year i coordinated operation dream. it was started by the housing task force police officers in 1993. they designed a program to help provide holiday spirit and cheer and guests and so forth to less fortunate children throughout the san francisco housing authority properties. it has been a successful -- it has been successful throughout the years due to the dedication and commitment of san francisco police officers. you can ask generations of officers who committed their own personal time in doing field trips, different seasonal events, other programs where kids are impacted -- as a whole. their mentor, they are groomed, there is callous -- callas' kids throughout the communities who have received beneficial sat -- accolades. including backpack giveaways and

toy drives and camping. ski trips and so on. we are trying to reinvest in operation dream and get it back to its luster. with the support of members of the san francisco police department and the commission, we will be doing that. thank you. president mazzucco: thank you. i believe the next component of tonight's presentation is from the special victims unit, internet safety and cyber- bullying. as technology has increased, we have seen, unfortunately, incidents involving our youth. people to -- taking advantage of them through the internet. the officer presents to schools. they have been expanded to various pta groups. interacting regarding social networking through technology has opened topics of discussion

that did not exist 10 to 15 years ago. a lot of it is about safety and encouraging communication between the use and their adults or caretakers in discussing how to safely navigate the internet. it has become so dangerous. and with that, we will move on to our next topic. which i believe involves the chief. >> before i go into the program, was everyone else wondering what i was wondering when that little girl came up here? are you smarter than a fifth grader? i am not sure i am. she was pretty sure. anyway, we came up with a new program on top of all these other programs that i can tell you. ever since i was a regular officer, we as a group could not be prouder of all these

programs. 1500 kids, thousands of kids, 1981, 1951 for p.a.l. this one is starting now. i was watching one of the nba basketball games. there is a new commercial. i do not know if we have that video. lebron james sponsors a video where a kid is slipping in his bed in high school. all the sudden, his alarm goes off and hits the snooze alarm and goes back to sleep. he is not going to high school. he is in an sro hotel and he drops through that and he is a homeless guy in an alley. the message is every 26 seconds, that every 26 seconds, somebody does not graduate from high school. we decided, we are also -- always telling people they have

to graduate from high school. in conversations with young people, they would say, colleges forever away. i do not know if i'm going to get out of high school. we decided we would shorten that finish line and emphasize graduating from high school. if you compare the numbers up, these numbers are real. someone drops out of high school every 26 seconds. a high-school graduate, i want the u.s. mission to pay attention, lives nine years longer than a drop out. they make 50% more money than a drop out. we want you to live longer and be more successful. but the downside is that 94% of the homicide victims under the age of 25 are dropouts and the suspects are just about as high. 75% of the crime committed -- i

am sorry. nearly 75% of the jail population are high-school dropouts and almost 80% of the crime in this country is committed by high school dropouts. for people that say we are suggesting that kids with challenges cannot graduate from college, that is not true. i am one of them. i had both parents at home. i went to city college. but miami had my high school diploma when i became a police officer. we did fine. later, i had to go to college because i wanted to be chief of police. it is important to graduate from college. another important statistic is that every person that goes to

college had to graduate from high school. you just have to graduate high school and you can do well but you can do better if you go to college. that is the message for that. we are going to the schools. potoo whatever high school -- leave that there. we have already been to washington high school. the principal spoke today. balboa, carmichael middle school. we go to thurgood marshall next week. you would think we were a road show if. we are booked into may. if anybody is watching on television, if you want us to come out and talk, we will talk to anybody but prinicpals has been getting the move --

principals have been getting the most tardy students. we will get you through high school and then you get 50% more money and you live nine years longer. it is a good story. one of the things that is a part of our program, we want to give kids that stay in a taste, we're looking to get jobs for young people. we started the clean team. from 1996, 900 kids have gotten jobs. there are minimum wage but they are jobs. it gives kids money. we did it again. we employed over 50 kids, working with the puc. thank you to all who works with

these kids and teaches them work ethics. we do jobs programs. trying to make the kids understand that it is not just a program. if you will commit to yourself and get yourself to the finish line, we will help you. if you want to in turn somewhere, come to the police department, fire department, anything that interests you in this city or a trade, offices, we will try and place you. we cannot guarantee you will get paid. we're trying to get money together so we can do it by stipend. if you want somebody that can take a chance on a young person, we will vouch for you. president mazzucco: thank you. our next speaker.

