the city of san francisco sfgtv meeting of the san francisco rules committee occurring may 11, 2015, will begin shortly.

>> good morning and welcome to the rules committee, and of the san francisco board of supervisors and, my name is john avalos, and i am the chair of the committee and joined to my right by vice chair tang and to my

left by supervisor cohen and our clerk is lisa somera, and do we have announcements? >> please be sure to silence all cell phones and completed documents to be included in submitted to the clerk and items today will be on the may 19th board of supervisors >> item one, to consider appointing one member, term, ending april 30 >> and i want to thank you for your patient and for his patience as well in scheduling and i wanted to make sure that while we are in this moment, that where, there is an opening for reappointment, that we could actually, have a greater discussion about what it is that we want to

be able to have or what are the qualities and qualifications that we want to have in the police commissioner, board and i think that we need a little bit more time than we had to do that. and having said that, today, this item can get forwarded to the full board, as a committee report, so that the board can make the final approval tomorrow, and that will allow him to be pointed and sit in on the police commission meeting on wednesday and we want to be sure that we can move quickly having waited a week between scheduling and i want to thank you for your patience and mr. tur man as well. in why don't we invite, commissioner turman up? first of all i want to thank you for your service and if you want to, give us maybe a couple of minutes, and introduction, of you know, your work on

the commission, and what you want to be able to accomplish and moving forward as well. >> thank you very much, good morning, chair, avalos and good morning, supervisor cohen and tang, and i want to thank the rules committee for not only holding this special meeting but also i want to thank each of you for the attention that you gave to this matter, and especially during this time in which there are so many issues to consider. and national conversation going on about police community relations, and no one has a right to expect an appointment or a reappointment and i am glad that each of you has taken the careful time to not only hold this special meeting but to meet with me individually to talk about what we see policing like, over the next four years, should i be reappointed. over the last, four years, and i have worked with a dynamic and a smart police commission and one that cares very much about the

relationship between san francisco and its department, and it has been my pleasure to chair the committee that considered tazerand it has been my pleasure to work on revising many of this department general orders. and also to put into place, a complete schedule of how the police commissioner co-chaired a committee that worked to put in a complete schedule of how we consider each and every item throughout the year. and making sure that each of the mandates that flowed from both statute and the charter and other authorities, and though we timely considered those issues. and i have worked to increase the amount and the number of officers who have participated in both the language access and training. and along with the cit program. and i am pleased to work

with an active community and an active police commission that is retailed how we conduct disciplinary hearings and we are today, we have no backlog, of cases and we consider them on a timely basis, and we move them forward to decisions and the rather earnest and thoughtful, and ex-paoed ant matter to give them a fair hearing to the officers that come before us and i do say so myself, a fair out come to those proceedings, and i am particularly proud to be a board of supervisors appointing because it means that along with, and it means that i think that i have a greater responsibility to make sure that the community's voice is heard in many of the assets in the police commission and i will tell you that at this point junction i think that there are greater measures that we need to take to

make sure that the community, becomes a greater part of the kopted training, expanded training and also, the community relations around diversity and how we interact with the public within all of the districts of san francisco. and as a commissioner i take this role seriously, within my first two years, i was elected to be the vice president which is the position i hold currently, and i serve proudly, earnestly and it is my passion to be on the police commission and there is a lot that i would like to see us accomplish over the next four years and i would proudly be with six other commissioners who share that, and interest as well. >> great, thank you. >> and we appreciate your service, and we spoke last thursday, or friday.

and last week, and i was impressed and actually came into my office, with two big boxes of whatever it the work that you are and you want to share but to my information i could see that you have really taken an earnest your work on the commissioner and have been really strong in making sh you are that they can have access through you and the other members through the commission and that was important to me. and there have been you know around the country there has been a great deal of alarm around where we are at right now as a nation and in terms of community police relations especially with the african american community and i will extend that as well to the other communities and like the latino community and i know that in san francisco, isn't that the same level as places like baltimore and other places, but, i do feel that there is two things that go on, and there is one and there is a feeling that comes from what is happening at the national level that effects how the

