through our protocol to call... we know exactly what language they will need the interpretation in and we will use our language line service for that. i don't know... so this is a sample of that card. >> that is just a sample. there is many, many languages listed on that card. consumer signs are also put up at the station and that is what we are talking about audit of the station to make sure that those were available. >> okay. >> moving forward, in may of this year, we requested digital audio recorders and that was approved thanks to the chief and the command staff. the request was sent to our property division, i don't know if that is their name. the person that orders the property for us to use in the street that was given to them. so i called them today to get an update because i have not heard or seen from them. unfortunately the person that was in charge of that order was not available to speak to me today. but i will continue to see what

is going on with those. but i know that they were approved and on order. only a few more items. currently we are still reviewing our data tracking systems that we do and it is basically our language line numbers. and cat entries that the officers make in the field so that we can make a good count of how many times we have to use our bilingual officers use their skills or when the people need the assistance. >> the area that was problematic was the airport because they work with a different computer system. but we worked with the it system to get a better way to collect information from them. the reports for the city and compliance is due in late december. >> building on that, just today is wednesday. so just monday we went to a language access summit that was put on by the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs and we had a lot there

and we were stuck in the meeting all day and so we got to participate in focus groups and we came away from that with a lot of information. additionally we attended the rights meeting on september tenth and also presented our language protocol at that meeting to the people present at that meeting. and answered questions. yesterday we went to a day-long training for language access. it was quite a good training and the reason for the meeting was so that we can properly complete our police department language access report, annual reports for city hall and the office of city engagement. so we came away from that meeting. and we were able to meet the other department heads and i have to say that we are pretty much, not ahead of the curve, but right in there. so that is all that i have. >> thank you, sergeant,

commissioner chang? >> welcome other questions from the other commissioners too, but i have an interest in this topic. i wanted to thank officer hall as his service, he worked really hard and did that audit where he went around station by station and took pictures as to the language and signage that they have available and the materials that they have to give to the public in different languages explaining that there is access when you work with an officer reporting a job. and i welcome you officer chang and you had to volunteer, and it has a lot of community interaction and i appreciate that you are willing to to do this. >> it is great to know that you went to the language access summit especially on short notice having just started a couple of days ago i was wondering if anyone from the department would be there given it was a big summit about the language access across the city. i wanted the police department to be represented there and to participate. i did not realize that until

tonight i was wondering on monday if anybody went. i wanted to ask about the training for psas, the police service aids. i remember a few months or even longer, maybe in january or february, we had the members of the domestic violence provider community come in and explain an awful case of a victim waiting for hours to report a dv case at a station and they were not able to do that and we were kind of drilled down as to what the issue was and part of the issue was the police service aids at the station and a lack of understanding of how to make sure that the reports are not taken by them but someone else in the station. it is good to know that it is in the works i am just wondering if there is a time line for it. >> i agree, it is a work in process and thank you for bringing that to our attention, and it is something that we will address. we have talked with the academy and they have... and this is just... it is still in progress, so not definitively,

but they have blocked off an hour for their training sessions to cover cultural diversity and limited english proficiency. and so our office can participate from that training. so that anticipated to start in january, it is not set in stone, because i think that it is a fluid situation with the academy classes. >> has there been short term training in the meantime when you get a victim walking in wanting to report you do this immediately, step one and step two, so that between now and january when someone does come in, that is addressed immediately. i just don't want to see any more cases like that. even if there is one, it is auful. >> we will make sure that it is taken care of. there was a lot more to that particular case by the way. we do have good protocols on the tsas getting a uniformed officer. but i will make sure that that

is isolated incident, regardless of however much was added to it. >> and then, i wanted to, thanks chief for approving the digital recorders, that you use to record when you have a conversation with a member of the public in another language to make sure that you have some recordings that you can check for accuracy later and you will not believe how long it has take sxn how many chiefs there have been. four chiefs, it is great to know that this chief has approved that request and those are now on order. these recorders are not very expensive and they will be very useful. >> i wanted to ask about the status of cell phones that is another request that is banned for chiefs to have the cell phone to be used to call the language line in the field. officers do have their own personal cell phones, but if you would like them, the officers who don't have phones or don't have access or don't want to use their own phones. how are we dealing with that? >> so the district stations

