allowing me this time to present my qualifications for a position on the san francisco police commission. my name is mark, and i am a resident of district two. born in san francisco to an arabic family of small business owners who live and work in district seven. as you know, this is a pivotal time for our city. there is a crisis of faith in regards to how citizens of view those meant to ensure their safety. with a potential shift and command a looming, it is essential that sfpdm continues in its efforts to fulfil the 272 recommendations of the department of justice. this commitment will help build this trust through transparency, accountability, and civilian oversight. we have the opportunity to add to the diversity of the police commission. on the point of diversity, four years now, the arabic american community in san francisco has felt neglected in city hall.

even though we are strong contributors to the vitality of this city, america -- arab americans are increasingly underrepresented and marginalized. for the first time, many organizations have come togeth together. they have done so to endorse an advocate on my behalf or seat on the police commission, presenting an opportunity for not only allow an arab voice to fight for joint justice but to a point it candidate that is easily qualified. i believe i'm the great -- best applicant because of my career histories that have permit -- prepared me. i want to help to create the restorative justice approach of neighbourhood courts, to a neighbourhood prosecutor where i worked with many of you here today to make sure it community involvement happens and social justice. i have stood with integrity in front of chiefs, supervisors,

officers and the community, and made decisions that mattered for the safety of that community. i am the only candidate here today who has it direct and specific oversight of sfpdm. of sfpdm's work. the only candidate who hasn't hahas hadto go through the workn justice required. while i am here today, i have countered them in defence of the accused and i'm the only candidate who has worked with a critical eye upon their work and made decisions that officers haven't. i believe it is essential that they continue in their efforts to become the most diverse and progressive police department in the united states. always striving to reflect the values and nature of all san franciscans. i will fight to ensure all these objectives are met and i work for -- look forward to working with each of you to achieve your goals and progress in this area. i ask for your nomination as an experienced fighter for justice

who asks the diversity of the board and advocate for inclusion and justice for all san franciscans. now, i would like to take a few moments to address some of the questions i know all of the supervisors have asked already. first, with regard to the questions. i know the amount of work that is at hand with the san francisco police commission. i have been to police commission hearings, numerous while i was a neighbourhood prosecutor at as well as in the northern district. i have spoken to commissioners back, pas,past and present and e great task at hand, on the often times conflicting opinions that are on the commission that are found with the police officers association, and that are found in our community. i know the work that is ahead, and i have time to do it in my

current position, as well. another question that has come up several times today, what i would -- it is what i would plan to focus on two regards to the police commission, and specifically with the department of justice recommendations. first of all, i know for a fact that commissioners were working with the san francisco police department on implementing 60 out of the 272 recommendations, which are specific to community policing. i know he was working on this as one of two commissioners. >> how do you know this? >> i know this from having spoken to commissioners past and present, as well as having interacted throughout my career and my time outside of the da's office with sfpd. i have spoken with a commander with that process and he believes that it is pivotal that whoever is appointed, as an equal partner in continuing the work that they're doing with those 60 recommendations. i also want to touch up on the

joint terrorism talks for -- task force. i know that is a very complex, very controversial task force and an issue in front of the boards oboard of the commissione police department. i am uniquely qualified to. >> you have 30 seconds. >> thank you. uniquely qualified as an arab american to provide help in this area. as a conduit to the community, who i believe is most stigmatized and marginalized by the work of the joint terrorism task force. i believe that through city agencies, we should more proactively provide oversight, and address underreporting that can come from those feelings of being stigmatized. >> supervisor safai: thank yo you. members of the committee?

>> supervisor cohen: i would like to follow-up more on your ideas around the joint terrorism task force. i've been on the board of supervisors, this is my eighth year. that has been, i think, a question, or a matter or a policy matter that has plagued us for eight years. i would love to hear, if you have policy ideas or suggestions, could you present them? >> i do. thank you, supervisor. i believe the solution to how we interact with the joint terrorism task force is to expand some of the monitoring and investigating that city agencies do for law enforcement against estate to -- state and federal actors who are acting against our citizens. we must be more proactive, as i mentioned, in addressing underreporting of stigmatization and abuse felt by our assistance to the task force, and i believe that the police commission, along with the department of police accountability, is uniquely suited to do so as a direct link between the community and to the oversight

