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tv   [untitled]    June 4, 2014 5:30pm-6:01pm PDT

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>> the city of san francisco sfgtv meeting of the police commission occurring june 4, 2014, will begin shortly. >>
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>> pledge of allegiance. >> president mazzucco i would like to call the roll. >> please do. >> president mazzucco? >> present. >> vice president turman? is in route. >> commissioner marshal? >> here. >> commissioner dejesus. en route. >> commissioner loftus?
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>> here. >> commissioner wang. >> here. >> president mazzucco you have a quorum, also with us this evening is the chief of police, gregory suhr. >> thank you, inspector monroe and ladies and gentlemen welcome to the june 4, san francisco, and although we are here tonight, this is actually the community meeting for northern station, which is in this district. and the meeting was schedule to last week and canceled due to a lack of quorum and we so we have asked the captain and moved it over to this week and we would done it out in the community, but there is all of these notice requirements that we have as a commission, the good news is that we were able to move it to the city hall that does not have the notice requirement and again it is in the district. so we are going to have your regular police commission meeting and it will be a district community meeting w
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commissioners introduce themselves we are not going to deviate from anything anything and we are going to start with that introduction and before we start with the introductions i want the public to know that tonight, we are going to adjourn in the honor of two san francisco officers who active members who recently passed and myself, and commissioner wo ng were at the funeral on friday, for officer hector burserta who is a 14-year member of the san francisco police department, and served in the task force, and the mission station, bay view station and most recently in the administration, and he was a native son, son of the mission district and at the funeral and we saw many signs of his pride and his mexican american heritage and we lost him suddenly. and he was a great police officers and a good friend for all and he also was the past president of the latin police officers association and as the mrition commissioner always appreciated when we had to deal with the issues and there is always a kind word coming from him and the call that we start
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off with the commissioner and in 30 seconds it was this is what we need to do and he always had the officers in his organization, first and foremost in his heart, and also, recently we lost another officer, from terivel station who passed steven veras who has also been in the department since the year 2000 and left us two days ago and so we are going to adjourn in both the officers' honor tonight and it is part of the large organization, and like the police department, and it is a big family, and we have lost two family members and so we grieve the losses and we will adjourn in their honor and without further adieu, let's call the first line item. >> one approval. introduce? >> and i am going to start to my left. >> commissioner loftus? >> thank you so much, president mazzucco, my name is susy loftus and i have been on the commission for about two years, and by way of background, about me, i am from san francisco. my husband and i are raising our three daughters here in the
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city and my professional background is that i was a prosecutor here in san francisco. my former colleague, is here, and the neighborhood prosecutor. and the northern district is really important to me and special to me, i started my family when i was living in the valley and was the neighborhood prosecutor, with our community members in the northern district and we did some really great partnership to make sure that the community voice was heard in the courts. and keeps some folks off of some corners and i think that really make that lace a lot more livable and i have fond memories of the work at northern district and today my work is i work in san francisco bay view district at an organization called the center of young wellness, kids who have been exposed to violence and try to identify ways to help them heal, earlier on before we see a lot of poor out comes for kids in low income communities of color, so happy that you all came to the city hall for the meeting and
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encourage you to share with us your experience and grateful for you to take the time to be here. >> thank you, commissioner loftus and, next is commissioner julius turman. >> hello and welcome to city hall, thank you for coming i am the vice president of the police commission and when i am not, the vice president, i am a partner at the law firm of reed smith and i head the labor and employment group in san francisco and it is always nice to have a community meeting although it is usually in the community, and not in city hall and it is refreshing and we are glad to be here and glad to hear from the community. so, i welcome your comments, and i think that is it, thank you. >> dr. marshall >> i have been just been appointed to used to say
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criminal defense, but i am no longer doing that. and i served for a number of years with the da's office and i worked for the non-profits for eleven years and i worked for 4 and a half years as a
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public defender. thank you. >> thank you, and then the next commissioner who introduce yourself, she is busy talking, and so, there she is, commissioner petra dejesus. >> hi. i am sorry that i am late, i am dejesus, and i am an attorney by day and, i work in oakland and i have been on the commission five years and did a lot of good work here and i live in the mission, and i am glad to see the community came to us, thanks. >> thank you >> and i am tom mazzucco and i been in the commission for six or seven years now and i like all of the commissioners here i am a native san franciscan and i raised my children here, and i live in the northern police district. and i have lived there almost my entire life and i too like some of the commissioners i was a former state court prosecutor and a assistant da and for ten years and close to nine years i served as an assistant united
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states attorney, for the department of justice. and upon leaving that, i am a partner in a law firm called murphy and pearson, and that is what i do during the daytime. or sometimes the daytime or sometimes the nighttime, but it is what i do. and again, it is great to be here and it is great to have the captain to give us presentation tonight and earlier there has been great things out of northern station, under his leadership and i am looking forward to hearing more. and so without further adieu, let's call line item number one, approval of the minutes. >> approval of the minutes, action for the meeting of march 26, 2014, april, 2, 2014 and, may 7th and 14th, 2014. >> commissioners you have the minutes in your packet, are there any corrections or deleting or recommendations regarding the minutes? >> hearing none, do i have a motion? >> so moved. >> second. >> all in favor. >> aye. >> call two, the consent calendar.