people feel about the police here locally and as the things happen here locally will effect how it effects the people here in san francisco and i am very interested in having the community policing programs and having built and having be able to build trusting relationships between the community and the police and i feel that we have, some work to do here in san francisco, to help make that happen and i think that one is recognizing that there is an issue of a lack of connection between the community and police and especially the community groups that could benefit from a stronger relationship and a stronger understanding of the police officers about who they are. and i am curious what, and what you see as your role as a commissioner to help bridge that gap, which i don't think is a gulf, but i think that it is a gap and a disconnect, and what do you see as your role and what specific steps that you think that you can take as a commissioner to do that. >> well, the supervisor, and specifically i see

myself as a communication facilitater and bringing the groups together and i have worked already, with the african american faith community and the naacp and the other organizations and including the officers for justice, and i also will just appeal on the issues related around these types of issues to make sure that the conversation is ongoing between these organizations, and i believe that we need to elicit these voices because we need to have more community involvement around what they think the community policing is and what we can see from the officers within each of the many districts here in california. and so take the greater training and the greater diversity and sensitivity and implicit training is necessary because we need to understand how to talk to each other and how to relate to each other, and how we can work together to accomplish goals. and there are as, specifically within the

african american community, i am proud to say that the chief and the and the members of that african american community have just reached an agreement to reconfigure and to restart the african american community police relations, board, which i plan to be an active par participater in and i have asked to be by the commission and the president to sit on that organization, and so, i see myself, as someone who wants to keep the conversation going, and make sure that our officers are getting the resources they need and make sure that our community's voice and needs are being heard and outside of that, i think that there are both policies and training issue that the commission itself needs to take on. and i know that the mayor of course, last, and announced last week about, body cameras, and i think that it is an important step and it is not the only step and it will not solve the issues but the proper program, built around that and that particular step and plus,

other means of communication, and being able to facilitate those communication and i think they become important as a police commissioner and that is how i see my role. >> and so i, i don't know about as well, as you, but i hear a lot about how san francisco has a lot of stronger training, than other departments, in san francisco, and yet, there is a discussion about having additional training, could you amplify or expand on what you see as where the training needs are and how you can help? >> certainly, i think that most of our and most of the police training comes in the for the new recruits through the academy and i think that there needs to be certainly there needs to be some training for the recruits both in the fak cal and how we perform the duties and also the community relations and also how you perform the duties within the specific

districts. and on there and needs to also be advanced and the officer training, that continues to be just updated for the officers year after year, and or in a timely fashion i think that should extend to both the diversity, and implicit bias and training that the department is currently under going, and i think that there also needs to be training around how we use and how we communicate with the communicate with the members of the communities and how we use the weapons and how we try, and diffuse the situations before they become too violent and there is only one means of controlling the situation. and i think that san francisco has a strong training program. and i think that we need to, in this 21st kenty

policing and we did need to ship our focus on our training. >> and you mentioned the advanced officer training and what kind of advanced officer training is going on now? >> some of the advanced training, and for instance, we have also introduced just recently the starting at the chief's level and now on to the cap pains and through the lieutenant and the sergeant and it will trickle down to the department and there is also a cit training, and classes and intervention training. >> just a question on the implicit bias training is that every officer will go through that training, and we are taking the leadership's temperature on what they think of as the actual training and then of course, it is conducted by the human rights training and it will be complete to look at it and how it should be, and how it should be introduced to the rest of

the police force. >> and i know, our cit training is only for a small part of the force as well and; is that correct?? >> well, it is our hope and our earnest wish that a larger section of the force become cit trained. and the number increased by the, you know, over a period of time and the numbers have increased and so we plan on increasing it further and i would like to see us come to a point where all of our officers are receiving cif training. >> i would agree with that. >> and any of my colleagues want to ask questions and i will have some more later, but supervisor cohen. >> thank you very much and, thank you, commissioner for being here and i want to take a moment to recognize the leadership in the room and thank you for caring enough about this important hearing to join us today, and you mentioned something, that is really interesting to me, last week, i know that there was a training that was conducted by the hrc