body who is meant to ensure that our law enforcement are acting in an accountable and transparent and fair way, just a way to all of our citizens. >> supervisor safai: any adjustment -- additional questions? >> supervisor cohen: yes, thank you. let's talk about internal discipline. you mentioned their recommendations, but i want to go back to your boss' recommendations. he did at a phenomenal job of pulling together a very fair and balanced panel that also took an additional look on the practices of law enforcement, specifically the san francisco police department, and came up with their own list of several hundred opportunities to improve. one of which has to do with internal discipline, --, and this is an appendix a page 166

just so you can refer back to it. it is specifically about internal discipline, and it found that the san francisco police department and their internal discipline process is vague. as you can imagine, that can be a problem. the district attorney's office was very instrumental in bringing to light text messages that were racist and homophobic, a couple years ago. do you know the status of those officers? their case create you have any idea -- you know where it is in the process? >> i know that those officers have gone through an oversight process, and a disciplinary process. i believe, i don't know the exact outcome of that process, i

was at the district attorney's office when that was happening. >> supervisor cohen: ok. talk to me about, ways that we can make a process that we can agree with. i would imagine, this would be by design. how do we fix that from a policy perspective? a kind of policies can we put forward? >> first of all, there are a lot of competing issues here. i believe that both the department of justice recommendations and the blue ribbon panel that you are mentioning have the goal of increasing public trust through community policing, transparency and accountability. now, the competing issue that i mentioned, is the police officers' bill of rights. which says that police officers have rights to keep employment records confidential. that is a difficult issue to navigate. i too agree that right now

internal policy, disciplinary procedures, and policies, are too opaque. i believe that through the coordination and cooperation with the department of policing accountability, and the commission, the department of policing accountability, , of course,, who receives and investigates these complaints made toward police officers, i believe that increased participation between the dpa, the commission, and the police department are the best way to make that last opaque without violating this privacy issue that is in the police officer's bill of rights. >> supervisor cohen: let me answer the questions for you. those officers text messages, they were not fired. they did not prosecute, and quite frankly, one of them was promoted. therein lies the rub of why

people don't trust the process. so i have three more questions for you. first, is what is your understanding of the commonali commonality, how common is the commonality of police misconduct? you have probably had a unique perspective working for the district attorney's office, so i'm interesting to hear what you have seen, observed and learned from empirical knowledge and exposure. i particularly want to know how often does it happen? how often, in your opinion, you can quantify it or qualify it, i believe that for you to decide, but we are talking specifically about police misconduct. >> there are various° of police misconduct, obviously. i could never profess to be able to quantify it. i do not have the numbers there. what i will say, in my time at the district attorney's office. working through the case is, reviewing the cases that i had to look through, there was a

process in place in order to ensure that the reports that were put forward to us were trustworthy and accurate. i would say that the great majority of our san francisco police officers, i believe are working to do what is right in their jobs and for their community. athat being said, that does not discount that there are numerous instances of police misconduct, in fact there is a backlog of reports that the dpa is currently working through. those instances i believe should not start -- tarnish what a lot of the good work that san francisco police officers are doing. i believe that the community should know about that work and a way to do that is through

increased participation, and community involvement. increased community policing, where officers are getting to know those in the neighbourhoods in which they patrol. they are becoming familiar with whom they work in the community that they work. >> supervisor cohen: how do you define successful reform? i put successful in quotes, realizing it may look like different things to different people. i would love to hear your thoughts. >> i define successful reform, first of all, as being created through a thoughtful and measured approach that takes into account the voices and stances, and issues of all of the citizens of san francisco. so that is our community members, the board, the dpa, the police department, as well as the commission.

first of all, reform has to be thoughtful and measured and taken into account. >> supervisor cohen: are the tangible outcomes? >> there are tangible outcomes. i would say first of all, the overarching goal is again to increase public trust through accountability, and through community policing and transparency. i believe that, to do that, we need to increase officer training. part of that is and what supervisor stefani hasn't mentioned a couple times through implicit bias training. which is more robust and should be done it more often. i think that the tangible way we measure that success would be through less reports of police misconduct, through more

