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 and that's

according to tan and several other researchers in 1997. i'd also like to talk about the importance of training with stereotypes. we have evidence that some members of our police department have used stereotypes and racist slurs and ethnic slurs and homophobic slurs and that behavior has been defended on the basis of freedom of speech. i can participate in training that helps the police officers to learn that stereotypes are harmful. very harmful. in fact, i'm an expert on stereotypes.

stereotypes are individual mental images that shape people's interpretation and influence public opinions. that's according to lipman where he found out that in 1922. research shows that individual stereotypes can be learned from different experiences, television is one of them. stereotypes are an individual's perceptions and interpretations that are connected closely with prejudice and discrimination. certain stereotypes are about a person's social group, according to sherman in 1996 and enable an individual to make a judgement about groups and individuals according to alport in 1954. it is critical to develop a better understanding of how individuals, in this case police officers, develop negative stereotypes and find out ways to produce negative stereotypes

from impacting a police officer's mind. stereotypes are perceptions and interpretatio interpretations. the negative stereotypes forms the basis of these knowledge about certain social groups according to sherman in 1996 and enabled people to make special judgements about groups of people according to alport in 1954. the second layer of prejudice in which racial stereotypes tend to be rooted. prejudice is, quote, a hostile or negative attitude towards a distinguishable group of people based solely in their member in -- membership in that group on page 501. then we come to discrimination. discrimination is the third layer which is an act or action towards other people to exclude them from public or private social rights according to alport in the nature of

prejudice in 1954. >> supervisor safai: thank you. we will open it up for questions. director cohn. >> supervisor cohn: now, marilyn, i know you and you don't need to be reading definitions to us. put down that paper and just tell us why you want to be on this commission, just from the heart. tell me why you want to be appointed. >> i want to be on this commission because more of the same is not the answer. we have had attorneys on the commission. we have had privileged, wealthy attorneys on the commission. we have seen the results. we have a u.s. department of justice that analyzed the behavior of the police department under the supervision of the police commission which includes numerous attorneys. there is a problem when the community does not trust the police department or the police

commission or some of the police commission members thinking that some people are in someone's pocket. -- pocket to protect them from any type of discipline or accountability. this is a matter of life and death. i bring to the commission my expertise in stereotypes and mass communication and also i have something else that i would like to tell you about. >> supervisor cohn: no, you can't read it. >> i suggest that sf gov tv in watching police commission hearings is a way to learn about the police commission. in social cognitive theory said that we can learn about other groups through modelling and what we see on television. you are seeing me out there, ladies and gentlemen of the public, you are learning about me. although you are not present here in this room. so i submit that you can learn about me through sf gov tv and i

think that watching police commission meeting on sf gov tv is a form of learning and a tool that we should in fact recommend to all members of the public. >> supervisor cohn: so the police commission, aside from being good entertainment and watching on tv, i agree, i definitely watch it at home if i'm not there in body. so what i want to hear from you are -- you mentioned that the current commissioners are well educated, well heeled, lawyers, professional people and that they haven't -- and that you'd like to see something that is a departure from that, you don't want more of the same. my question would be to you is what kind of policy ideas would you be able to bring to the police commission? >> i believe that we need to take a closer look at the

disciplinary policies that we have and i believe that we may need to update that. i also believe that we need to be very careful about promoting officers or sergeants or other command officers because what we have is the united states department of justice has told us that we have a problem in our department. so we should look carefully at supervisors within the police department and how they have supervised officers or their b subordnate and have they recommended discipline when it's required or necessary or have they just been able to say you know this is okay, let's protect each other. how is that impacting the public? then we get questionable behavior that continues. so we need to have a fresh set of eyes, we need someone from the community to come in and

look at these things. i also believe that we need some changes on the part of the community. >> supervisor cohn: so let me give you one more chance to answer the question. coming to the table with policy ideas is different than coming to the question with a whole -- coming to the table with a whole bunch of questions. so, for example, a policy idea that i've been having was maybe we could write a law or create a policy that when civil calls to sfpd happens the person who made the call will be charged a fine or the cost of -- will be passed on to the person that has made that call. that's a policy idea. i'm looking for an idea that would solve a problem. so the problem being erroneous calls, calls for service drawn upon the police department that actually takes away from their ability to do policing in other areas because they were