and one of the feed backs that i heard from someone who attended the training was that, there was for the participation in the beginning part of the training but as the hours went on and take with the half day training and the members of the department did not stay the entire training. and that concerns me and i think that really stems from the leadership, and a couple of friends that i would like to see that the commission be empowered and i am not quite sure exactly how we go about doing that and but be empowered to hold everyone that is committed to attending this training that they must commit to attending this training from start to firn, and that there is no leaving in between and that there is no make-up so that you are in it or you are not in it and upon, completing of this training, there is some kind of certificate or some kind of recognition, and i would love to see the commission be able to take up that issue and really, stress the importance of this

training, to every member that is attending it. and i will also say on the record that i have said this casually for the training, it is not only to the members of the law enforcement but i think that it is empowerment to the department heads. but the senior managers who are funding departments and dealing with domestic violence or any kind of a violence and, public safety and i think that it is critical for us to also take a moment to begin to look internally about an organizations that are getting funding and also, critically which ones are not getting funded and that i think there is bias that existed on a department level. and i know that is a little bit out of your particular scope having

the level of report from the police, and they are leaving and feeling like they were heard, but more importantly, the officers that are currently serving also have the same level of support that they are able to get the training that they need and desire in order for their advancement and i just want to take a moment to

publicly thank you for that and to also, the president of the commission, i also see is here, and welcome and thank you, for joining us. and i am going to be supporting your commissioner reappointment today. and i hope that my colleagues will join me, thank you. >> thank you. >> supervisor, tang? >> thank you so much and thank you, commissioner for your service as well and i definitely echo a lot of the comments that supervisor cohen just made and just one question and i know that you had mentioned that the leadership is under going, some of the training that eventually will make its way through the rest of the force and just wanting to know the timing of that and, what, the department sees as moving forward, again, when that will happen and i know that it, and this issue and the training could not come at a more important time. >> and as the certain things have happened. and so it just wanting to see if you could shed the light on what that looks like moving forward.

>> well, this was training that was going on and taking the comments that commissioner and i mean, supervisor just said, it was also, and also received feedback that the people had lots of training and some folks had been on their blackberries and not paying as close of attention, and again, i did look into that situation to note, first of all that the person in the training, and attended the previous sessions of the training and so they had taken the training prior to that, but, it is still an example that needs to be set if you iner the room you need to stay in the room and you need to stay in the process. and also, we need to insure that individuals who go through this training, are aware and participating and understanding what is going on and it is more than just the training it could also be the messages both in the words in the number and the messages that i get and communicated during that

training and by your actions. and it is the goal of the department to now look at once we get to the leadership, and the officers up there, and to look at, to the command staff and through our captain and lieutenant and sergeant and set back and say, okay, what and what can we refine and do and change and hopefully we will have the entire department going through that the training before the end of this year. >> okay, before the end of this year. yes. >> great. >> in terms of you have seen many cases come through and ones that are highlighted more than others, but in your opinion, based on the experience serving on the commission, are there other things that you feel that the commission should be looking at that has nod mate the way through the news but is also very important for our police department to address?

>> and i think that we, we as a commission, that, and i mean the 7 members of the commission have refined the process so that we love things along, within the hearing schedule, and very quickly, and i think that some revision will need to be made to our process at some point. and to decide, how we will address issues even more efficiently, and i think that there are at points, our providing the people with their proper amount of rights, and so in the process of ways that is not necessarily that we do it that way, but it is also, we must meet the mandate of the law and which means that our process just needs the change as we changed the commission as we have become, aware of how things should be run, and i think that specifically, we need to be and we need

to change or ask you it is how the commission actually does etc. work and that is a process, wise and i think that the issue of how we address, and interact with the public, and at some point will need to, or will need closer inspection and both the policy rescission and will be out in the discipline stage as well. >> all right, well, thank you and again i want to thank you for your service and i think that it has actually been really wonderful and we have attended a couple of the police meetings when they have been held out in the various neighborhoods and i know that the residents definitely patient that interaction with the police commission at the very basic community level, and i do, i know that you are probably going to continue that work, and again, i am, i just want to thank you for your service and i know that there are many people here who are in support of you here that are your colleagues and so that says a lot. >> okay, thank you. >> and before the public comment, i just have a