c and d hearing none -- come forward. >> good evening again, robert davis. i was wondering why don't we have more opportunities for the city to buy back guns instead of one time or once a year or twice a year, why not have a room where you are turn in a gun and why not increase the money, the money that you get when you turn in a gun? make it a little bit sweeter to turn in a gun. >> this will not be the last gun buy back. >> but how many times do we do that in a year, gun by backs? >> this was the first gun buy back in some time. we used to do them, if i recall correctly, commander cepb shah when he was here was the last time we did them twice a year. >> well, every community meeting at the bayview station we talked about guns, guns turned in, guns found, guns guns guns. if we were more

proactive they'd be getting guns offer the street, we'd get more guns back. i'm sure there's money available for that. it just seems to be common sense. >> i think this is the kind of thing we would elicit in the open forum that commissioner kingsley talked about. but i think there were elements present in this that haven't been present in the past. there was private do you knowers. the gpbs actually came from the community people and we turned it over to the police. it wasn't initiated by the police. it may be on in the future but this is the kind of thing we talk about when we have a hearing on something like this so thank you for the suggestion. >> again, logistically we're not supposed to talk back and forth but we are on this issue. is it fair to say if somebody has a gun to surrender to the police department without funds being available, how do they do that? >> six people wouldn't take

any money on saturday, they just insisted on turning the gun in. anybody can turn a gun in at any police station, although i would suggest that you would go in without the gun and tell the police officers you have a gun to turn in lest you be a guest inside the station. >> that's what i was getting at. >> just say, hey, i have a gun to surrender, can you come outside and the officers will render it safe. >> any further public comment on these items? public comment is now closed. please call the next line item. >> line item 4, discussion and possible action to recommend that the board of supervisors adopt a resolution authorizing the chief of police to retroactively accept and extend a grant in the amount of $200,000 from the california emergency management agency for the anti-human trafficking task force program. action. >> thank you, good evening, lieutenant jean.

>> commissioners, i whole heartedly wish that you grant this expense for the department. as you know, human trafficking is becoming a very profitable means for gangs to make money. next to drug trafficking i'd say human traffics is the second world's most profitable crime at this point and a continuing problem that's growing as commissioner loftus does know. there's different types of human trafficking. there's sex trafficking, there's labor trafficking and domestic services so there's different types of human trafficking. public perception is this is a problem from different countries and what we're discovering is the majority of human trafficking is actually american citizens. they are being trafficked from state to state. as we do know, human

trafficking involves force, fraud or coercion of labor or services. it's a crime against men, women and children of every nationality and social economic status. human trafficking is a low risk high profit crime and it's, the reason why it's very profitable and low risk is because it's underground a lot. they are using internet services, they are using all different types of services, massage parlors to traffic women and children throughout the united states, so i really urge you to say yes to this and if there's any other questions i can answer for you, i will gladly do that. >> thank you, lieutenant. commissioner kingsley. commissioner loftus, i'm sorry. >> go ahead. lieutenant, thank you very much. just your few minutes here are very informative. i'm

wondering what exactly will be done with the $200,000. >> what we're looking to do is increase the investigations. it's very time-consuming. the elements to discover human trafficking, it can come in different forms. it can be a deaf domestic violence call that results in us finding human trafficking. we have some stats for you regarding what was investigated and at this point last year we had 107 cases that were investigated. we had 74 identified victims of human trafficking. that was just law enforcement based, a total of 369 victims were identified through services provided through agency-specific legal outreach or other services. what we're trying to do is work in cooperation with them so the police department and the asian pacific islander outreach, we want to work with them providing available

assistance to them for crime victims of human trafficking residing in san francisco. we will do the investigation, they will do the support and outreach to them to get them out of that and preventive services to help them live their life, gain control of their lives again. >> so will the money be used it hire people or train people in this area that are already employees of the department? where are the dollars actually? >> we already have human trafficking unit together under special victims unit. we have two full-time -- we have inspector flores along with officer brian keebler investigating full-time and also have two officers working on a rotation basis right now but we'd like to keep them for a little longer. we're not looking to hire anybody else, we're using the funds to continue doing what we're doing. >> i have to acknowledge this

is inspentor antonio flores he's about as senior and capable a investigator for special victims as any place. he is a shrinking violet. >> just to elaborate a little bit more, our vision with special victims, as you know we're under that umbrella. some of the goals that we'd like to do is also train first responders to recognize immediately when they come on a scene to recognize that possibly the individual may be involved in an activity that is possibly illegal but they are treated not as a suspect but as a victim of human trafficking. also working with our agencies, actually we have human trafficking 101 that will be sitting on a panel along with other advocate groups on january 15, 2012 -- i mean 2013 of next year. so make this