interaction on a day-to-day basis between our officers and the communities in which they serve. i also believe that tangible results which be improving the outdated use of force policies, improving what is up till now been an adequate data collecti collection, and improving the hiring practices at th of the pe department so it is more reflective and representative. >> supervisor cohen: in your application, you referred to working with the san francisco unified school district as a district attorney and you focused on truancy? >> yes, supervisor. i can elaborate on that. >> supervisor cohen: i can follow up with a question. what are you doing right now? what kind of work? >> currently i work for bloomberg law. >> supervisor cohen: right. in what capacity? >> i'm a client success manager helping out with client legal research needs. >> supervisor cohen: have you left public service all

together? >> i have not left it altogether as is evident by me being here today. i have continued to stay in touch with public servants with whom i've worked and on top of the issues that matter to the city, involves and community organizations that represent my background, my heritage, and my community. >> supervisor cohen: which district attorney did you work under? >> i was hired in a transition -- i interned under the now a senator, and i was hired during a transition period where the district attorney david pfeiffer it was the interim district attorney. i spent the majority of my career under him. >> supervisor cohen: how long was that career of yours? >> about seven and a half years. >> supervisor cohen: how long have you been with bloomberg law? >> i have been there for just a

year. >> supervisor cohen: all right. my final question is, since you work with the da and you work in truancy, particularly, pamela harris wrote a book about it, getting smart on crime, did you read it? >> supervisor cohen: i did, supervisor. i am used to answering in court, i'm sorry. >> supervisor cohen: and that key cornerstone to that book is about holding parents and community a little bit more accountable to truancy, but the connection to truant students, their inability to graduate, the inability to route -- read by the time they are in the third grade, and how that is an indicator that the prison industrial complex uses to determine how many jails, and how many presents they are going to be building, based on how many little boys cannot read by the time they are in the third grade. talk to me about your understanding about the prison pipeline relationships, and how

it relates to truancy. >> if i may, i'd like to preface that answer to just described you a bit about my role while i worked there. one of my roles at the district attorney's office was the lead attorney for the truancy intervention program. i took to dismantle from catherine miller, who i worked under both as an intern, as well as a policy attorney at the district attorney's office. our main goal with the trinity intervention program, was obviously, to help families so that they could get their children back into school. that involved going to homes, going to schools and going to community meetings and talking with families about how we can help them get from a place where they couldn't manage, or they couldn't afford, or couldn't get

their own time, to a place where they could. part of my work as the lead attorney for the truancy intervention program, was working with, at the time, the attorney general's task force a creating what was, at least, a yearly report. she produced three of them in her time before moving on to a new role. a yearly report about how we can address truancy and how best we can help the families, and how we can stop this pipeline to prison that we see starting -- that we see, you know, where people believe that it starts at such a young age. i think the idea that you can gauge a person's whole future history based on what they have done in the first three, potentially four years of education, is outdated.

i think that the work that i did as a truancy intervention advocate and attorney, the work that i did working with that attorney general, showed that it was outdated, and showed that, really, the way to get students on the right track, was to help the families out early, and also make sure that they had -- they were comfortable in their school environment, and they felt they had someone to turn to when they were feeling like they were falling behind. that was the role of the truancy program. and i believe that was the role that the now senator, harris, envisioned it when she did it. and it especially, i believe, put to rest the idea that someone who is true into her who has low reading level in the third grade is bound or destined for prison. >> supervisor stefani: --

>> supervisor cohen: thank you very much. >> supervisor safai: supervisor yee? >> supervisor yee: can you answer my question? >> yes. i was planning on preempting that as well before i was cut short. with timing. i believe that any use of force policy, surrounding, any policies try to use force must be done, as i mentioned in a meaningful and thoughtful discussion involving the community, the board, the mayor, the department of public police accountability, the commission, and sfpd. this approach would and stir thoughtful and meaning dialogue put forward so that the policy is best for the city and for the citizens. i believe that the commission has worked diligently with all of those bodies as i mentioned, to create a thoughtful approach to the last legal option of

trying to control weapons. i believe that prop h. does not go as far to ensure that there is adequate training, adequate accountability and adequate data for the election. and there is adequate checks o on... what i mean by that, is i believe the standard would -- it is less than, less restrictive than the standards that the commission put forward. i also believe that prop h. is a perfect example of what not to do in the face of the doj recommendations. i specifically reference recommendation number 70 which basically says that the way that

sfpd currently makes his policies and procedures is to protract it. it is to meyer at the red tape. the word i like to use as nimble. it is not nimble enough. it is not nimble enough and making sure that any new data, new evidence, new community perspectives that come to light will quickly, and efficiently, and adequately be put in to any policy that is agreed upon by all. thank you. >> supervisor safai: my question would be, have you attended any meeting is? and if so, how many over the last few years? >> yes, i have, supervisor. i can't count how many. i would say, over double digits. part of my job, as a neighbourhood prosecutor working in the police districts in which i work, i was going to police commission hearings. specifically, when they were held within my district.