have three phones that the captains can use, however, as far as getting phones to all of the officers, it would be a high-cost item, the service provided would be high also. and we are looking for some device, and some sort of pba phone, what have you. but working with director jeffen to find out what device that would be so that we only spend our money well. >> that makes sense. and i want to say since we have beverly up ton here if we could give her a minute, or two to chime in. because they have been engaging in these monthly meetings and have been connected to the providers. >> great. >> commissioner kingsley. >> thank you for your report, this evening. i appreciate it. something i picked up on as you spoke regarding the academy classes that presently there is discussions on whether or not to include an hour of the

academy class on cultural diversity and language access. but did i understand that that is some what fluid and that may not happen? and my question is this, we live in such an enormously diverse community that it would seem that cultural diversity and language access would be in a core important component of the academy class and i just wanted to clarify was it just this particular hour with a particular bend? or is there some other portion of the academy class that addresses cultural diversity and language access? >> they will get cultural diversity training and that language access priority training. within the academy classes? >> yes. >> is that a normal part? >> i believe it is. but it is to be expanded. we added additional time to the academy. so that we can incorporate all of the youth things that we want to do that were extra,

that i feel are critical. so, we also expanded cultural diversity. >> good. okay, thank you, chief. thank you. >> sure. >> could i just explain one thing, though. what sergeant was talking about was the training for the police service aids so this is not the basic academy class. they do get a very thorough training on cultural diversity. the police service aids are the civilian employees that we have and they work at the station. so we are hoping to begin that, it is some what fluid, but they will absolutely have a minimum of one hour, when we begin those academy classes for the public, for the psa. >> thank you. >> but it is not the basic academy classes. it is the civil employees that we will be training beginning in january. >> so sworn officers get a significant amount of cultural diversity training. and it is just this other

civilian branch that is... it is their training that will get at least an hour. >> right. >> but their training is much shorter than the 30 weeks that the training officers get. >> sure. thanks for the clarification. >> commissioner loftus >> i am impressed with the efforts that you have made and you have the responsibility to keep everybody safe. if someone cannot speak the language it is difficult to understand what happened and hold that person accountable. and so i am really pleased. it strikes me as... i just want to hear more about the efforts to let the community members who don't speak english to know about all of the progress that you have made. this is a tremendous resource, and if i was someone in this country who didn't speak english, it would probably be a surprise to me the number of languages that the officers

speak, i wonder if you could give us a sense of the ways that you will make sure that the communities who don't speak english are aware of this. >> the sergeant, is being modest. but his role in the press office and community relations we have been expanding our communications that i do chinese media as well as monthly radio show in the mission in spanish. i don't speak enough spanish to do it confidently. but they translate for me and they make sure that i get it right. so we are trying to do firmtive out reach to get the communities that speak other languages. >> that is wonderful news, because really it gives us access to a whole group of people that feel that the justice system is working for them and this the point of contact and tremendous work and i look forward to hearing about your successful work.

>> what we should do is part of this presentation is the occ side of it. so can attorney samara, marion come forward? >> thank you. >> good evening. president mazzucco, commissioners, chief, and members of the public, and policy analyst for the office of complaints. when director hiks presented our 2011 annual report a few months ago this commission asked us to identify our top three policy projects for the upcoming year and we have had dozen and dozens of policy recommendations pending with the police department but we identified language access services, a revised pursuit policy in a minor revision to the force. and we picked these three particular projects because the use of force amendment would be simple and we would like to get something accomplished quickly. the language access that we have been working for many years with the department and

community organizations and we have a lot of really great forward movement. that is part of why we picked language access and the third one on on pursuits is there is an urgency about the pursuit given that it is so old from 1997. so in turning to those three policies what this commission has done and we have all appreciated that you have made us come before you every few months to let you know where we are at and that has been great because it means that the department and myself and the community organizations were meeting and we have an ongoing dialogue and we have the opportunity to let you know where we are at. with language access, in october, it will be five years since this commission adopted 5.20, the language access protocol. and similar to other things that this department is on the forefront of, there are so few departments in the country that have a written language access protocol. i mean it is amazing. there are so few departments that have a whole group of

bilingual officers there are trainings provided and updates. when i met with the department and we were trying to put together a department bulletin, i called across the country and i called doj and they were asking for material materials and they said they don't have it. so the agencies and we wrote a department bulletin that is one of a kind. so we are all excited about all of the movement forward. it is really quite remarkable. there sauls a few things that are still on the table and six months ago, we did hear a domestic violence provider come and talk about how there was an individual wanting to take a report and went to two different stations and because of the language barrier, and also because these police service aids which are fabulous, they look like officers if you have not ever going to the police station before. they look like officers, so when, in dv cases as we know the department takes those seriously and want a police officer to take the report. but when you have a combination