available for all of you to be even more educated on that. as far as for victims, we're also looking to be more informative to victims when they identify themselves as victims of human trafficking, going online and seeing services out there. i got a lot of this information from the recent attorney general's report that we got a lot of the ideas from and also regarding the cross training. right now we teach a 30-minute block at the academy at the advanced officers, that is what myself and i'd like to give special thanks to sergeant arlan van derbilt because he was the founder of what we're doing now. a lot of cross training, cross training working with other agencies, getting tips and training the officers to recognize because it is the first responder that comes in contact with victims, they are the ones that actually make the impression and

actually help down the road having that person cross over. what you'll notice is that the domestic violence cases are very similar to human trafficking cases. i know the report last week regarding one of the law enforcement tools that we use is obviously the uv sets and tv sets that allows these individuals, maybe they are here illegally and possibly they don't want to come forward because of their status. the chief said this is a sanctuary city and this enables us to help them individuals to come forward to make the cases better. so we're looking forward to working with the u.s. attorney's office and also the district attorney's office. we were very successful last year on a unique case involving food vendors where we were able to identify victims of trafficking from mexico to arizona to san jose that ended up here in san francisco then we brought that case to the fbi and all four were indicted and

pled guilty to smuggling charges. >> commissioner loftus was next. thank you. >> well, i'm just so thrilled to hear this presentation. i think you all know, human trafficking is something that is a crime that hides in plain sight. the victims often look and appear like they are prostitutes or they are people who could be working as a dish washer in a restaurant and they are all around us. and so one of the major holes that we found is that people thought human trafficking was something the feds do when actually there's a big swaugt of gang members who are, the term is running girls through cities and no one is seeing it. so i feel like this is really -- and to have inspector flores working on this, someone who is a legend, someone who helped us hold accountable people who

have committed horrific acts of domestic violence while helping make the victim whole at the same time and having such profound respect for victims of violence. so the fact you are working on this is incredible and i want to echo what the two of you said. the attorney general said 80 percent of the victims of human trafficking are american born. it's vulnerable kids, foster kids, brought into modern day slavery and it is hoer rifrk and make no mistake, it's happening here in san francisco. it's going to take a lot of work to recognize these victims and train officers to do that. it's hard to make those cases when you lose the trust of the victim and imagine a girl who is actually being trafficked and encountered law enforcement and she's put in jail as if she was the perpetrator. it's really tough for any da to then

hold that trafficker accountable. i think it's really important and what i hear you guys saying is you're not, there are no new positions being created but these funds are going to be used to fund the trainings and the positions that you currently have. is that right? >> yes, we're always looking to get more people into special victims unit but what's unique about having special victims unit with domestic violence, the sopp program, everybody is very aware now of human trafficking and as officer flores was speaking earlier, db will get a call out, there's a human trafficking element to it, they will get him on the phone or me on the phone and we will run with it that way. the complexity of the investigations, because it normally involves numerous victims, numerous suspects and they are moving the women around, not only in san francisco but to different states. so it's very complex investigations but as we were saying earlier, we do have two

convictions strictly on human trafficking but we have other convictions through possibly domestic violence or we have them through gun -- the gun charges, whatever we can get them on. >> if we can't do the human trafficking portion we always have another crime. usually there is another crime that we can possibly do with or without the victim's cooperation. it's up to us to build his case using all the tools we can. >> i know there's two new laws that come into effect in january that have to do with assets, it's part of the package, i won't beat the attorney general's drums too much, but we expanded the assets that officer can seize and freeze of a suspected trafficker during the investigation. in the new year we should try to find some time to get some training for that. >> dr. marshall, commissioner

turman? >> i don't want to shock you or anybody else, i know just from doing radio shows on this whole thing the number of exploited minors in this whole thing, i mean it's tremendous. i kind of knew it, but all these young girls and i know recpbltly they are now looked upon as exploited minors as opposed to people who are willingly participating in this kind of thing. and this probably follows up from what i said before, and i think you've done this already, folks in the business are always looking for a different place to go to do their business so i know you have, i know you've been in contact with oakland and surrounding areas because they move people all the time.