so i have a significant amount of experience going to settings and sitting through the agenda items, the public comment that is they are, at every meeting. i have interacted with, and in some instances, worked with commissioners to ensure that, in my position as neighbourhood prosecutor for the district attorney's office, we were adequately addressing the needs of the community, and also hearing the voices of the board, excuse me, the commission and the police department. >> supervisor yee: a lot of my other questions were asked by other members. supervisor stefani? >> supervisor stefani: yes a lot of the questions were asked. you said in your statement that you made decisions that officers have followed. i'm just wondering if you can expand on that a little bit. >> yes, supervisor. thank you. part of my -- one of my

positions at the district attorney's office, and actually it was a position that all district attorneys, at some point, come across, is our job is to review sfpd's work. to review their police reports that have led to arrests. throughout my time in the district attorney's office, i have had to parse through those reports, examine the evidence, examined the officer's statements, and decide if there is enough evidence to file a charge or not. so i have directly over saw a lot of sfpd's work as might -- in my time at the district attorney. in a lot of instances, it was my job in seeking justice as a district attorney to declined to file charges, or if new evidence came to light, to dismiss charges in order to ensure that justice is served. this was not always appreciated

by the officers with whom i worked, but they always respected my decision, knowing that we would have to work together the next day in whatever capacity we did. >> supervisor stefani: i have one more question if i may. do you believe that officers that have been involved in transgressions should lose their job? >> i believe that, and, you know, this actually came up very recently with an instance where an officer shot at a moving vehicle, the commissioner, i believe, stated adequately we had to examine these as i used to, on a case by case basis. i can't give a blanket, i believe everyone who is involved in misconduct should lose their job. >> supervisor stefani: if you had a transgression, you would be in jeopardy, correct me if i

am wrong, you would use -- lose your license to practice law. >> i would, i may, but after an appropriate hearing, appropriate disciplinary proceedings. when i say that everything should be judged on a case by case basis, i mean that everyone, in this country, deserves due process, and an opportunity to go through disciplinary proceedings so we can uncover what the right strategy to go forward is. >> supervisor cohen: my question really doesn't imply that there is no process. my question is, if an officer has done something wrong, should they or should they not be able to keep their job? >> supervisor, i believe, as i mentioned earlier, i believe that whether or not they should keep the job depends on the level of misconduct. there are intermediary steps

within the policies and procedures that would allow for suspensions, allow for other ways to discipline officers. i can't give a blanket yes or no. >> supervisor cohen: thank you. i have no other questions. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: any other questions from committee members right now? seeing then, we will call you up if we have more. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: please call the next name. >> the next applicant is anthony jones. >> good afternoon, supervisors, rules committee. thank you for having me up here today. i was born and raised here in the san francisco western addition neighbourhood. i brooke grew up all my life and public housing. having that experience alone, i was able to witness and have a

positive and negative interactions with the police department. being a young african-american man in san francisco and growing up here, i had to experience both sides of police relations. i served here on the youth commission from 2008-2010, and that experience had taught me how to not only represent the constituents, but especially have an heir to the needs that they may have. one of which we were dealing with, due process for you. going back to the sanctuary city laws, there was not a lot of protections for minors. while on the commission, we worked with supervisors to ensure due process for undocumented immigrant youth and i think that those -- that goes a long way in talking about how we can be in a section with our approach is well with dealing with law enforcement. aside from that, at my current job, i work for use.

we have been a part of the organizing and facilitating community for the policy and the doj recommendations, use of tasers on the selection of the chief. we helped coordinate some of those with the police commission. at the time, the public for meriformersafety director in ths office, and as well as my former executive director, who is now are the human rights commission. [please standby for captioner switch]

