comment? >> yeah. >> all right. >> good evening, commissioners. and chief. >> and members of the police department. and i also want to first of all let me introduce myself to the members of the public that may not be aware, of me. and may want to also verify my background and my credentials. and i am andrea shorter and i have the pleasure of serving as the vice president of the commission on the status of women. where i have served under three mayors. first appointed by brown, and then now, lieutenant governor nusom and now the current mayor ed lee and i am the most veteran member of this commission. and i also want to echo what president loftus has said, and

testifying to not only the expertise and the dedication of the women that were mentioned but they are not just local leaders and expertise, we have national model problems here and so what we are discussing today, and in terms of what types of policies, and what types of practices, that we want to have implemented in san francisco, and under the command and the direction of our chief, we know that it will not only have impact here locally, when we all work together, collaborativively as a community and we know that we have the great local impact and we also know that it has incredible impact beyond san francisco. so, that is something that we should all be mindful of. and very quickly, i just want to also make known that i

chaired the justice and courage oversight panel on domestic violence for the types of policy reforms, that we are discussing today, for the past 12 years, and just encouraged the panel has existed and focused on the san francisco response to the domestic violence, and i am also the former president of the (inaudible) and i have worked with cathy black, and that team. so, under this particular leadership that the mayor, of mayor lee and the police commission and chief suhr and as you all are aware by working together we were able to eliminate, the domestic violence, homicides for over three and a half years so that something that we can all take pride in and while sadly that record ended in january, and we want to thank the department for the work that it is doing to insure that these issues are attended to with regard to the

safety and care taking of children. and so, we certainly applaud the commission, and we applaud the department and certainly the community and advocates and other citizens that have come forward to speak to these issues thank you for this work and we look forward to continuing to work together to implement the best policies and best practices. >> thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. >> good evening, commissioners, chief, director, and my name is beverly upton and i am proud to be the director of the san francisco domestic violence and made up of 17 agencis that hold up san francisco safety net and create safety, justice, and leadership for domestic violence around the city. and beyond. >> this has been a lot of work.

and it has been an honor to be at the table and before i even dive into this 1k3 i know that i have two minutes, i have to say what an awesome jump start to domestic violence awareness month, this time last week, we were watching city hall glow purple and we had some of the best comments from the chief that i have ever heard and so i want to thank everybody that was present at that and i want to thank our new president of the commission, loftus for moving the start date so everybody could be there and it was a moment taous for us and so we appreciate it. we are going to hear more about another policy, in the next line item that i am so proud of, and i am so deeply moved, and honored that we got this policy, where it is. but, as for this current policy, that we are discussing now, i think that we can see that we have a lot in common. this is a big piece of policy.

but, you can tell from the presentation, from captain mcfaden who has been so great at all of this work. that and from what we have heard from the public, that there are still concerns around when and how to involve cps and sfc, and in domestic violence cases. and we are getting closer every time that we talk, we get closer, but i am seeing that there are communities that have not been at the table, and i will take some responsibility for that. and i did not look around, which is number one when you are community organizing to see who should be at the table i didn't look around to say, wow it was you at the table i was just so glad to see domestic violence at the table and so i think that we are hearing the concerns and there is some distrust some of the information that we brought to this discussion was a 25 person

focus group of african american women survivors of domestic violence in and the main number one reason that they would be hesitant to call the police in a domestic violence was cps involvement and so, i am concerned about the chilling effect and we are in this with you all, for the long haul, and if it takes going back to the table, to think about g, again, and around cps involvement, fcs involvement, and we stand with you, and we stand ready to continue those conversations. other than that i think that this policy is the step to ward. >> thank you. >> could i ask miss upton a question, is it worth, section g is it worth it? is it worth it and take a look at review in six months? >> oh, i think that it is definitely worth taking a view and absolutely. >> not opposed. >> no i am not opposed but commissioner turman i would say that we could get out ahead of

the concerns by having some additional conversation now. >> okay. >> am i opposed? >> no. >> is there something better, yes i think that there. >> and you are just saying, let's just keep talking. >> i would and i have to say just to include the voices that we are starting to hear from. >> okay, thank you. >> thank you so much. >> good evening, commissioners, and the police chief and director, my name is nodio, umeso and i am the program co-director of community united against violence and i want to thank you all as beverly said for the hard work that you have put into this policy. and it is really exciting to see the general order get updated. and to be more in-line with where we are today unfortunately, and as a member of the dvc and as a representative of primarily low

