enthusiasts -- all are welcome. enjoy all types of music. latins also, country and western. it is a great way to exercise while having lots of fun. seniors learn basic moves and practice a variety of routines. improve your posture, balance, and flexibility. it is easy. get up on your feet and step to the beat. senior dance class is from sf rec and park. a great way to get out and play. >> for more information, >> ladies and gentlemen and the chair has called the meeting to

order. could you all rise for the pledge of allegiance? madam president, may i call roll? >> you may, please. >> president loftus? >> here. >> vice president turman? en route. >> commissioner marshal, excused. commissioner mazzucco? >> present. >> commissioner dejesus excused. >> commissioner wong? >> present. >> commissioner melara.

>> present. >> madam president you have a quorum. >> welcome to the september, 24th, community meeting, in the central station in a very special place, we are as we all know, at gordon lou elementary school and i see a lot of faces in the audience that i suspect are students. is that right? >> yes, so this is a beautiful audience that we have with incredible food and lots of energy. welcome to what is the greatest joy for myself and my fellow commissioners which is a chance to come out to the community, talk about the issues, that are effecting the police department, the issues that are effecting the neighborhood and this is what we love to do. so thank you for hosting us here. and i would like to start off with thanking a very special

principal that you all have dr. dennis chiu, where are you? thank you so much sir. >> and a little bird told me that your former sfpd also, possibly stationed here at central station for some years. former life, okay. and i just want to tell the students a little fact, your vice principal, diane lou ye, she was my daughter's second grade teacher, how lucky is my daughter, she is so funny and she is a good vice principal and so you are in good hands and i would like to thank the third grade class, you put a lot of care into welcoming us, we do things differently at these community meetings which is we take a moment to share with all of you how we are and how we got here and what our day job is, we normally meet at

city hall, but when we come to the community meetings we want you to know what our background is. >> commissioner wong? >> good evening, i am very excited to be out here, i have been doing a lot with the captain since joining the police commission i know that you have one of the best captains in the district. in my day job i work as the deputy director of asian pacific islander out reach, we are a 39-year-old non-profit that provides free and services for people of domestic violence and we have a youth program and i will say a few words for those who understand, mandarine.

>> i am commissioner tom mazzucco, and as president loftus told you this is the favorite thing to do and thank you, for the lives here as a police officer here in central station and now doing, and it is really good. in my prior life i was an assistant district attorney here in san francisco for ten years. and followed by nine years as an assistant united states attorney on the organized crime task force and now in the private practice, the law firm, and i have been on the commission now for six years and quite a while. and it is just a pleasure to be here, the captain is a great captain and he is hard working and central station holds a special place in my heart and that is where my father spent the bulk of his career, working at central station and more importantly, when you guys said the pledge of allegiance tonight that was awesome.

>> vice president turman? >> good evening and i apologize for being late. i am the vice president of the police commission and i have been on the commission about three and a half years now. i when i am not on the police commission, i am a partner in the law firm of reid smith, where i have the labor and employment practice and i am glad to be here tonight. >> thank you. >> hello, my name is sonia melara and i work at saint francis memorial hospital in the district and the visitation services and i am also on the faculty of san francisco state university, school of social work. and prior to being in a commission i just joined the commission not too long ago and just prior to being on the commission i was on the health commission.

thank you. >> and lastly my name is susie loftus and i am a native san franciscan and many of my colleagues are also and i am raising my daughters at a san francisco unified public school, and i am a former prosecutor and i work for california in the division of law enforcement and so all of you kids and community members know that these are voluntary positions we want to get involved in public safety issues and so we are really community members like you who choose to spend our wednesday evening and thank you for sharing your about ourselves, i want to let you know that we are going to do public comment differently and we will do it after the presentation and so we will have a chance to hear

from everyone and i want to note that we have allen from the patrol specials, if you could say hello. by way of introduction. there you go. >> i think that we have the parole special officers here who help in the neighborhood and so thank you for being here. we are fortunate that we are going to have jane kim here to visit so when she does come in we will take a deviation from the agenda and give her a few moments to address us. so with all of that, sergeant, would you call the first item? >> president i would also like to add that also, with this evening is the chief of police gregory p. suhr and the director of citizen complaints joyce hicks welcome. >> line item one, approval of