>> we need to continue how to look further to expand

partnerships and relationships with communities that have been historically misrepresented and underrepresented. we need to look at how we can expand relations with youth, especially black and brown youth. we need to look into how the commission itself can engage the community as well and i say that because i think it's important for the community to have a lens in the decision making process that the commission has been undertaking, rather it be with use of force, tasers or whether it be with how the community can improve relations. it's important that the community feels a part of that. of course i have attended past meetings, being someone who has worked with the police commission and the police department to get community voice. i can't name how many but it's not selected as a police commissioner but attending those meetings as well with some of the youth who we will have working with the police

department. that's one of the other highlights of my experience with the police department and the youth. at collective impact we have a summer program that's been going on for the past three years from a very supportive police commission and city hall. that is to bring youth from disadvantaged community, mainly black and brown together with police officers over the summer and they can work on projects to engage on each other and build empathy, which i think is so important especially when we live in a time when the rhetoric is division. we need to understand that the only way we get past this is if we see each other beyond the badge and beyond the skin. i wish all the applicants good luck and i want to add, while i have a couple of seconds left, that we need to make sure that this part of process of accountability that we have protections for officers who notice things going wrong in the department. we need to expand whistleblower

protections for our officers and we need to understand not to weed out this culture of bias whether through restorative training, restorative justice training for officers who are involved in this and through making sure that our officers of color are supported. as you saw in the text message scandal and, you know, i won't use names but we have a lieutenant here who was a victim of that and i think that is wrong that it's coming from leadership in a department and the question you then ask yourself, you being a sergeant is how does that go into the ranks. we have to make sure that we have opportunities for officers and we need to make sure that we are teaching our officers about bias and making sure they have to -- >> supervisor safai: thank you. we are going to open it up for questions. director cohn. >> supervisor cohn: i appreciate that. you caught me ear when you say expanding whistleblower

protections, something i happen to agree with. maybe ux expand a little bit on that idea, that policy idea. >> sure. so when looking at the blue ribbon panel report you notice that some officers felt the since of intimidation and felt like that if they were to talk about some of the things that they thought should change in the department that they would face some type of blow back from their fellow brothers and sisters in blue. i think that it is important to realize we are talking at an institution that should at least be valued on integrity, honesty and making sure that they're doing their job in the best way possible and not having an eye towards division. so we need to make sure that when officers want to bring that to light that they feel like they can because it's important for us to know. >> supervisor cohn: let me jump in here. there's this thing called like a code blue, right? it's a culture within the department that it's browned

upon, we saw publicly how things played out from officers that identified wrong doings of other officers, how they were ostracized and prevented from advancement and promotion and in other cases written up, the cold shoulder. it's important to maintain a good strong relationship with your fellow officers because when you are on the line of duty your life is very much in the hands of your fellow officers. i can completely empathize why one wouldn't want to come up and blow the whistle or shed some light on this particular culture. how do we get beyond that? you said create whistleblower protections and then you had a whole bunch of nice fluffy words and lost me. i want to know specifically what policy, what do we do? maybe in what way can we expand on the current policy?

you know, i mean currently right now it's anonymous and a third party may do an investigation. i don't know. maybe that's an opportunity that we look to the department of police accountability to assist us in this. i mean, i'm looking for a certain level of specificity, not just -- >> right. that's understandable. going to your point, we need to work with the department of police accountability to make sure that there's an internal process that even goes beyond the internal affairs division so that officers who do want to talk about certain wrong doings of their fellow officers have that protection within the dpa as well as city bodies like the city attorney's office and having them understand that, hey, we have someone in this institution in city government that is saying something is going on wrong, we need to look into this further. i think that needs to live in the third party body and/or, you know, something like the department of police

accountability. >> supervisor cohn: all right. thank you. i appreciate that. i want to talk about another policy that i think is important, that the current -- or the current police commission has taken a position on. what is unique about that particular policy is not only has police department -- excuse me, our public commission taken a position, a very controversial one to keep police officers from shooting into moving vehicles. this restriction is not unique to san francisco, quite frankly there's a national police association that also says shooting into moving vehicles puts not only the officers at risk, not only the person, the driver at risk but also the surrounding community. you shoot someone, you kill or you injury them and they lose control of the car, a 5-year-old

