biggest reform efforts in the history of this department, and our chief is leading that, and one of the reasons today is that you will undoubtedly be involved in many of our confrontations that other police officers do probably on a daily basis. and the trend has been that there are more people that are victims of alcohol and drug abuse, and will exhibit in many occasions a danger to themselves or others and you will definitely be called upon to intervene in those situations. one of the principles of our police reform that is going on today, one that i greatly value is the principle of the sanctity of life. you probably already have

been receiving training on that. but you also will be trained in the practice called "receiving time and distance." that is when you are called upon, i think we'll ask you to do your best to create that time and distance for the purpose of preserving life. in that, i want you to know that the rest of the city is not simply asking you to carry the entire burden of that. ; that we're going to be partners with you the best that we can and one of those strong partnerships that i am and this administration is funding with the full cooperation of the police commission, your chief , all the management staff is to say that when you are asked to intervene and if you can create that time and distance with everybody's safety in mind, we'll then have mental

health and public health experts to be at your side. so that they can do the specialty crisis intervention that you create the time and distance in order to have. we have got to work as a team. if we're going save more lives out there, we have to make sure that we have the ability to get some professionals to work alongside with you, so we can intervene in the sometimes very tragic circumstances and if we can get the mental health expertise with the people standing behind me, the crisis intervention specialists, they are referred to as our entire team train by our public health department to work in these crisis situations, we're going save more lives and ultimate ly that is what you seek to do in your profession and we want

everybody's lives to be here. you will get crisis intervention training. you will be introduced to the sanctity of life principle, but in the real-street situations that we have, it's your ability to implement that in an effective way with the chief and all of the managers crisis and all of the trainers that are here. that we want to do it with your safety in mind and with the immediate people's safety in mind so we can gain that valuable, sometimes minutes to be able to introduce a professional. so that we can go on and perhaps save a person's life even more times than we have in the past. quite frankly, it has worked in no less than probably five situations in the past several months. and i was with the chief on one of those occasions, almost three to four hours in those negotiations and we saved everybody's life and

everybody walked away. we need more of those opportunities, because there is drugs, there is drug abuse, there is a tremendous amount of mental illness and you can't do it all. we don't want to tell you to do it all, but you have an invaluable part of that process. so those are two messages. again, thank you for choosing the city and county of san francisco to work in and we'll be there to create more classes as more of our officers decide they want to have an even better life and retire and at the same time, we need to get enough officers to meet the challenges of population, and the needs of every one of our neighborhoods. thanks for being officers in the city and county of san francisco. chief . >> first of all real fast i'm with the mayor every wednesday and the joke you heard i have to hear those

every wednesday when i meet with him [laughter ]so the sympathy should be flowing my way. the incident that the mayor was talking about wasing at market and jones and it was a support armed with a firearm and the officer showed incredible restraint and saves that mans a life. i have since met with the mother and father of the man's life that was saved and they are incredibly grateful to the san francisco police department. they spent about two hours praising our efforts, and giving us kudos for making sure that resolved the way it did. that is what we're trying to push forward and we all understand it's not always going to work out in our favor and things that happen that are well beyond the control of anybody wearing that uniform and we need to make sure we're crystal clear on that, but at same time, to approach every situations a life-saving situation. the department is moving in a different direction and we're trying to be at the front of this and not the back of the line. i just sat in an awards

ceremony, voting process for department members to get silver medals and awards and most of the recipients came up in situations that they tracked about what they did and talked about using time and distancing in deescalation. one an officer was stabbed in throat on the freeway on-ramp and went for his firearm which he reholstered to baton because he recognized that the situation changed and the individual no longer had the knife and he had presence of mind to think about it as it unfolded. another situation a gentleman was sharpening a knife and had residents holed because they were too afraid and they formulated the plan of creating time and distance and they subdued him and took him into custody without shooting him. arguably a year-and-a-half, two years ago the officer-involved shooting scenarios pure and simple. that is what we're trying to