responding to a call that's not an emergency. that's actually a problem. there's data that supports that. we've seen it played out on television in terms of the news. that's an example of a policy. i just wanted to hear one policy idea that you -- out of the infinite number of things that need to bed -- be changed, what do you want checked? you talked about stereotypes, how do you create a policy that would check that stereotype and bias? >> i would suggest that we convene some experts on stereotype and not within the department, outside, on how we can update our training. there is apparently some implicit bias training that's happening right now. it can be argued that it's not very effective. >> supervisor cohn: it could also be argued that it's only been around for a little over a year. our department has not been fully been trained yet so it's a

little too early to determine. mr. chair, i have no other questions. thank you very much, marilyn. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: supervisor yee? supervisor stefani? while you're looking we had a good conversation, i asked you a blot of questions and i got a lot of good answers to those questions. what i want to hear you say something briefly about is the idea of officer recruitment from in the sfpd to hire from communities that are disproportionally effected by violent and what strategies would you have for that? >> i believe what we could do is have -- we have many non-profit organizations here in san francisco that serve various communities, marginalized communities. i believe that we can recruit -- help recruit through those non-profit organizations a deal

daily with the most marginalized communities here. encourage them to apply and educate them about law enforcement careers. we could have out reach from the department going to different organization organizations, china town, community development, the native american health center and dental center. there is meta, there is the transgender center in addition to several other districts. there is the -- there is various organizations in the arabic community as well. if we interact more with them and maybe we could have some better better diverse applicants.

thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: supervisor cohn asked about policies you would think about implementing. i'm wondering if there's any policies at the police department that you would think about eliminating or changing in any way? >> i think that we could change recommendation and accommodation and incamera es -- increase that. if we want police officers to behave a certain way we need a spotlight on the stars within the department and increase the tension on their behavior, on their records and do that with more accommodations, perhaps more medals. this according to organizational behavior would motivate fellow employees to also receive some a accommodati accommodation. it could motivate them to increase their performance and adherence to our policies and procedures. motivation and recognition is

important if we are trying to increase productivity from individuals in any organization. the cost is low but the benefits are high. >> supervisor safai: any other questions we will call you back up. thank you. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: please call the next applicant. >> the next applicant is maisha everhart. >> supervisor safai: please proceed. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is maisha everhart, i'm a san francisco resident and have long standing personal and professional rmgss in t-- relationships from the city. i currently work for bart where

i work with san francisco elected officials and community stake holders. i'm currently working with bart pd to increase their coordination with sfpd to address public safety and quality of life issues in san francisco. i have applied for the san francisco police commission because i would like to see the city of san francisco set the standard for the 21st century policing as out lined by the d.o.j. during the obama administration and i'm interested in assuring that all of the remaining d.o.j. recommendations get implemented. i am most interested in focusing on use of force, specifically shootings and tasers, community policing, addressing bias, police hire and promotions. i was encouraged to apply to the police commission by former president of the san francisco police commission, julius turman. he emphasized to me that it was

not only important to implement the remaining d.o.j. r recommendation but we also evaluate their effectiveness. as a commissioner i would like to enact the policies, requiring annual reports regarding the d.o.j. recommendations so we know the process that we have seen -- progress that we have seen with some of these recommendations and also i would like to see the reports published so that we know where challenges lie as to why certain recommendations are not getting implemented. secondly, i would like to do a better job collecting data and analyzing data and partnering with local academic partners. such as stanford, for example, to address issues like bias. san francisco is the technology capital of the country if not the world and i would like to see us work more effectively with the tech companies to

collect data and make it more accessible to the public. in addition i would like to see that we are under general order on a regular basis and they are being communicated effectively to our officers. as for my experience, i have done similar work in the oakland mayor's office as senior adviser to the mayor of oakland. in oakland the oakland police department was facing federal receivership and i worked with the mayor, her senior adviser of public safety and the police chief to ensure that outstanding tasks of the negotiated settlement agreement got implemented. with respect to use of force, we changed the policy regarding pursuits and chasing suspects into backyards, for example. we required officers to create a perimeter around suspects and to call for back ups. we trained to value life and also advise them as to how to

deal with prejudice interventions. to make these changes i attended several meetings with the mayor and police chief, the court monitor. i was a public safety adviser and command staff for policies for change. once we changed the policies for body cameras we saw significant reduction in use of force. community policing is not bad. i think that's important that the community has positive interactions with often as