kid that's standing on the corner could get hit by the car because the car has jumped the curb. it's a terrible situation. yet here we are today -- just a few weeks ago there was an officer-involved shooting that shot at an open car. if you were a police commissioner, how would you address this policy matter? keeping in mind that this is a clear violation of an already established policy. the other thing that i think that is important to also acknowledge is this was a rookie. i think that we need to -- well, i don't want to start preaching on what i think. i want to hear what you think. okay. >> yes. i'm very aware of what you're talking about. i was reading about it. i know that that officer faced some discipline for violating that policy and i think it's important to especially for our rookie cops -- this is where i do think that we need to look at a cooling down period instead of just putting them right in the

force immediately, giving them an opportunity to build relations with that community on a deeper level. we -- >> supervisor cohn: do you know what neighborhood that officer-involved shooting took place? >> northern. western edition. that's where i grew up. >> supervisor cohn: i know. stop bragging. >> i definitely feel like we need to make sure that our rookie officers especially have a clear understanding of the policies and procedures, a cooling down period where they are allowed to go into the community and build relations and also making sure that they ready. when you look at what happened in baby's hunters point and i know you are very familiar with this, where there was an officer that was his first or fourth day on the job and he was just getting started and he shot through his window killing someone who they were in a pursuit with. that officer was terminated. i think we need to really make

sure that especially our rookie officers, our newer officers truly understand the community, truly understand the rules and procedures because these are involving two rookie officers. >> supervisor cohn: so that's i think a little bit on the softer side. for the understanding -- creating a level of understanding for the officer. as a policymaker, my question would be -- i'm a policymaker and so i'm thinking about where have we failed because we have two recent incidents where you have two newly minted officers that have gone through the academy and academy training is no joke, we have spent thousands of dollars getting this person the experience, they have risen to the test, the written test, the physical agility test, the mental stability test and they have gone through their training. they have taken their oath. they have been given their weapon. now they are on the street.

you know, policy -- make you can articulate to me where the disconnect is in terms of policy oversight. something happened. something went wrong. something went wrong between the training and the time the officer was on the street. >> i think when these issues have happened and when they do happen we need to make sure that we review what the training guidelines are. who is training them? what are they training them in? how are they articulating these policy concerns and how are they articulating the policies themselves? i think it's something that we have to do when issues like this arise. even with officers who face discipline in general, we need to make sure, who is the training officer, what is in their curriculum, do they have the resources they need? do we need to make sure that policies are more defined out for those who are teaching our officers that? >> supervisor cohn: thank you very much. i have no other questions.

mr. chair. >> supervisor safai: thank you. supervisor stefani, do you have anything right now? >> supervisor stefani: yes. just one question. it's a pleasure speaking with you this morning. you mentioned that it's important that communities feel like they -- the police work for them or with them. i'm just wondering what policies you would champion at the police commission to make sure that's a reality? >> well, a standing police commission in the community. it can be floating, rotating. i think that -- i'm a firm believer of this, being somebody who was a commissioner and understanding the importance of civic institutions and i have this mind set of bringing city hall out of the hall. bringing the city into the community. i think that can go a long way so we have a pulse of what is going on in the community. i feel like the sfpd should create a youth advisory board. i work with the my brothers and

sisters super youth council. they have some great ideas with justice reform. i think we need to increase our relations with also our youth partners as well, the youth commission, even with the s.a.c. when it comes down to police and school relations. i think that as far as other program ideas, we need mentorship programs where our officers can even go into the juvenile justice center and mentor some of our young people. i think it's important that we keep building on programs and keep creating programs that really create a sense of empathy and understanding. i think that is ultra important considering the history that especially communities of color have had with our police department. i think that even when you go into something like tasers and prop h, i think that takes -- that kind of hurts our policing community relations considering that the commission had a lot of community input on that and i

don't think necessarily the authors of this proposition had that same community contact and that goes into recommendation from the blue ribbon report. the union,poa, building relations with the community as well. them understanding the community that they their officers, their members serve. with even tasers itself and knowing how contentious this is, especially about hearing stories in wisconsin where a young man was tased 19 times and ended up passing away, i think that we have to have intentional policies and intentional procedures in place to get to that policy so we don't have a situation like that. if that answers the question. i can touch a little bit on tasers. we had some interesting conversations with our young people so i don't know if that addressed the core of your question.