of a psa who looks like an officer and an language barrier things go awry. so what is communicated we need to wait for someone else or we can't take a report. >> really we need language service and a officer to take the report. >> i know that we have had many productive discussions since that time. i want to raise it because we are 6 months later, and there is an urgency with what is happening on the ground-level at district stations and so i hope that this is an opportunity to move some of those things to the district station for there are a lot of good things in place with a few language liason officer, part of what our hope has been and again, the department is in the forefront, there are few departments that have someone committed to solving language access problems with a language liason officer that the opportunity for the community to know who that individual is when they can call that individual and to solve problems within the station. our hope is that the next step

forward is that that language liason officer has a phone number that the community does know about. even if it is just the service providers so that they know who to call to problem solve. so those are some of the things that we are hoping to move forward on. we continue and we have been here before to talk about with den and the police department, there is a lot of good things that can happen where the special skills of officers either language skills would be quickly identified through the dispatch system. so there is not a delay. and so we are hoping to see the changes with the dispatch. . >> with the pursuit policy, again, we have made a lot of good movement. we are glad that there is a

date certain, our emphasis and our work is the urgency, the policies from 1997, we know that over one-third of all pursuits end in a collision. there are great public safety risks and officer safety risks and our hope is that date in november comes to pass so that we can move forward and have a good pursuit policy. it is good now, but what we have put together is really consistent with best practices. >> lastly i want to talk about 5.01. and this was a change that was based on a recommendation that we made back in december. and it is a small change and i understand why the department is looking at 5.01 and the larger picture. but this kind of a change can happen quickly. if in the past, if the individual, there was a physical control hold that resulted in injury, then there is a whole investigation and reporting process. we have had cases where an individual has complained of pain. but there has not been a

visible injury, you are not going to see a broken arm or torn ligaments. what we recommended back in december, similar to other law enforcement agencies is that the language include not only an injury, but if there is a complaint of pain that... and we have devised language, complaint of pain beyond the initial control hold, that that situation would be subject to the same type of investigation and reporting. now, we have met with the chief about it. and months ago, we proposed a language. i know that there are a lot of changes and there is short staffing within the department. my hope however, is regardless of where things might have fallen through the cracks is that we are able to come up with something quickly that resolves that. because ultimately individuals who have been complain of pain, but can't point to the particular injury, they deserve the same level of investigation

and reporting, and similarly, officers deserve that same level of attention if those situations happen. so we are asking for more transparency and those kinds of situations get the same agree of scrutiny that just an injury would be provided. the way that this could happen, you know, we have talked to the chief. there are ways to do it through the department bulletin, i just hope that we could resolve it quickly, but it is not many months later to resolve this one way or the other. >> thank you for your support. and also, beverly up ton is here, she is one of the individuals that we have been working with through the monthly meetings and we welcome here to make comments as well. >> the format, i am wondering if you can finish this agenda item two and during the public comment part have you speak. >> i am happy to have and i am working with the db related

policy >> good evening. we have been so honored to have such a broad range to meet with them about the moving the lep policy forward. it has been just as informative for us as it has been, i think, for everybody at the table. we do see it as homicide prevention. as everybody here knows, ten years ago, we used to lose about ten to 12 victims a year to domestic violence, homicides. 90 percent of them were english lep survivor and ultimately victims. and so we do think that in our community it has made a

difference that the domestic violence community has learned in some ways to speak about 70 languages. so we are excited about sharing anything that we have learned and being at the table and it has been honored and inspiring to see the commitment and the progress moving forward. >> on the psa issue, i think in that hour, if we could just help them learn how to tell people that they can't take a domestic violence report would be so helpful. i think that there is a way to say it in a good way that domestic violence is so complex we want an officer here to take it. right? and so just as samera mentioned. i think that there is a problem when you have a psa that is not allowed to take the report and rightfully so. we are pleased with that policy, very much so. but you have a lep victim who

is there, who does not know that the psa is not an officer. who does not understand why they are report is not being taken. so if that could be part of that training, it would be tremendous because it would really alleviate some of that tension that is... it is unintended consequence of a very good policy. so that is one piece. i also want to thank officer henry haw, for his leadership and his availability to the community. he came out and met at one of our monthly community meetings with about 25 advocates from 17 agency and gave everybody the phone number of how to get a hold of him and so we welcome our knew liason officer chag and also be out reaching to him and come and meet the folks in the community as well. it just really builds the confidence of the advocates when they know that if a woman or a client comes to them and

