and a half that we started this changing of the department general order, for the domestic violence, 6.09, and it was decided along the way in working with the advocate groups, especially beverly up ton that we will separate out the general order and make the officer-involved general order and which we have, we looked at our general order, which is 6.09 and we went back with our community groups and for everyone's input and this has been going on for a year and a half and beverly is great at working with us and we came up with something that we believe is ready to go forward and maria in is looking at it just to curtail any concerns that we might have. we actually met this morning, also, and regarding the units, and also a concern of this board before you that we also wanted to address in the future time, we do believe that it is solid and we did add a lot of

language, concerning the children and the concern of incarcerated parents as it is comparable to the domestic violence, incidents and we are there for prelty much ready and once marian does the final tweaking on it we are ready to go forward. >> miss upton you can come forward and give us your update. >> sure. >> good evening, commissioners good evening, chief. this has been a long journey and we are still on it. and as captain mcfaden mentioned that we started about a year and a half ago, working on an officer involved policy that we hope will finalize soon, with the department and bring that to the commission, as well. but, when we went back to the regular dgo, on the domestic violence, we realized that there were some unanswered issues, and some concerns from the department about the ininvolvement of the child

protective services and the domestic violence cases and so we just like the department, we in the community, are trying to put in the barrier of the cps has on the public's willingness to come forward on the domestic violence and we have several studies that show that early involvement of the child protective services can be a barrier and one of the reasons that battered mothers will not call the police and so we entered a very respectful discussion with the city attorney's office, from both the police department, and hsa, the community, and i want to thank, everybody who has been at the table, this policy has come a long way. a long way. and so i want to thank everybody that was worked on it and there is still a few issues that i think that we can hammer out before it comes before you for a vote and i think that some of those you will probably hear from occ, but i can tell you that some of the concerns that we still have in the

community, are just what captain mcfaden mentioned more communication, with the victims and their families, and ongoing relationship with the police department. and that is also, very, very important, in case the case does not move forward. and you have survivor and their families out in the community, that are not sure. and so, there is always been a gray area, we think between the police department and the district attorney office but this is an opportunity to really codify how the police department can stay in touch with these families because as we all know there is rarely one incident of domestic violence and so we want to make sure that that relationship is strengthened and nurtured and so we think that we would like to work with the department a little bit more on that and also when a case is dropped, we have brought a couple of times, to the commission, and certainly, we have spoken to sfpd, about perhaps, survivors, being arrested, in defensive

situations. or, perhaps a mistake. just a mistake was made. we want to make sure that a accept mri mental report is filed as soon as possible to close the case. so the, for example, if a survivor was arrested, that he or she could start receiving services right away from victim services in the district attorney office. right now, if the case does not move forward, there is a long gray area. and, we found out today, by meeting this morning with the captain and our new captain, gracy that the supplemental may actually being filed and put in the file, in a timely manner. but we have to make sure that there is enough communication, where everybody knows that, that the survivor knows it and that the family knows it and that the district attorney knows it, and so we can get that expunged and we can get them services as soon as possible and so you can

imagine, nobody wants the wrong person to be arrested but it does happen and we want to make sure that that is taken care of as soon as possible. and i would say that the other issue that we are still working on, which we have another that are addressing it, that would be the timely, taking, and the mrils rments being taken for lep survivor and that is of every crime but certainly in the community, that we are representing, we are here, for a survivors of domestic violence in sexual assault, when they come into a police station, we have great policies, available. language, line, bilingual officers, you know? and so we want to make sure that that is presented for the survivor right-of-way. so they are not waiting at the station, thinking that their report is not important. all of that being said, the cps, child protective service, involvement piece of this has come light years, and i want to thank everybody that was so

open, to hearing what may be a barrier that on the face of things looks like good policy, and so, i think that we are very, very close, and i79 to thank the samara and the occ, and the captain, and rachel and the attorneys for both of these documents and kandel from the department on the status of women and certainly the community that remiepds us that we speak 100 languages and we have a lot of work to do but we are doing it. and i also want to join with the chief to say that we have suffered another domestic homicide and we will be together and holding our breath to find out what the out come will be. >> thank you. >> captain, so, mismarian, is that where the dgo is currently? >> correct.

>> and when is it to come to us and when is it schedule for review and vote? >> well. >> it is not currently schedule. it is just wherever, we took as long as we took, so that we don't want to put the time on miss marian so maybe director hicks could offer that one. >> miss marian received or our office received the draft while she was on a well deserved vacation. with the department of the community but we are close.