the minutes, action, for the meetings of august 13, 27, september 3, and september 20, 2014. >> colleagues you have the minutes in the packets, are there any changes or discussion. >> i move for approval. >> second. >> all of those in favor. >> aye. >> sergeant call the next item. >> line item two a a. chief's report, review of recent activities. >> good evening, i am greg suhr and the chief of police and i have to tell you that i have been the chief for about three and a half years and i was ad many, many commission meetings and i think this is high water mark for young people at a police commission and maybe that explains why everybody is a little happier and there is a

lot more clapping. i actually started my career in the police department at central station i was assigned here from 1981 to 1984 and so for you kids that was in the olden days and yeah we had cars and we didn't have computers like we have now. and in my travels, before becoming chief, i did have a chance to spend a long time at mission station where i in the 90s, and i met this very, young and young looking young man who i believed was going to end up being a captain and the chief of police himself and he found his way to the rank of captain and he is now your captain and i agree with the commissioner, he is tireless of what he can get accomplished and i have to give a shout out to his family that is over there that seems to come to every single event. [ applause ]

>> and congratulations to his son who got the lead in sacred heart, and i will be attending because i am a show guy. >> i will be brief in my comments and i am going to defer the rest of my time to the captain, the city wide crime picture in san francisco is better this year when compared to last year i am happy to say that violent crime is down 26 percent, which is a very significant drop from last year. property crime is about flat over all, and what we call part one crimes. and down about 4 percent, so that is a good safety wide picture and we will graple with some of the issues that the captain will discuss that thankfully and not and would relate mostly to property crimes and he will have the tips to you as to how we can get a better handle on that while we try to get the people responsible for the prpt crimes, we have had a couple of unfortunate events and one of them occurred in the central

district on saturday. september 20th, a pedestrian was killed at stockton street at sacramento and it was a 78-year-old woman and she did not survive the injuries, the driver was at fault, she was in the sidewalk and the driver was arrested and charged with manslaughter and failure to yield for that lady in the crosswalk. again keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers. we have a homicide earlier in the month of september, out in the bay view district. and in the double rock neighborhood, and on monday an arrest was made, and that suspect has been taken into custody in this charge with the murder of latrel shaw. and so again, although we are doing well in san francisco when it comes to homicide numbers when compared to how it was in the mid 2000s, still any homicide is a genuine tragedy, and please keep mr. shaw's

family in your thoughts and prayers, but it is always good that the people responsible know that if you do gun violence in san francisco you are going to go to jail and i think that is why gun violence in san francisco is down and the gun seizures are up as we continue to focus on firearms. and we are doing a lot of community things and one of the things that will be this saturday, and we will and it will be a take back day where we work on taking back the prescription medications that are laying around, and would be better served just not to have in the household that will be a bin at central station and it is from ten a.m. to two p.m. and so, please, anybody watching or anybody here in the room if you have any prescription meds that the abuse of the prescriptions are epidemic and so anything this we can get off of the streets and out of the households before they fall into the young hands of kids and if you see anything, work with your parents and if there are pill

bottles around ask your parents if you can go to the central station and turn them in and we would appreciate it, and take back day at every district station in san francisco, from ten a.m. to two p.m. this saturday and i will conclude my report and defer the rest of my time to the good captain, thank you. >> 2 b, occ director's report, review of recent activities. >> good evening president loftus, and vice president turman and members of the police commission, dr. chiu. chief suhr and captain and the members of the central district police station community. and especially a good evening to you students here from the

school. and i am very happy to see you here, and was very happy to hear your voices behind me saying the pledge of allegiance. i am joyce hicks the director of the san francisco office of citizen complaints. in addition here, this evening from the office of citizen complaints is senior investigator dennis max um if you will give a wave. >> it is good to be here to talk to you about the functions of the office of citizen complaints we are also know as the occ. we are the third largest civilian oversight of law enforcement in the united states, and we are only surpassed in size by the new york office of civilian complaints, and the chicago office of independent review. the occ was created by a board