>> good evening, commissioners. i am the school resource officer a central police station and i am not a native san franciscan. [laughter] the central police advisory board recommended a program to deal with issues that some students in our district were having. they believe that some of the students are fearful of police and had a negative image of police and did not trust the police. i, along with a former assistant principal, and now deputy chief, who was commanding officer, we implemented a program to address the issues brought to our attention. our goal was to have 200

students participate in the program. as part of the program, i made a classroom presentation. i told the students about myself and my family, about jobs i worked in prior to becoming a police officer and the assignments since becoming an officer. the week following the presentation, students with the signs were brought to the police station on a field trip. when they arrived at the station, and they were addressed by the then-captain who will come to them to the station. he talked to them about officers and the relationships we wanted to have with them. the students got to engage with the officers on duty and got to sit inside a police car, listen to radio communication, and ask questions about the station. i followed up with another

presentation, i spoke about the internet and personal safety. i continued to visit the school and interact with the students until the end of the year. i informed principals in other schools about the program. they wanted to participate. a lot of elementary schools participated. we ended up with 550 four students participating in the presentation -- 554 students participating in the presentation. at the end of the year, dennis chiu asked his students who have participated in the program a series of questions regarding their interaction with the police. one of the questions was, did

the field trip help you understand the police better? of the 98 students who responded, 92 said yes. i have a summary of our program for each member of the commission. i call a program steps -- safety, trust, education by police and schools. -- in schools. hopefully this will give you a better overall view of the program. there is also my contact information. if you've any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact me. thank you for giving me time to be part of this meeting. >> our next speaker you heard a great deal about today. i was almost say it goes without

introduction but i would like to introduce you officer johnson. >> good evening. this is tough because everybody talked about what i wanted to talk about. i will be brief. i am currently stationed at bay view. my assignment has been at the boys' and girls' club. my personal goal is to build relationships with the kids, build confidence in them, and help them achieve whatever it is they want to achieve now and in the future. i will give you a couple of examples of what i have done. there was a lady whose dream was to attend a certain high school.

but it was not a reality for her for various reasons. but with a little motivation, we walked her through the application process, attended orientations with her and her family, supported her as she took the test, she got in. she is doing pretty good. she is playing lacrosse on junior varsity. she is on a freshman. another story, the gentleman who was only a tent on a tuesday. he is a phenomenal athlete. that is the only time he would attend. i saw him on that -- and i said have you ever thought about going to college. what are your plans? the kind of laughed at me. -- he kind of laughed at me.

he came and we talked about the reality of him attending college. he saw that it was a reality so we have been taking the necessary action to get him prepared for college. he is doing a good in high school. he is a phenomenal athlete. making a few phone calls, i had a buddy of mine who used to be in the nfl come and talk to the kids. seeing how he performs, and they were impressed. we have a couple of football camps we will be attending this summer. a lot of schools, a few schools are starting to be interested. like the gentleman said, there is a softball tournaments, the

healthy family day, we have 200 people attending. it was a major success. they were doing mazuma -- zumba, belly dancing, having a good time. another thing i did was we made a commercial. i was in the commercial and it was basically talking about how bling is not good. i believe the dvd will be coming out soon. i can get it for you. i warn you i am no denzel. [laughter] the things we're doing in the future, i have been talking to various faith-based groups in the southeast sector of the city. we are trying to put together a

basketball league right now. we do not know how possible is the this summer because of funding but if we're not able to do with this summer, we want to do it next summer. thank you. [applause] >> of this time i would like to bring up from the special victims unit, jason fox to present juvenile debt -- justice data. >> commissioners, all of these presentations and all of these often not -- officers who have spoken talked about specialized training and the special ways we go out of our way to make sure the interaction is engaging. it gives a snapshot of some of

the informal and formal ways we train our officers within the context of criminal enforcement and being a good member of the community. the culture shift that has occurred is very far reaching and is a change in how the officers engage with youth and all of san francisco. it has also had an impact on the criminalization of the youth. the department recognizes it cannot arrest our way out of the program and we have embraced a policy who has been carried forward by the chief with an emphasis on a diversion and using incarceration as a last resort. there is a senior member who told a story in a meeting. he is a proponent and says he was at his table, reading a newspaper article and talked about how use were detained for burglary.