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>> the consent calendar, receive and file action and request for approval to accept a gift of $200 from the hession/siragus family for the sfpd tactical unit floral fupd. >> you have in your packet a memo regarding this, any time there is a gift over $25, it needs the approval of the police commission and this is for the floral arrangements with reference to retired police officers funeral that was paid for by the tactical division, any concerns or questions? do i have a motion? >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> all right, please call item three. >> reports to the commission discussion, chief's report. >> good evening, commissioners, public, i will be brief as i want and i know i see the captain back there and he is itching to get to the podium and make his presentation. and some good news with regard to crime in san francisco, violent crime, and as we
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approach the mid year is down about 14 percent and the property crime is flat, over all, crime violent crime is down 14 percent and property crime is flat. over all crime is down about 2 percent, and homicides, are remained at a record low. although, too many, we have had nine, this time in 2008, we had had 45. so, we are going in the right direction with regard to the homicides. >> just say that one more time? >> so, everybody heard that, and i heard it correctly. >> at this exact date, in 2008, so far year to date, 2014, we have had 9 homicides on this exact same date in 2008 we had had 45. so, the men and women of the police department and the other pieces of the system, and absolutely everybody in the public that is helping us out, making great enroads and
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certainly down as many officers as we are when those officers come back hopefully, this ends up being a high that we don't care for three or four years from now. >> so we have had that said, unfortunately we have had two homicides, in the last 30 days and one of those on turner terrace on may 20 and this that homicide was or has been solved, and an arrest has been made and that suspect is in custody, and the other homicide that we had was on may 26th, in the bay view, that is still an on going investigation. and we hope that someone is in custody there and it is important to note that of the 9 homicides that we have had, there has been a closure on 7 of the nine, and so, again, someone that commits an act of violence in san francisco they are going to jail. >> last week, we played host to
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all of the major city police chiefs in the united states. and they were here for a three day conference, and it went very well, as well as one of the police executive research forum and the f.b.i. today, we played host to the california hostage negotiators and they were at the temple for the entire day and great sharing of the information and how to deal with people in crisis and then again to echo what commissioner mazzucco spoke to earlier, i can't say enough for the actions of the officers involved in the arrest of mr. chamberlan on monday night under the leadership of the captain mceachern in the back that literally acted on every tip and got on things and before something could befall, him or before he could hurt anybody else, he is in custody and hopefully, that will go the way that is meant to go. and so any way, a great job,
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put themselves in great risk, and it all went well and so i will defer the rest of my comments to the captain. >> before i move forward i did ask the chief's permission and i was at an event for the italy an con so late at the saint francis yacht club and that was the first time that i could get in there. >> i don't have a yacht or a boat. >> i was able to see and i did not see the arrest but i think that all of you have seen the videos of what our officers did and i was very proud, and very, very proud of the members of the san francisco police department. and in watching the response and what they did, and so i want to single out the four officers who were involved that you saw a lot of them on the video. and the two arresting officers were ruppert heraldo and herada
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and josh olsen and melvin manu. and those four officers are san francisco's finest because they did it, they did right, they did it professionally, and i tell you they risked their lives going after somebody who was potential bomb suspect that the f.b.i. was looking for and potentially weapons of mass destruction and they went and did their job and pulled him out of the car and arrested him. so i want to thank the officers and single them out and thank them again from the bottom of my heart. commissioner loftus? >> yeah, i just have a question for the chief. and it is amazing that the reduction in the homicides and one of the things that i have shared this information in the staff in the bay view and the response is that it does not feel that way in some opportunities in particular that have suffered the loss after loss and it is traumatizing and i was wondering if we have a protocol for how we support the families of a homicide victim and i don't know if we have a
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procedure, or the chief and i was wondering if with the opportunity of like you said in some ways a new normal and what we are trying to reduce the number of homicides if it is time to look at how we hold the family after there is a homicide and if there are things that we can do and the resource to put in behind and because in particular the community is that it is a collective loss and so one more feels like ten more. and i think i just wanted to check in about where we are with that. >> right. and so, we have the department of the public health support of families immediately after an act of violence, and i think that it is important to note, that the reason, and certainly, the actions of the officers in the department play a piece or a part to this. but, there is still way too much gun violence in san francisco and the shootings although, half of what they were in 2008, are still just about what they were last year. so, again, i credit the drop in actual fatal gun violence to having a terrific general hospital, and a great fire
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department, and an emergency able and service to get the people to the hospital. and the facts that we are doing things like out of the mayor's office and summer jobs, and our jobs piece for the young people largely that live in the communities, impacted the most by this violence, just started on monday, and we hope to exceed over 300 young people in jobs and the mayor's over all program will employ over 7,000 kids. and this summer and the jobs so that when the young people are busy i think that it helps out and as far as the families and i can't even imagine what you go through, and when you lose a child and i don't know what will happen if i lost one of my guys. so, we do try to work closely with the mothers of murdered children and we work with mattie scott of the healing circle, and we try to be as responsive and open as we can for the case updates and the like. and again, opened to anything else that i know that the wellness center works in particular with the kids, but, that the capacity is not what