of supervisors sponsored charter amendment in 1982, and when it was adopted, and as a ballot measure and the office became operational in 1983. and that makes us 32 years old. and we were originally an office in the san francisco police department but later we were placed under the jurisdiction of the san francisco police commission, these commissioners right here. we are separate from the police department, and we are civilians. the function of the office of citizen complaints is to assist the police department in building trust with the community by being a bridge between the public and the police department in matters of police conduct and police policy. we have a mission to insure police accountabilities by conducting timely and fair and

unbias investigations and making recommendations. and here in california, law enforcement agencies must have a procedure for civilians to file complaints. against members of law enforcement. and here in san francisco, the occ serves that purpose. and the staff of the office of citizen complaints is a diverse group of civilians who have never served as san francisco police officers, although some of the investigators on the occ staff have served for other or in other law enforcement agencies, such as the california highway patrol. and the majority of our staff of 35, are investigators, and although we also have attorneys and support staff on the occ

staff. so what do we do? we conduct investigations to find out what happened. we obtain evidence, and we do that by interviewing the person who brought the complaint, the involved police officers, and also civilian witnesses. we have subpoena power to compel testimony and obtain the evidence. we get additional evidence from the police department and in the form of police reports, and other documents that are generated by the department. and the investigators visit the site of the alleged occurrence and they can gather the evidence through photographs and interviewing witnesses and in addition, evidence from video cameras, we have a goal to complete the investigations within nine months, and by

california law, with limited exceptions we must complete those investigations within a year. once we complete our investigation, we make a finding, we draw a conclusion of whether the officer who was complained about violated any police department rules or local state or federal laws. our standard of proof of the preponderance of the evidence it means that the probability that the complaint of act occurred is more likely than not, that is greater than 50 percent. if our office does find that there has been a violation of a policy, or a law, then we forward a report to chief suhr for further action. and he can impose, discipline up to ten days or suspension, and if the discipline is more serious than the matter is referred to the police

department for its determination. and in addition to conducting investigations, we strongly encourage complainants in cases of that are appropriate, to engage in medation, with the police officers, so that the complainant and the police officer can have a discussion and a dispute resolution format about the complainant complaint, the complainant point of view as well as the officer's point of view. last year the occ conducted 59 medations that is an 8 percent of those that we closed last year, and the goal is to bring the parties together to achieve mutual understanding. we have a partnership with the community boards and with the san francisco bar association to provide us with qualified

mediaters and we conduct them in languages other than english and we will obtain interpreter services if that is required, the program is not mandatory and it is voluntary, it means that the officer and the complainant must agree that that is the road that they would like to go down. officers generally participate in the mediation program if they are qualified to do so. last year 87 percent of eligible officers agreed to participate in the medation program. and our medation coordinator is an award winning individual, and her name is donna salazar, and as she has received awards from the association of dispute resolution of northern california and other organizations. now i am going to share just a few statistics with you from

last year. we received 227 complaints that is a 2 percent reduction in complaints that we received in 2012 when we received 740 xlaibt complaints. when i first started working here in 2007, we received over 1,000 complaints a year, and complaints have been declining against san francisco police officers, and that is a national trend. that is occurring. we found misconduct in about 6 percent of the cases we closed last year and we found the proper conduct in 25 percent of the allegations we investigated and we found that 2 percent of the allegations were unfounded or not true. the largest percentage of allegations we received were for neglect of duty that meant that the officer did not do something that he or she was supposed to do and followed by the conduct reflecting

discredit. and unnecessary force, and what, and comprised ten percent of our allegations. i will tell you just a little bit about the dem graphic complainants who filed last year. 28 percent were african american. caucasians were another 30 percent. 19 percent declined to state their race. asian americans were six person, and latinos 12 percent, native americans and pacific islanders, 3 percent and 2 percent other, the office of citizen complaints staff speaks several languages. two of our investigators are bilingual and that is important because a large number of non-english speakers, speaking complainants are spanish, and that is the largest number of

