kerfluffle with the union they finally got out to the stations and will finish and be deployed. we'll talk more about that. we graduated 47 young people from the p.a.l. cadet graduation and also will be going out to the station. that's approximate twice as many kids that went through last year which was our inaugural class and hopefully that program will continue to grow. for anybody interested, there's going to be a rededication of the sculpt chur at seventh and bryant on friday, i believe, on
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friday morning. the arts commission will be there, certainly if anybody from the commission would want to be there. i'll be there. and then lastly, there's been some reports in the news on ksbs and ktvu an announcement captain garrity made he had gone from 101 officers to 74 officers in the tenderloin which upset the people in the tenderloin as they feel the climb -- feel crime is on the rise and we rechecked the numbers and sounded strange since i know tenderloin station traditionally has been right around 82 officers, plus or minus. i checked, noticed there were 83 officers, not at 70 some odd. unfortunately he does have eight officers that are at various stages of recovery from disability but as soon as they're back, they'll be back. and tenderloin continues to be a focus of our attention as it's very adjacent to sixth
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street and will stay that way. i wanted to reassure the people of the tenderloin, there have never been 101 officers there, at different points in time it's perhaps the confusion was the market's foot beats worked out of there originally before they were assigned to southern. it doesn't really matter where they're working out of, they're working market street regardless and then at other times when we're doing the f.t.o. program there's an influx of probationaries and recruits that then move on but the ebb and flow of personnel over the 10-year average has been 82 officers, and they are currently at 83. >> great. well, thank you, chief. and some of the activity we're seeing with the violent shootings, it seems you had expressed concern early on about summertime and is what you had anticipated about the kids in the summertime and not having programs. is there anything else you're doing with reference to programs? >> well, fortunately they're not kids so far that are involved in any of these shootings.
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so a lot of the kid are engaged in programs, obviously the 47 cadets. we were able to double up again with the help of the sheriff's office and the p.u.c. getting kids, 94124 kids jobs through the garden project, god bless katherine sneed. the woman's a saint. and more and more and more engagement across the city to try and give the kids positive choices so that they're busy. these particular crimes that have been occurring are straight up adults doing gang violence and we will attack it accordingly. >> great. thank you. commissioner kingsley? >> commissioner kingsley: chief, thanks you very much for your report and appreciate you giving us a head's up on things that are coming about in the future in the community. also good news on the budget front that you got that support from the department as a whole and congratulations on that leadership, it's terrific. i'm wondering if that will support the possibility of
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police academy training in the fall. you'd given some guarded, optimistic reporting that may be a possibility. does this make it more of a probability? >> yes, apparently conversations that have happened at this panel over time, discussions with the p.o.a., and actually the foresightedness of the board of supervisors, they put $3 million back into the police department budget in the spring. by putting it into the budget later in the year, we can basically get an academy class, a full academy class, first one since 2009 at a discount provided we don't have some other calamity occur in this tepid recovery of ours. so hold a good thought that that money stays as originally planned and we get an academy class there and i know that chief schmidt and director landis are working feverishly to see if we can't get another federally funded class which might net us two classes for
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the year which would be great. that said, we really -- we are really, really up against it starting next fiscal year if we're not getting at least three classes a year. commissioner kingsley. thank you. >> commissioner chan. >> i wanted to ask you two questions. one was about the consent severance of private residences, the department bulletin that was issued. we have commissioners get the bulletin but the public doesn't get a chance to see it so wondered if you could share that with everyone so they know the changes taking place -- maybe not changes but announcements to officers about forms that are needed to fill out and the second question was to ask you how the building communities trust meeting went. >> the buildings of community trust meeting, i thought it went well. i think that what it was was after the joint human rights police commission meeting much was made of the fact our federal partners were absent, so literally the next week, the
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department justice and northern california regional information center called and said they would bring this forum to the city if we'd be willing to host it. we did. we had a spirited discussion. mr. crew carried some very salient points and then there was an agreement we'd continue to meet as the community would have it. the feds said they'd be more than willing to come, an invitation, and we sort of left with -- there was some concern but some satisfaction, gratification we met. as far as the bulletin goes, it's a reminder as to what your obligations are with regard to consent search and after discussions with the district attorney's office, how we would actually document and ensure the consent searches were above
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reapproach when presented in court and that was the design of that department bulletin. >> so this is the permission of search form, is that a new form? >> that's an old form. >> it's a reminder to officers they need to fill that out? >> right. >> is there anything new coming out of the department bulletin or is it a reminder what already exists? i'm just curious if there have been any changes as a result of what you might have read in the newspapers. >> i'll look at this and maybe a little later in the interest of time, we could go back to it. >> great. thank you. any further questions for the chief? ok. move to line item 2-b. >> it is the o.c.c. director's report, a review of recent activities. >> good evening, director hicks. >> good evening, commissioners and members of the audience. you have before you the o.c.c. comprehensive statistical report through june 30. it should be on your desk.