to know income, black and latino and lgbt domestic violence survivors we have concern with the policy as it is written and we would like to state our opposition. again, it has to do with the family and children services section, section g, particularly with the subpoint 6 and 7, and i think that for us, we see and so we work with the lgbtq domestic violence survivor and this is an issue for us on two sides. and on the one side, we see that the over representation in more recent statistics of african american youth and foster care systems and we know that from the youth and adults that we have worked with, particularly lgbtq youth have a really difficult time finding permanent placement and experience a lot of discrimination and especially transphobia in the systems and it is very difficult, for a young person to discover and to assert their gender identity

and change their name, often when they are in foster care and involved in these kinds of systems, on that side we see that issue, and then, to speak to the chilling effect and many of the survivors that we see also have previous experience being engaged in the foster care system and having some kind of involvement, and so that hopefully will create a chilling effect. and that is compounded by the i think that as the people have spoken to, the lack of trust and especially the experiences of transphobia and the people not respecting the gender pronouns and not just on the dow meft he can violence calls, but in general with the police, it is something that we can continue to receive the reports around. >> and i also, appreciated commissioner wong your questions about impairment and the interference and some of the things that are written here, and while i heard captain mcfaden's clarification, i don't actually see some of those things written down and i think that with newer recruit its could be confusing.

and what that actually means, i think especially, when we are looking at a parent or a care giver's impairment by drugs or alcohol, and i think that we see a lot of folks with cognitive disabilities who in these kinds of high stress situations may exhibit, slured speech and feeling confuse and that may seem like drug impairment, but are actually an expression of their cognitive disability or mental health issue. >> thank you for being here. >> good evening, chief suhr and commissioners my name is cathy baxter and i am the director of the child abuse council and i have been there for 38 years, and i wish that i was making that kind of money, because i am retired in december with no pension. and having worked in a non-profit for 38 years that

was enlightning. and i would just like to. >> the people know that. >> but there is a lot of public agency people that don't know that. but i want to say that i feel really proud to be here on domestic violence month and i work closely and i am the director of the council and we are here to support this and child abuse prevention center is here to support this also but i am the chair of family violence and that means that i represent the child abuse piece, and beverly upton represents the piece and shanna with the elder abuse and i wish that we could talk about family violence so that the bumper stickers say family violence if someone is going to apply for the police department and they have a domestic abuse charge they should not apply, and have a child abuse charge and you should not apply either. or an elder abuse. and so i am here basically, because for 38 years, we have worked on a child abuse

reporting loss and i brought copies for all of you and to me the issue is not trust with a child welfare system, that comes, and you are going to have to work on that and i am here because i believe that the police department has to be clear with the first responders, and on what they do when they get into a home and there is domestic violence near the children and the child welfare now sees the exposure to the domestic violence as child abuse and, we are getting reports every day, of the hot line, and i think that john would agree that many of the referrals come when you ask the question about the domestic violence you get a positive response. and so they are going out on these and they are dealing with this and but the police department has not been involved in these conversations and there has not been a clear mou, between the family and children, and the police department. and i think that that was one of the recommendations that one of the youth commissioners said, i know that the head of family and children has a mandate to develop an mou with your department and if the

department also to work on an mou back with her. this general order to me just gives the clear guidelines to the black and whites when they arrive at home and what they will do and rather than leaving it vague and i think that is what we have done and i don't think that we do any service to the children when we leave the things vague and i want to say that i have learned a lot from the domestic violence community on how to work with the public partner and how to build the community and how to change the social policy and i think that the child abuse and the elder abuse and the rest of us have a lot of work to do together and i think that we are all in this together and that is why we are here and so we support this. and it would be better? we can work on it, but that i think it needs to pass because we need to give the clear direction. >> thanks so much. >> thanks, cathy. >> my name is cathy black.

and hi. nice to see you tonight. thank you, chief suhr and president and commissioners. and so i am, and cathy baxter is a tough act to follow, and i am really agree with so much of what she said, and i think that this is a relevant le important step that we take here and this has been on the table for a long time and there has been a lot of collaboration and could it be more perfect? probably, when we get on there and it is in use, will we maybe see the places that it could be tweaked a little bit, that is possible. i don't know, we will know when it goes through. and so i am very much in support, of the policy being accepted as updated. and i want to say, i also agree, that for me, this is really about providing first responders with protocols so that they know what to do when they get to a crime seen, especially with a lot of