preach and push today and the group standing behind me are meant to give you additional tools in the tool belt when you have those situation and the san francisco police department is proud to partner again with the department of public health on mental health services to the community and the san francisco police have worked with department of public health for years including mobile crisis teams providing assistance to child crisis services which helps youth in crisis. this new team of clinicians standing behind me isa valuable to san francisco police officers to support negotiators in the field and conduct crisis assessments and debrief persons involved and affected by incidents, and consult with victims and provide crisis services. they are going to also assist with our ongoing crisis intervention training program to help our officers improve their ability to recognize people with behavioral health problems. this program is part of an ongoing reform system that

the department has undertaken over the past year and again, i'm talking about the san francisco police department being the lead, not following, not picking things up from everybody else. we were using a model that is still effective, but there is say better model. and our people are now researching that model to bring it to san francisco with dealing with people in crisis. that is part of us taking the lead. we're under a collaborative reform initiative review by the department of justice right now that we invited in. because again, all of these changes are meant to make us better. so i want us all to make sure we embrace it and look behind me at these white jackets with another tool for the san francisco police department to use to enforce the sanctity of life on the streets and save people, because that is our primary mission to preserve life. i want to introduce director. >> thank you you and thank you all of you and i saw you standing at attention to so

long and you are so fortunate to be part of a city and part of a police force that are going to be at the head of many police forces in this country in terms of really understanding the impact of substance-abuse and mental health on many of the individuals that you may meet. behind me is a team that we have been over the last decade working very closely with the police, and coming to any incidents of violence and providing assessments and support to family members. we're going to be expanding this team with three clinical psychologists and social workers to work deeper with all of you and give you training how to engage and meet the needs of many of these individuals. and also, i have been on the calls and some of these interventions that the police chief talked about, and we believe we can really give you really important information about the background of an individual, who you may be negotiating with. and so we're very proud. i'm very proud of the team that is behind you in the white coats and i'm very proud of the team in the

blue. and together we're going to be really providing you, i believe, some essential training and also support. and we believe that doing this together, we can reduce -- improve the health of many of the individuals who you are going to come in contact and reduce the incidents that we have at times when we have to be more forceful with individuals. so we look forward to this. we're going to be quickly hiring these individuals, and the police will be involved with this in hiring. so we have the right type of individual who will work with us closely and by the new year, we'll be really working closely and responding. in between now and then, this team behind me will be taking that place until our new staff is expanded. we're 24/7, and we're located in the bay view, but we travel throughout the city in order to provide these services. so i want to thank you for your attention today and we look forward to working with you, and proud to see all of you today becoming new police officers. [ applause ]

>> we're going to conclude this and any questions that the press may have we'll be outside in the hallway for you.you. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ in landing a contract with the

sfoifk is pretty champ but now with the opened contracting center visitors can get opportunity at the new state of the arc facility and attend workshops and receive one-on-one technical assistance and learner what you need to become a primary contractor or what information to be a subcontractor and a created bed public commission it will help people to assist people to compete for and performance open city contract a lot of small businesses do have the resources to loblth the opportunity so one of the things we wanted to do was provide ways to access contract

>> access to the plans spiefkz and a data place basis ease contracting opportunity and funding or capital training. this is and other documents that needs to be submitted. to compete is a technical skill that it takes to win a scheduling for a popular to you can win a professional services job or how to put together a quote it's all those technical pieces. looking at the contracting assistance center is our touch point with we get the people to come and see the planning specks and later than about projects earlier is he get training so you're ready to go arrest hello engineering it has all the tools that a contractor small or large

can come here. i can't say enough about the center it's a blessing. we do business all over the country and world and a place like the contractor center to identify the business in san francisco >> the reality is you need training and that's what the center is here to train and make you better qualified to go work with the city and county and to be successful at the end. >> that will give people the competitive edge e edge at receiving contracts with the city. >> we have krafshth services here that help you find out where you need to get the skills

forbidding. >> i mean local businesses participation in city projects is a winning factor it helms help the business their local businesses they're paying savings and a property tax and payroll tax and normally adhere san franciscans so their bowing goods and services in san francisco it really helps the economy of san francisco grow so its not only a benefit to the project but to the city. the contractors center is 5 thomas melon circle in the bayview area open 8:30 to 5 welcom