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anybody would want it to be. it should be more. >> yeah, i just recall that it was the chief that said that when that loss happened they could have assigned an officer to each family and i don't know that there is any with the declining numbers and all of that we have the real staff challenges and i wonder if it is time to have a conversation over what things that we could do to support the family. >> happy to have the conversation. >> thanks, chief. >> dr. marshall. >> yes, i will make the disclaim their there is too much violence and too many shootings and the loss of one life through a homicide is a terrible thing. however, i was around here in 2008 and 2007 and 2006 and when the numbers were 90, 90, 100, here, and i remember when this trend, hopefully the trend started correct me, i think
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that for you it was three years we had 50 and, then it went to 48 and then it went up to 67 largely due to that thing that happened in sunny dale. but, you know, these numbers, just great, i mean, just what do you say? and i will say because my officers in the bay view, the homicides, and dramatically down from what they were years ago and so, everybody who has been bound in and i feel like if there is less grief for the families now then there was then and that is definitely to be commended and i hope to get that down to, you know, as soon as we possibly can and we are certainly, certainly, certainly on the right track. >> i appreciate it and but again, i like you, and this is where we do, and it is to be, you know, it is to be celebrated, that it is then to be put away. >> yes. >> because, it could turn just that fast and so there is work to do. and it is a piece dividend that
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we should not lose the chance to get in and get busy to get these young kids jobs, to high school graduation. and to get them as educated as employed as we possibly can. >> we have been pro-active on this and we continue to be pro-active on it and so when the commissioner loftus brings that up, we are working on getting it down to zero. >> okay. >> thank you. >> so before we call the line item 2 b, the occ director's report i want to point out that we invite the parole specials who work the district and we see allen byard, and will you stand up and, he is part of p polk street and union and pacific heights and please stand up, and i forgot your name and i apologize. yes. and so it is two of the parole specials and so the public
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knows and the parole specials are the private contractors that are monitored by the police commission and the merchants and paid for their service, for additional security, and so you will see them in your district, driving around, and there is two of them that work for us in the district and i would like to have the community meetings and so you see them and recognize them. please call line item 3, b. >> occ director's report, review of recent activities. >> good evening, director hicks. >> good morning, president mazzucco and members of the commission, chief suhr and the members of the community, i am joyce hicks the executive director of the san francisco office of citizen complaints. also in the audience this evening is chief and trial attorney, frankle, this evening i would like to talk to you about the occ, its history and mission, and how our investigation process or
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discipline process the occ was created by a board of supervisors initiated charter amendment in 1982, and became operational in 19983 and it is under the jurisdiction of the police commission and the occ is a agency and we are not police officers we are civilians. our mission is to investigate the complaints of police misconduct or neglect of duty, promptly and fairly and impartially, to mediate the complaints and make policy changes, and we conduct community out reach. we were established pursuant to charter section 4.127, the occ has a staff of 35 employees. that includes administrative staff, trial attorneys, a
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policy analyst attorney, a medation and out reach attorney, and an information systems analyst. and a staff of 21 investigators. the occ has minimum staffing levels that are established in the charter of one investigator for every 150 sworn members. and only on the location for the occ staff is they could not have previously served as a uniform member of the san francisco police department. but they could have been a law enforcement officials from other agencies. the occ jurisdiction is to receive the complaints against the members of the san francisco police department for misconduct or neglect of duty. in addition, the occ will either investigate or mediate the complaint. if it sustains a complaint,
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that means if the occ finds that some wrong doing and a any electricityive duty. they will prosecute the case before the police commission if it is serious misconduct that means that it would, or it could bring more than ten days of discipline and also defend the chief's discipline in chief's hearing. and in addition, the occ makes policy recommendations. the occ conducts community out reach, pursuant to a community out reach strategic plan that we present annually to the san francisco police commission. and the goal of community out reach is to improve public and police understanding of the occ goals and accomplishments to develop our out reach develop and annual community out reach strategic plan we collaborate
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with the community groups and the san francisco police department. we target groups that are historically or statistically likely to have encounters with the police and we also target the groups in the out reach that are culturally isolated from the police. and we provide information about our services on our website and in written materials that we distribute throughout the city as well as to police stations and we conduct training. through our policy analyst attorney, in 2013, we had several goals one of them was to expand officer-involved shooting review, and another is to continue implementing language access in juvenile protocols including development of a training video, detecting and overcoming language barriers. that video is posted now on the