officers and our relationship with the police department and we have watched the senior officers go and i also see in my own office, a senior, inspector come with a junior, inspector, and it is really encouraging to see that kind of transfer of knowledge and information, and the care that they are taking with the victims. and i know that my organization's relationship with child welfare, could be different. and i think that that is the next thing that comes here, and so tonight tha, is not what i am, and you know, yes, there is, and yes, it is involved here, but i think that it is really about providing a tool, for officers when they go out. and i wanted to give a couple of stats too that i thought that were interesting. they see the kids involved and plus, 36 of 169 children that were sheltered at the shelter

and the agency wide, 27 percent of the children, are cps involved and that is at the time of intact and that is not after they have been with us, that it when they come in the door and so we are working with the families now who are involved in child welfare and another really remarkable thing that i saw was that 64 of the families referred to the shelter last year were direct referrals from first responders and i think that is a real success and so thank you for your incredible work and captain, and rachel for an unbelievable job and all of the member of the communities who participated. talk about a hard act to

follow, i have had the privilege to speak before you a few times about language access issues and i appreciate the opportunity to do so, and i am an attorney at asian pacific islander out reach and i want to say a few quick things and you know, first of all i wanted and i definitely want to thank, captain and rachel for allowing us to really have a spirited discussion about this. and really being open to hearing not only our concerns and criticisms but also, recognizing that these concerns and criticisms came from a very, very good place. and came from an understanding of our work directly with the survivors and the children and the work that we do with the families. and i understand that it is domestic violence awareness month and we want to make a strong statement about this and we should and absolutely, and i believe that the chief made a very, very good statement, actually last week, i appreciated your speech. but, that does not mean that we have to rush into things

without taking a little bit more care. and this policy, was going forward, before provision g was introduced into it, and provision g was introduced into it after and it was connected to the member involved in the domestic violence policy even though there does not need to be a connection between twot and so it is not as if this policy nothing was happening, before, item g came in and, it was there and a lot of the changes that were being made which are great changes were there even without the paragraph g and the other thing that i would just say, is that i think that there has to be more of a recognition from family and children services, about the true nature of this distrust, and i really appreciate what you said and i really appreciate all of the information that you provided, but i don't think that i could repeat a single word of what you said to one of my clients and have them understand it. my clients don't understand the structured decision make and they don't understand the differential analysis and they don't understand that there is

three types of processes that might happen when cps is called. the only thing that they know is that someone is looking at them in how they raised their kids. and these are clients even who don't speak english as the first language and may not have legal status and a host of other issues and cps and the family and children services was at the table for the discussions and i appreciated that and i appreciated silvia coming but there is almost like a tone deafness to this idea, that there is a distrust and if you look at this sheet and you can even see, how is somebody supposed to know what a protracted loss of impairment of any organ, or disfigment is? this is the information sheet that a parent is supposed to get when cps is called. and that i think there has to be some recognition that we have to do more work on that. and before we can implement the policy. >> thank you.

>> >> and i think that i know every single person in the room. >> >> paul henderson and the mayor's office and i want to thank the commissioners and i want to thank the chief and everyone and encourage your supportive vote, for calling this to a vote today. and to establish a policy and i think that it is really important a lot of people have been working on this for a very long time and i think that is absolutely, crucial. and that well over a year, and i think that it is important that we have established and

are establishing a clearer policy, i want to thank you for your work. >> and right in time. >> any further public comment on this item. >> hearing none, and we will go into the discussion and the questions from the colleagues,vy been working on this for some time, for years, and also for years, and i feel like this has not been rushed, the concerns about inserting the portion g, were actually that was about eleven months ago if i am right and we were set to vote on it, but, i actually worked with president mazzucco to slow it down and chief and say that we actually this is a change, and we do have the experts in the various fields from the child abuse to the domestic violence and we need to get around the table and look at the evidence and

work with occ and get to a good policy, and so, i want to say that i think that we are there, and i am supportive of this policy, and i want to be clear that one of the things that was asked by the advocates and i think that i actually think that i recall the last advocate who came up, and suggested specifically that we provided a draft response to the families to your exact point that the families are not going to understand what is going to happen and there needs to be notification and i want to emphasize that is a draft and if we will welcome the continued and i certainly think that it is important that anything that is provided to a family in distress is provided in a way that is understood. and so, we can continue to work on that and make sure that it is or does the job which is to inform the folks. so i just want to open it up to my colleagues, but make it clear that the provision was the provision that has been the subject of a small amount of