chief, i just want to ask, how much are we involved both regionally and nationally in this whole -- are there forums that go on? i know you have attended a couple things. >> as tony was saying, arlan vanderbilt brought this forward. i think he has a lot of credit and commissioner loftus is holding the department's feet to the fire and rightfully so. that's why we're looking for this grant and we'll be actually at some point in time growing the human trafficking unit as we get our staffing up to speed. >> also we do attend other meetings in the bay area so we attend a monthly meeting down in san jose, so we're constantly in communication with other sister agencies, not only law enforcement but also other advocate groups like, for example, not to get in too much detail, i talked to an attorney down in san jose right now where this person is willing to come forward regarding an incident so they feel confident to come to san francisco to talk about something that

they've been tracking through the state of california. >> san francisco has been at the forefront of this. when kevin ryan was district attorney, he did something called operation human cage. i was prosecutor interviewing women who have been trafficked here from korea. it's right in front of us, all these massage parlors you go through in the city, in every neighborhood, have women in there who have been trafficked in foreign countries who are abused and battered on a nightly basis. having interviewed some of those people, we were down at moffat field housing 75 women rescued at that time. these women are more than battered, more than bruised, they are psychologically damaged for life. i don't think the public

gets that. what more can we gt from the department of justice? last time we did it, it was done through the fbi -- actually the irs criminal investigation division took the money away. several homes were seized. there was ins, it was all the federal law enforcement agencies that were there to protect these women. is there any more money from the federal government? >> i know we're constantly asking the grant unit to extend this. we have to show that we're willing to play this game and we're coming forward (inaudible) having individuals plead guilty to charges shows a lot. i think as we continue doing those kind of cases and building those cases we will see results. we have asset forfeitures that will be coming

so i can foresee more things happening. >> we're currently working with the fbi right now. >> commissioner turman. >> i move that we, the ask the board of supervisors to authorize the police to retroactively accept and appropriate a grant in the amount of $200,000 from the california emergency management agency. >> second. >> first we have to have public comment. any public comment? seeing none, all in favor say aye. please call line item 5. >> line item 5, public comment on all matters pertaining to item 7 below, closed session, including public comment on vote whether to hold item 7 in

closed session. >> motion with reference to the closed session matters, ladies and gentlemen these are disciplinary matters involving police officers. they are protected by the california constitution and the california supreme court decision of kochley may i have a motion?. >> we're back on the record, commissioners. do i have a motion with reference to line item no. 8, which is to vote whether to disclose any or all items. >> move nondisclosure. >> second. >> all in favor. >> before we move into the last item of adjournment, inspector monroe you were going it make an anoupsment regarding the january meetings. >> we will be dark january 2 r*pbd and hold open meetings on

january 9, 23 and 30. >> thank you very much. ladies and gentlemen, as we move into line item no. 9 i'm going to turn this over to commissioner kingsley. >> we are closing this commission meeting this evening, the last of the year for 2012, with a few moments to remember the 28 victims of gun violence in newtown, connecticut last friday, and to remember the 45 people in the city of san francisco who died from gun violence in the year 2012.

this commission is dedicated to reduce gun violence in the city of san francisco. we ask everybody in the san francisco community to join us and the dedicated members of the san francisco police department to fight gun violence in this city. thank you and good night. >> do i have a motion for adjournment? >> so moved. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> thank you very much, commissioners. (meeting adjourned).

>> all right, good evening, everybody, who wants to see a tree lit? >> happy holidays, welcome to fabulous mcclarin lodge here in golden gate park. my name is phil ginsberg and i am the general manager of your san francisco recreation and park department and i want to

welcome you all to the 83rd annual tree lighting. happy holidays for you all. the trust for public land as mr. mayor knows recently named your park the number one park system in the entire united states of america. [ applause ] >> we were also just named as a finalist to host this cool international parks conference in 2015 in which we are going to be welcoming cities from all over the country to learn how we do it here in san francisco. and then, just last month, and a big thank you to all of you, san francisco voters approved proposition b. the cleanest safe neighborhood parks fund which allows us to renovate and juvinate your parks. 83 years ago, uncle john

mcclarin and if you go in the gm office you can see a picture of him. started the tradition of lighting this mile-long stretch of trees started and ending here in front of the lodge where he lived for a number of years. so this, this is san francisco official holiday tree right behind us, uncle john's tree. it is a cyrus that is more than 100 years old closer to 130 years old and tonight it sports over 550 christmas holiday lights. >> so i really want to give a big shout out to the rec and parks staff that has continued the tradition and i want to