they had burglarized and establishment. three of them were being used as look out. the fourth had committed the crime. he said he got a smile on his face when he read that the story ended by explaining that one of them, had been booked into the juvenile justice center and the other three were identified and restored to other models. it is a nice story. there is lot of them out there. it shows that how we as police officers interact and engage with youth. especially within the context of placing offenders into custody. this slide shows a dramatic decrease in the number of youths that have been amended in the juvenile justice center over the last eight years. this is a powerful set of

numbers as it becomes a representative of the number of the youths that have not been institutionalized and it shows that our commitment as a police department to interacting engaging on many different levels and our commitment to not try to arrest our way out of issues. the statistics correlate well with the lower numbers of the gamng involvement in violence against the youth. i will stop there. >> thank you, lieutenant fox. i would like to bring back our future training plans. >> i will be sure to keep it short. it is past my bedtime. as you heard, of all of the programs we have, we are not

resting on our laurels. that is what i want you to understand. we continue to find programs and ways to give our officers the best training they could have. in these economic times, it is important we find the things that are economically feasible and assam. right now, the captain is flying to seattle, washington and to learn about a program for crisis intervention fourteens and youth. it is an eight hour class. he will learn about mental health systems and disorders, and intervention skills, also communication techniques and services for youth. she will bring that back and we will send more people up there. this is free. is something we can use to train our officers. i will give it back to captain perry. he wants to give the closing

remarks. >> thank you. in conclusion, and thank you for your attention. we would like to close with a powerful video that sends a message of hope to our city's lgtb youth. -- lgbt youth. >> we are excited to see it

again. [inaudible] ♪ >> i am a sgt. >> i am a commander. >> i am a 911 dispatcher. >> my name is michelle martina's and i am a commander with the police department. >> i am a police officer. >> i am an officer with the san francisco police. >> i grew up in new york city. >> houston, texas. my father was a sicilian. >> my mother is a catholic. >> my mom is from japan.

>> i was a bit of a tomboy. a full-fledged tomboy. >> it got awkward and strange because i had to start trying to act and look like one. >> my choice of dress was always in jeans and converse tennis shoes. i was always checking out of the girls. >> i had close friendships with my girlfriends. hiding from my senior prom date. >> there was never somebody i could talk to because i thought i was different. >> i already knew by five that i should keep it on the download. >> i knew, absolutely. >> i was not honest with myself for my family. >> you are ways with that idea you are supposed to have a family. >> find the man of your dreams who will support you.

>> grow up and get married. >> i would have a wife, children, a picket fence. >> i did not have any positive gay role models that i thought were out there. >> all of the imagery that was associated with gays and lesbians was as a hairdresser, some when you were supposed to laugh at. >> i did not have anything that showed me it was ok to be who i am. >> i had times where i did not want to get out of bed or face the day. >> i think that i wanted to not

be around. >> i had thoughts of suicide. i was depressed. >> the message was there was something wrong with me and i should just die. >> it did not feel good to want what i thought everybody should want. it made me angry. >> there was a part of me that was ashamed. >> when the pain got too bad, i realized that i needed to tell my parents. >> i think i am gay. she said, i think i knew that. >> it was harder for me to tell my mom and my mom to hear me. >> i was a police officer for four years thinking i was the only gate police officer in the world. -- gay police officer in the world. >> my brothers were sort of like, huh?

>> their jaw dropped. >> i expected my father to have a different reaction than he did. he said, are you happy? i said, yes. he looked down and he said who gives a share it. - softball is the root of all gayness. i started crying and i broke down. i said i want you to know that i am gay. there was a long puase. -- pause. my grandfather, a typical person who would not accept somebody, he said, we love you.

>> my whole world opened up. >> selling at first person was a big deal. after the first few people, i just started acting like everybody should know this. i'm gay. >> this is who i am. >> i opened the door, my dad is out there. he looks at me and says, i am so sorry if i ever said fag. >> my life is great. >> i can be me. >> loving i would have missed experiencing the the joy of

life. people who show me amazing things all the time. new ways to think and look at the world. i never foresaw being a police officer. i thought it was something i could not do. >> things keep getting better for me. >> it gets better. i will help you. we are here to help make your transition as smooth as possible. >> it gets better. >> you have so many people who are just like you. >> things get better when you reach out to others. >> you have to tolerate that not acceptance. you forge ahead and do you do. -- do what you do. >> nothing is