discussion here tonight, or a fair amount of discussion, and was narrowed, to include those factors. and with consultation with many of the folks who came and are in support of the policy. and so happy to talk about questions, and thoughts? but i want to give the context for the folks who know that i have been working on this for a number of years. >> okay. >> and commissioner dejesus? >> so, i just want to thank everybody and it has been exciting and it is leadership again from the community and the police department, and from the commission, and so what i say is i want to thank everybody and this is hard work and i think that g is an issue, that it should be looked at in six months to see what the stats are and i think that the lgbtq community if they are not at the table they should be at the table as well as the last woman who spoke and to put

their comments in and see if it needs to be tweaked but i also agree that when we are giving the information out to the public that it should be in plain english and it should be simpler and it sounds like the comments taken and brought here tonight should be taken and maybe looked at and the hand out should be looked at to make it plain and simple so that the people can understand it in the layman's terms and i think that this is a great policy, and i think that it is very detailed, and hopefully it is going to give a lot of guidance to the first responders on the street. and i think that the cps discussion is really important, and it should continue. and perhaps, you know, in six months, when we get some stats in, and when you get, and you get back to the table, if it needs to be tweaked we should tweak and i want to commend you for your hard work and i think that it is an excellent policy and a good way to go to start. >> thank you. >> commissioner melara?

>> i was and i am, and i have so much to say about this. and i have been around this issue in and out of the issue of domestic violence for over 40 years. one of reasons that (inaudible) was established was that we knew that women when they got in trouble they went home to mom and two because we knew that the women with children had no place to go. and and children that i experienced, that seemed like domestic violence and i am talking about the trauma inflicted on these children, was painful, and many of you, have hurt me, for several months, or actually for years now, and since i have been at a rally asking why is it that when we talk about the domestic violence that we are not speaking about the kids?

and i am really concerned that we are here talking about the pain that everybody experiences, but we forget that we are talking about what, we are doing here is about the kids. and that does not mean, that considering my history that i am, you know, that i am in the insensitive about what the women have to go through because they are going to be afraid to let their children you know, potentially be taken away from them. and i was a child welfare worker. and i know why there is such a bad reputation for child welfare. or, cps. and but i also know that the new protocols. and i know that i think that there is a reason to say, that we need to insure the children have advocates.

and having said that, this, document that we have got, and your child and family, and your child and family, and children services. and about what the parents i assume are going to get, and i do agree that we need to make it more people friendly. but, at the same time, there is something that caught my attention, at the end. and there was all of the top line is here and the comprehensive child crisis services here, and other services are here. but there are no advocates. and i am thinking, if a person is afraid, of what child protective services could do then we should have in this, and in this list, somewhere like casa that works, 24, and has the 24 hour service provision, and that there could be at the same time, we are

faxing a form or calling a cps. and that lacasa could be present advocate coulding present to help the parent who is afraid of what is going to happen to them. in cps. and navigate the system. >> so, what i liked to propose, is that in addition to supporting this policy, that there would be an advocate with that woman, with that parent, to help her navigate the system. i am sorry. >> the hand out or in the policy. >> in the hand out. not the policy. but in the hand out, yes? please? >> captain mcfaden? >> two points, that is the card after the fact and lacasa has agreed to join us on as a referral. and they just had not gotten back to us in time for this

meeting but we have talked to cathy black and they are going to be. >> so i was reading... >> you were future in your observations and they have agreed to be on t >> all right. and so that is my you know, because i think that that is where the fear is. and if somebody has someone to lead them through the system, i think that it would be a much better marriage. >> absolutely agreed. >> thank you. >> commissioner wong? >> i am a little bit torn but i want to share how i am kind of thinking about this in reading this over, before the meeting and doing a little bit of research on the child abuse and neglect reporting act which is found in penal code section 11464, and following and i think that the way that i am thinking about this is this proposal does not create any new duties upon the officers to report to cps, in fact what it

does is it limits the abilities or provide more clarity to the officers in the reporting to cps, to cases involving factors of lethality and i think that is a wise way to limit it and i think that for the folks and i understand the concern from the community, that the messaging that may go out is that this is creating a new situation under which a police officer is going to call cps and create that effect, but, i think under, again, sort of the child abuse neglect and reporting act, officers are mandatory reporters, and they must call the police and they must call cps according to this law that i looked at whenever there is a reasonable suspicious of neglect and that is pretty general and ambiguous language and i think that the intent of this new general order is to give the clarity to the officers. and some very clear steps out in the field, as to under what circumstances the situations that they should contact cps and in fa