>> i wanted to sort of hear a little history, and i mean was this the order in place? and you were looking at a revision, or you are revising something that was revised, i was not sure. and i am just,... >> you know, my colleagues in the department may know that answer. more than i do, we were working on the officer involved, and in december, of 2013, came to the table that there needed to be some and the conversation started there and so, any previous policies we were not

and i was not involved in and so i am not quite sure but i will say that when we first came to the table there was a, and the folks were considering making a call at every call before even the investigation was happening. and so, that was a very early start, in place. we did not stay there for very long and of course, you can imagine and you have had a career in trying to balance these family issues. but, we were quite concerned, because in a small community, it may only take one call to cps, that could put or have a chilling effect on an entire community, and being willing to call the police. and a lot of women would rather stay in danger themselves than be afraid of having cps involvement. and so, in a community so rich with community-based services, rally and supervisor visitation and all of the centers in the bay view and we just think that

there is a lot of opportunity and a long way to go before we have to make that call and so we just came to the table and we were totally listened to and we hammered out something that i think is close. >> i don't know about this recent homicide, were there children involved? >> commissioner, i don't have that information, my information is that there is just a couple. >> thank you. >> commissioner hwang? >> thank you. >> and one general question, it seems like the revision of the general order is going forward with the occ review but then how about the officer involved piece, is that still being crafted by the department? >> that is on a parallel track, but it is also very close. >> and one, sort of suggestion, that if there is a supplemental report that being filed where it clears the survivor, could we make a direct referral to police legal to calendar the

finding of innocence, and maybe it will be a police legal triggered to do the actual funding. >> just for a quick explanation on that, is when any case is done, across the board, investigations for the san francisco pd, and the case closure has to be made to close that case out after it has gone to the district attorney, in case wheres it might be the victim who was falsely arrested, that that we would then go forward and help the victim to get that expunge and allow them to get that record expunged if that is what is necessary. >> there were no children involved in that, and it occurred in my district and it was my first and hopefully my last and with the intervention

program that we want to put in to place, what miss upton was talking about was in the general order is for the officers responding to the first responders but we are talking about is after the fact and after the investigations are done, and it is how the investigators keep in contact with the victim and let them know what happened with the case and whether they were arrested as a suspect and it became later know that they were victims and that the inspector's job would then be to contact the victim and let them know what happened with the case. >> i don't mean to interrupt you. >> and that is something that we were going to address in the future, with the unit order and that is already in progress and we talked about it today and a very simple fix to that and it is separate from our general order. >> okay. >> i just want to follow up and commissioner hwang, does the district attorney has something called the wrong person arrested and set in motion the expunging? >> and the survivor whose have

immigration issues and it is important to get the arrest off the record and you don't want it to show up and the only way to do that is through the funding. >> the wrong person arrested to help them move forward. >> for the expungement they have to get before a judge and have to go and schedule a hearing date to go forward and we will provide at the special victim's unit any reports and documentation that they need, and they can simply get it at svu. >> anything further? >> marshall. >> this is a comment, more to the public. at times to seems to take a while to get these things done, but generally what we have seen because they have gone through this vetting process, with all of the parties, and when we get them, they seem to be pretty airtight, so be patient. and all of the bugs have been worked out and agreed upon and that will be the language

access or any of these general orders, and so we will get it and it will be good i am pretty sure. >> thank you. >> any public comment, regarding this department general order? and it is not really before us tonight. >> an update. >> good evening. >> good evening, commissioners my name is mimish, and i am the director for the department on the status of women and i want to echo the thanks to the captain and sergeant for involving the community and the department and being able to give the feedback on this policy. i agree that there are important changes on the piece of when to refer to the child protective service and one piece that we think is important is that the parents should understand in which circumstances there is going to be a referral to the child protective service sos that they can understand the consequences and so it is really important that the criteria that are laid out are very clear, both for the officers who are going to be

following this policy and for the parents or the guardians who are affected and in the current version of the draft, there is still a criteria that refers to criminal threats defined by the california penal code and while the police officers know what that means, i don't think that the average parent will understand what is covered by that and so our suggestion is to spell that out a little bit more to explain, the threats of the great bodily injury. and other than that, we are very grateful that a lot of the feedback that we gave was incorporated into the policy and, we think that it is a lot stronger now, in preventing unintended consequences of people being afraid to contact police for help,, if they knew that there would be an automatic referral to the child protective services >> thank you. >> one last thing, that you may want to know about it, and

especially commissioner, melara, there is a referral card that we are going to put together with the packet that the officers have to hand for our victims when we go to a scene, explaining exactly what is happening as far as the cps referral, and i have given that card, that referral card that we are looking at to the occ, to marian and to the community advocates in this. and so it is self-explanatory, and a card that you will see. okay? and upon completing of the order. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> hearing no public, or further public comment, call the next line item. >> line item 4, approval of the awards and committee recommendations, action. >> okay. >> commissioners in your packet, is a list of the recommended awards from the medal of valor meeting that we had at the hall of justice and i spoke about it in the last commission meeting and we met on july, 14th and i was the commissioner that was comment,

and chief suhr presided over the day long event of making the selections and so what you have in the packet is the officers who have been nominated for in the silver medal of valor and the bronze and there are various awards, and the police commission commendations and life saving awards and i was present for the presentation of each and every one of these incidents. where in, there was discussion, and questions asked by the most senior members of the command staff and the police department, and it is an unusually large number of awards, you will see a large number of gold medals of valor that we do not give often, i can say that the crash of the aircraft and these incredible officers that decided that it was their duty to run so to the burning aircraft while the firefighters were suiting up and we have the silver medal of valor for the officers that