so around even tasers, you know, there's a lot of reservations. right. it came out in a conversation that i had with some of the young people that i worked with because of course we're going to ask our young people about how they feel about tasers and what is going on in the world. they said i would rather be tased than shot. i guess the more disturbing part is they look forward to a use of force encounter with the police department. that is -- it's sort of like my mom always taught me, you know, there was -- back in the old days somebody had you go pick out a switch from the tree when you were about to get some discipline at home. the demoralization in that is that you had to choose your tool of punishment.

the fact that young people in general had this idea, especially the black and brown use that they had to have a preference of which force they wanted used on them, that's a culture that we have to move beyond. that's a culture that we can only move beyond if we have strong and consistent positive relations with our community. >> supervisor safai: supervisor yee. answered. supervisor cohn. >> supervisor cohn: thank you for coming back to me, mr. chair. i'm going to switch it up on you because you have a great understanding of the intersectionality of law enforcement as it relates to the african-american community. i want understanding about how you know about particularly the asian community feels and how the muslim community feels or how seniors feel. one of the things that concerns me is that there are an abundant number of crimes that go unreported largely due to a lack of language access.

my question is very poinient, would you create a funding for officers who speak a language, maybe chinese or spanish, that they can get paid more for having that skill set? >> without question. i think that it's important. >> supervisor cohn: all right. i want you to talk a little bit about your understanding of crime fears and issues that relate to communities outside of the african-american community, outside of the lgbt community and outside of the latino community. >> i know that car break-ins have been very, very hot button issues, especially at the community -- i mean, hey, i've had my car broken into five times. i think that really weighs heavy on communities because it sort of disrupts family budgets and you have to go out, take time off of work to get your window fixed, insurance claims, all of that.

so i know that that is a big concern. i think that we need to have units based in stations that deal with sort of working to investigate some of these instances. even making sure that there are restorative options available for those who are caught to have committed these crimes. you know, i've had experiences with youth who were the ones breaking in and they get incarcerated but get a second chance and they get an opportunity to work on that. i think that it's important that we nail in on that issue and create neighborhood units specifically designed for that. also our tourists. a lot of our tourists who come in, they face some of these issuing getting robbed, have their cars broken into, especially rental cars to -- >> supervisor cohn: let me switch gears and focus a little bit more. you are talking about quality of life crimes and that's certainly a very important issue that many

of the mayoral candidates have been talking about and the district attorney put together a proposal. i want to talk about the policing on the street. you talked about community policing. again, it's an over emphasis of giving and restoring faith in trust, particularly in the african-american community. i want to hear about some of the other communities that maybe considered to be more marginalized because they don't traditionally get the attention when crime happens to them, when seniors get abused. you know, talk to me a little bit. i'm looking for a broader understanding of -- i'm looking for you to show me evidence of your broader understanding of crime, crime patterns, who is effected by crime. everybody knows black people are effected. everybody knows latino people are effected. people are now learning about the lgbt dpdz q. -- lgbtq. i want to know what you know ant them and what is your experience.

go ahead. >> with a lot of experience and more focused experience in dealing with communities of color in youth, especially african-american youth, i think sometimes it's easy with all of the issues happening to kind of yourself forget about what is happening in the other communities. some things are them getting assaulted, getting robbed, also now you have this new thing with even access and making sure that seniors don't feel like their access on the street is restricted from scooters and things loo -- like that. so you heard a lot about that. i think specifically they also worry about home burglaries and getting robbed. i think for me making sure that we have senior advisory boards to kind of make sure that we understand and address the needs of our senior communities and --

>> supervisor cohn: i think you as a human being need to understand and getting a deeper understanding as to where people's fears are and what makes them nervous. the way you do that is by hanging out with them, attending their meetings, talking to them, talking to experts. i think that we've got nelson lum who was a police officered who did china town and task force and has a great perspective from the 70s and 80s. doing that level of home work because the police commission's responsibility is all of the neighborhoods and the ethnic communities that make up san francisco. my final question is, what experience do you have on -- in working with collaborative bodies? particularly you can have good

intentions but if you didn't get to four votes it means nothing. have you ever been exposed -- i think that you're a former youth commissioner. >> yes. of course through that. it was funny because that was a discussion started at the youth commission when i was on it. even though the city was supportive it was the regional leaders around transportation. i think not only making sure that we are in constant contact and working with our board of superviso supervisors, our department of police accountability, the mayor's office and our justice partners as well but working to look at how we can address regional issues because sometimes -- i don't have the number off the top of my head but sometimes it's individuals who aren't even from san francisco who commit crime here. i think that's why you need to look at a regional approach in making sure that we are communicating with other agencies and looking at trends, making sure that we are in