says that i can't get my report taken, that they can make a call and alleviate that problem very early on. so, we are very excited about that. and then, i will just touch quickly because it is not on the agenda but i will say within a few months we hope to talk about a project with the commission that we have been working on. i am so proud to be on chief's team, on an officer-involved domestic violence policy. we have been working with wane judson who is the father of a homicide victim in tacoma who was killed by her law enforcement husband. and so we have had not only san francisco and just a great team with lieutenant mcfaden and it has just been wonderful. and so we have outside consultants, i mean, informal consultants on this. we are very close to our very first draft and so we are not there yet but we will be here soon. i think in the fall to share

that with you and we will make sure that as soon as we have a draft that we will make it available. so we are very happy about the progress. certainly we all have more to do. but we are honored to be a part of it. >> thank you very much. >> commissioner loftus? >> mis up ton we have worked a number of years back when i was a dv prosecutor. i really feel like it is important to under score the significance of what you said around the lower homicide rate of the domestic violence victims in the city and acknowledge your role and the role of advocates in the community to serve as sentinaland watch dogs to make sure that the justice system works, that when we don't, or ways that we can improve you volunteer to serve on committee and help us work through some of these thorny policy issues. and also i think for the department, i really responded to the progress that we have

made on the language access pgo. and the recognition, a lot of times in the meetings we talk about the fact that the department is a leader in certain areas. it is almost like when you are dealing with discipline and problems and what the problems are and you don't tend to talk about what is going well and tonight it is good because the partnership between the community groups and the advocates and the police department in this city, i think, is something that you guys have really worked on and it benefits, identifies gaps and ultimately keeps people more safe and does not play a blame game. so i am really grateful for your service and acknowledge the department for bringing in the community to try to solve some of the things that we are facing. >> thank you. >> it is an honor. >> and i with have to say that i think that san francisco is a leader and what we find which is not true everywhere. generally our policy lags behind our practice. so in many cities you see where the practice looks good. it is on paper.

but it is not being implemented. in san francisco, we find our practice generally is way ahead of our policy. so we want to institutionalize what is already happening that is headed in the right direction. san francisco has been headed in the right direction, over this last decade. you can tell by the homicide, the domestic violence homicide rates going way down, calls for service, both 911 and to the community going way up. we see that as a positive. people have a lot of confidence in calling. so we just need to keep that trajectory going. so we are very excited to come to the table and we are very proud of the work that has been done in collaboration between the community and the department. so thank you. >> it is a great opportunity. >> thank you. >> in fact about five months ago on the united states department of justice website, and i immediately... they realize that had there is an issue of access and they are starting to explore and so we

are way ahead of the curv and thank you chief and for all of your involvement. so thank you. >> thank you so much. >> okay. please call line item two b. >> line item 2 b. occ's director report. discussion, review of recent activities. >> good evening. director hiks. >> good evening, members of the commission, i have no none to report. i have nothing this evening. >> are there any questions for director hiks this evening. >> thank you very much. please call line item 2 c. >> commissioner reports to discussion, commission president's report. >> just briefly i want to thank the chief i actually called them yesterday because of my concern. there is a lot going on in the city but there seems to be a lot of traffic and really out of control, especially out here tonight. and i hope that when the city planners put these things together that there are so many events that you realize to get around the city and so i called the chief and shared my

thoughts with him and he was very kind and so i appreciate that. but that is all that i have to report this evening. >> commissioners anything further? >> i wanted to give an update on where we are. last week we had a little bit of a confusion about the taser issue. since then, it looks like we have a couple of potential dates for community meetings and i wanted to put it out there and please chime in if i am saying anything incorrectly. october 22nd at 6:00. and this is a suggested location, of course if there is community input, it could be somewhere else. but right now they have reserved the hampton recreation center. and there is another community meeting set for october 23rd at the scottish rice center. and then a third one on october 30th at 6:00 at downtown high school. at 693 ramont street. i don't think that these are

set in stone. but i wanted to be very transparent and put these dates out there so the community members can start planning and give input on the discussion that we have had. >> my understanding is that those are the dates for now. and am i leaving anything out, chief? >> no. that there was a september 24th date that commissioner asked that we vacate due to either short notice and the fact that the commissioner could be present. so provided the other two commissioners are in agreement, i would not object. >> thank you. >> and before, these meetings i think that we are going to have ourselves going to meet, with the chief just to go over some of our ideas and discussion so that we have a good format for these meetings that really takes in the community input. that is also something that will happen before the first meeting on the october 22nd. >> that is it. i don't know if i am