were involved in the life threating situation and so all of these have been provided to the occ to insure that they have been properly vetted and none of these officers have any charges that are pending or under investigation and all of this has been cleared and vetted and if you have any questions for me and the chief regarding these, feel free to ask. >> so you answered my question, thank you. >> very much. and i still think that and this looks great, a lot of people here and i assume that it is from the rescue, and the other. >> yeah, the lion's share, that there were 19. 19 of those medals went to the folks that their actions in the asiana plane crash. >> thank you for that and i am sure that they are well deserved and i look forward to hearing and we should really start talking about a policy and you said that there is no one with the charges pending but we don't have a policy set in place and maybe we should talk about it as a commission or set the committee together

whether we want a policy in place on that issue or not. but you did address my question and i think that this is great. and you got to talk about a policy going forward and you can talk about setting up a committee on that. >> commissioners any questions regarding the nominations? >> commissioner hwang? >> could you let me know how do the folks get nominated for these types of award. >> it is an incredible process. >> and so an event happens and the captain or a commanding officer, prepares, a recommendation and it comes through the chain of command and it has to be approved to get to the chief and if i believe that it is deserving of consideration, we send it to a committee of three captains. that change each time that there are those and so there will be a new three that will do the next round and the three captains that all of the

submissions and some of them are for, and some of them don't and they believe that are captain accommodation and in fact, in many of these there were more involved involved than the ones that are receiving medals. and they will be reduced, some of them to a captain's accommodation, which is still, a notation of somebody doing something well. i signed four or five of those a day for great work that are done around the department but it does not cross the threshold to be considered for a medal of valor there has to be personal jeopardy involved, unless it is a life saving medal. there are other categories. we just had a submission of that nature for a cash of firearms that were ceased. these captains make recommendations and they put the people in and then it goes to the full medal of valor committee which are all civil service captain and above and then there is a voting and we

do, quite a bit of sausage making ourself and separating people out like, some that we deserve were deserving of gold and some silver, and there is quite a heated conversation in after it is all settled there is a vote. and you have to get two-thirds of the assembled civil service captains above to carry the day for the medal. if you don't receive a two-thirds vote it keeps going down to the medal until there is a two-thirds majority and then that is the medal that you get. so, it is very, very fair, in that not any one captain can sway anybody one way or the other. and gold medals are very rare this is as many and i have been on the committee since 1997 and i will tell you that is as many gold medals i have ever seen especially in one incident. >> and i think that it deserves and i voted the gold medal

myself. >> i add that the department is the second oldest in the country. they have a great tradition and i think that it should be your turn to go to this as a commissioner and the tradition in how formal this is to be in that room that the chief demands that every member of the staff and the captain and above be there on time and be in the address uniform and it is very formal and when the presentation is made, regarding the incident, for example, the aircraft and the captain made the presentation, those officers have been nominated are brought forward in the dress uniforms and the presentation is made by the captain. and there are requested by the captain and there are questions, by the captains in there for example, if it is an incident involving gunfire, how far were you aware from there and where were you, and did you fire back. and i mean that it was very, very thorough and first of all it is overwhelming to see the heroism of these officers and these men and women and then, the questions that are asked, the chief is right, it was, it

is not an easy thing and i mean that they asked the very serious questions and in the officers responded to the questions, and then there is a vote and the part that left the chief left off was just amazing and it is a secret ballot and it is a wooden box and there is colored marbles for the gold medal and silver and bronze and commendations and the police commission and then that box is passed around by inspector monroe and the captains and they reach in and take one marble and put it in on the other side and then the commissioner, and inspector monroe and i count the marbles i tell you when the officers do get a gold medal of valor it is one of the most impressive things that i have seen and those officers are called in, and they get a standing ovation from the command staff and the police department and there is a reception line and it is just, it is really awesome. and so, there is a lot of effort that goes into this. and there is a lot of debate.

and again, it is amazing, some of these things that these officers did and i said this last time, they always ask, do you have anything like that, no we are just doing our job and they are all there because they did something above and beyond the call of duty, but none of them seem to recognize that and it was just pretty amazing. >> and i might add, commissioner hwang, when i first got on the commission, we did not televise the ceremony and they said that it needs to be seen. and we thought, you know, with all that they have done at this time, this should be televised and so when we do the ceremony now, it is televised and oh, the commission, and it is great. >> it is great, and the chief apologized that it took a whole day, and i told him that this was so rewarding it was the best way to spend the day. >> so commissioners if there are any questions or comments, regarding the particular awards or we have to call for the public comment before i have a

motion, any public comment regarding these awards? >> hearing none, do i have a motion? >> so moved. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> passed. thank you. >> police call the next line item. 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. >> any public comment for confidential litigation matters >> hearing none, closed. >> next item. >> 6, vote on whether to hold item 7 in closed session, action >> is there a motion. >> so moved. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> thank you, we are going to move to the closed session.

>> could we vote wherever to disclose. >> i move to not disclose. >> item nine. >> adjournment. >> could i have a motion. >> so moved. >> thank you very much. >> we are done. >>

>> thank you for gathering here today for this wonderful event. looks like the rain is going to hold off hopefully prayerfully. i am robert cowan and a pastor and we're here and we are blessed to ha