communication with our bodies here. >> supervisor cohn: thank you very much. i'm finished. thank you. >> supervisor safai: great. thank you supervisor cohn for such wonderful lines of questioning for all of our applicants here today. a lot of the questions have been asked by supervisor cohn and members of this committee but one thing that's important to me is -- and i believe that supervisor cohn and others have said this in their remarks, this position that you will -- that any of you that are here today will assume is one that requires you to have an understanding of the community, requires you to have an understanding of discipline and disciplinary cases. requires you to have an understanding, i think that's the consensus of this body, the department of justice recommendations and reform, requires you to have some experience working with organized labor, a big part of your job is a question and i've asked this question to some of the other applicants about the concept of meet and confer.

have you had any experience working with organized labor and what is your opinion on the concept of meet and confer as it pertains to the role that you hope to assume? >> well, i haven't had direct experiences with organized labor. i work with youth. i can say that worker dignity and workforce dignity is important. that can't be convoluted with human dignity. i think they go hand in hand and i think that you can have both. where officers feel like they can have a solid workforce environment, one they can feel comfortable and secure in while not creating a situation where they don't have enough accountability in our community kind of has negative relationships with them. as far as the meet and confer, which i know what you're talking about, it's the idea that before an officer goes before a disciplinary body the union

talks to them first and they -- it is but it's more than that. it is the idea of -- it's a piece of collective bargaining that is universal to all labor. meaning that if there's a policy that is proposed by an employer that the union representing that organized body of workers has the right to -- if it is a new workplace requirement or a change in their workplace working conditions or rules they have the right to ask to meet with the -- >> the unix -- union rep. >> it's not about anything unique to police. it's something that's across the board. the labor's union representing landscape and street cleaners and others, our construction workers in the city, they have the right to meet and confer on anything that we do in the department of public works as a recreation park department that affects their workplace

commission. the janitors in the city once we instituted mandatory composting and recycling they went from having a three bin stream -- i mean, a one bin stream to three bins. they had the right to meet and confer about that increased workload. it's a concept across the board. that's what i wanted you to answer as it pertained to the position you will be assuming. >> so i think -- like going back to earlier, i think everyone has workforce dignity and that needs to be respected, especially if proposed rules or changes can affect that. i do think the -- that anybody should have that right and that opportunity but us as commissioners have to make sure that whatever we're proposing and whatever changes we make already have that in mind and also making sure that the communities needs and voices are heard and understood and even creating those bridges like i

mentioned before, having unions talk to the communities which their workers represent and which their workforce represents. i think that's going to be important to make meet and confer, not this issue of contention, not make any policy changes an issue of contention but an issue where, you know, hey, let's just talk to all of the parties involved while keeping in mind workforce dignity. >> supervisor safai: great. any other members of the committee have any questions? okay. seeing none if we have anymore we will call you back up. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you, mr. jones. please call the next applicant. >> the next applicant would be marl marilyn murrillo. >> good morning, honorable members of the rules committee, the supervisors. my name is marilyn murrillo. i have a unique set of lived

experiences. one that i did not include in any application is my father was an undocumented farm worker so i have a personal understanding of the immigrant community and concerns regarding law enforcement and concerns regarding the federal government as well. i have a message for the immigrant community. you are safe in san francisco and i will do everything i can to protect our sanctuary city and our community which includes the immigrant community. now i would like to talk about the areas oh -- of the u.s. department of justice recommendations i would like to be involved in and my particular set of skills that would be council. bias and community policing

practices. i am an expert in stereotypes. i have a masters degree in communications. i'm an expert in stereotypes and mass communications. in 1954 gordan alport wrote the nature of prejudice wherein he talked about the contact hypothesis. quote, prejudice unless deeply rooted in the character structure of the individual may be reduced by equal status contact between majority and minority groups in the pursuit of common goals, end quote. that's on page 281 of the nature of prejudice. it can be argued that a lack of contact or a mediated contact between groups liking equal that status, common goals, institutional support or common interest may lead to increased prejudice and stereotypes between groups