non-english interviews that we conduct. we do obtain interpretation services and the languages that our investigators do not speak. and last year, we did 25 case intakes in spanish, 3 in cantonese and two in mandarine and one from ethiopia and one in korean and one in russian. the office of citizen complaints is located on the 7th floor of 25 van ness avenue, the public transportation reaches us easily. we receive walk-in complaints during the week on non-holidays monday through friday between 8:00 and 5:00. and we also receive after hours complaints but the entering service.

we receive complaints by telephone and on-line if you go to the website, e-mail and mail and fax. additionally, you can file a complaint at your district police station, so, at the central police station, you could file a complaint. and if you would like more information about the office of citizen complaints, is earlier, introduced, senior investigator dennis maxum is here in the office, that concludes my remarks and thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. i want to commend the students from the elementary school who are hanging on every word, you guys, i don't know if you are writing a report or something, but i can tell that you are paying attention, good job. >> line item 2 c, commission reports, commission president's report, commissioners reports. >> the only thing that i have to mention is that i would like

to thank the latino police officers association for hosting a wonderful event this weekend, commissioner melaro was there and might want to share, it was a toy drive which is an opportunity for the officers, and the captain was there and keeping the focus that the chief has said on kids and doing a great job, and a moment to get together and do something for the community and i wanted to thank them. >> colleagues? >> i just want to thank the commander at the airport, about a month ago was flying back from a trip from new york, on a business trip and i got off of the plane i noticed that all of the american airline employees were standing at attention at our aircraft and i saw a naval honor guard there and one of our fallen soldiers were being removed, and which is powerful being a dad and coming back from new york and visiting a 9/11 exhibit and i noticed that we didn't have any presence with the police department and i spoke to the chief about it.

and i thought that it would be appropriate, and we did have a fallen hero come through sfo this week and the chief has put a protocol in place where the san francisco police department is there, and in an honor guard for those soldiers to be transported home and i want to thank the chief and the commander for putting that together and i know that you would appreciate that being a veteran and we owe it to the soldiers and i want to thank the police department for giving them dignifie, return to the country. >> thank you for bringing that to the department's attention. >> commissioner? >> last thursday i served as the commission's representative on the firearm discharge review board this is the group that looks at every time that a officer fires a gun, to see if he fired it in the discharge of his duty and i would say as someone who has done a lot of investigators as a da i was impressed with the level of

additional review and i have seen one piece of it, but to see the extra review done by the police department and it was very impressive that we spent a lot of time reviewing each of the cases and without going into the specifics there was a number of ter heroic acts, and i had the pleasure of attending president loftus's swearing in celebration, to commemorate her becoming president of the commission and i would just say, finally right before this commission hearing, earlier tonight, i attended a function, sponsored by the central city, and the tender loin, police station and there was several captains and commander was in attendance and it was a great, take back the park type of event where the police officers in the community were cooking and feeding the community it was a great event for kids and families. >> you have been busy, thank

you. >> we are not used to being slapped for. >> and yes, a couple of these have me talked about, and about a week and a half ago we were at the memorial mass, which was very special i wish that there were more police officers there, there was a lot of people, and there were more, i think, it was greatly attended, i thought and then the other thing that i wanted to share was that last week, i attended the california partnership, domestic violence, conference, and annual meeting where we discussed several pieces of legislation that we might want to introduce. and the issues of the domestic violence and i hope that as we progress, i will bring them to the department, and get your input on them, and see how they

may or may not effect the work that you do. >> call the next item. >> 2 d, commission announcements and scheduling of items identified for consideration at future commission meetings. action. >> but, colleagues, anything pressing here before we get to captain lazar and anything that we want to talk about that can't wait. no. we are all anxious for captain lazar but i have to say this first, call the next line item. >> line item three, captain david laza, commanding officer of central station to address the commission on police activities in the central district. [ applause ]