possible when issues arise. i attended between seven to ten national night out parties. i have to organize a town hall meeting on public safety, went door to door to encourage residents, participated in the neighborhood clean ups, job fairs and educated residents on how to access it. there's community plans that focuses on resources and problem solve -- okay. sir sure. i also want to work to address bias. we addressed that in the city of oakland partnering with stanford. i want to focus on hiring and promotions. we have to make sure that they get promoted and that they are given the training and the

resources that they need in the evaluation so they get feedback. they know how candidates can improve throughout their careers and receive the promotions they are interested in. >> supervisor safai: supervisor cohn. >> supervisor cohn: thank you very much. you can see my attention on updating the department's general orders. incredibly important because these general orders are communications from the chief, the chief basically on down. so there are a number of dgos that are currently being considered and being discussed and edited and which ones are interested in working on revamping or revising. you know, just working with.

which ones are you interested in updating? >> well, i would say that i would like to see all of the dgos revisited -- or i'm sorry, all of the general orders revisited on a let's say every 5-year basis so that we can make sure that they're adhering to the best practices of policing and we need to make sure they are being communicated effectively to officers so they know what that he has updates are. i would like us to constantly revisit use of force general orders and make sure that we are meeting the best standards of policing. >> supervisor cohn: did you have an opportunity to follow the conversation that we had last year under the leadership of susie loftis about the use of

force policies, the changes that we were able to implement? >> i did follow some of those policies -- i'm familiar with -- i know that we just worked on tasers and worked on preventing officers from shooting into vehicles. >> supervisor cohn: is there one that you would like to identify that you are interested in working on and making sure it gets updated? >> i would continue to like to look at general order 5.01 and i've been reviewing general order 2.04, general order -- >> supervisor cohn: so the folks listening not familiar with the numbers because you -- what is 5.01 or your understanding of it? >> 5.01 has to do with use of

force. 3.0 has to do with communications. general order 2.04 has to deal with investigations. >> supervisor cohn: so the dgo order, the general order of 5.01 has already been voted on. what kind of updating would you do to it? >> you know, i just want to make sure -- like i said, i believe that we should have a process where we update the dgos on a regular basis. i know a lot of dgos are out dated and use language. one of the way -- >> supervisor cohn: i'm trying to say that we have literally updated that one. that one is just about done. let's go to 3.0 communications.

in what way could we update that one? >> sure. i think that it's important that we make sure that the general orders are properly communicated to officers. i would like to see officers have access to the general orders. >> supervisor cohn: they don't already have access? >> well, better access, for example on their mobile devices so they know if they're in the field and they have a question about some of the rules and procedures then they can, you know, access that information easily and readily. >> supervisor cohn: okay. so officers that are involved in tran -- transgressions, should they use their job? >> i think depending on the circumstances if it warrants that type of disciplinary action and i would be interested to see what the dpa investigation

recommends. so i think that there should be a fair process and i just think it depends on the nature of the transgression. >> supervisor cohn: what the recommendation is -- >> supervisor cohn: so let me give you a real life example. not the current chief but the previous chief made recommendations for termination and it's been the commission that over turned the chief's own recommendation. do you see yourself taking on the chief recommendation for termination or would you see yourself as questioning the chief's authority and questioning his decision? >> i think that i would take the chief's recommendation very strongly. >> supervisor cohn: okay.

what -- the last candidates are lucky because i'm running out of really hard questions. okay. here's one. not a hard one but just a question. while many are able to recognize the problem that -- the problems with some police forces generally they blame corruption on just a few bad apples. okay. just a few bad cops. you hear that all the time. how do you define the challenges that manifest -- how these challenges manifest themselves in the entire neighborhoods or entire communities? when you hear communities expressing they have had multiple interactions with the bad apples. say you have one officer that's a bad apple and they are assigned to a beat and you're getting a lot of complaints from the community, the community is coming to you, the police commission, how would you handle

this? >> well rg i would -- well, i would encourage those in the neighborhoods to file a formal complaint. i would want to see dpa investigate those complaints. make a determination as to whether or not, you know, that particular officer was in the wrong. >> supervisor cohn: in your statement and also in your answer you referenced heavily the department of police accountability. can you talk to me about your understanding of the role and function of dpa? >> sure. so dpa investigates citizen complaints and audits. i think it's important that the community feel comfortable reporting incidents that they know about the process. that they are informed as to the out come of those

investigations, whether or not there's any particular disciplinary action. i know the city of los angeles has done a very good job publishing the out comes of various things they have done and communicating that information to the public so the public knows what the process was and what the out come is. >> supervisor cohn: what exactly is -- this going back to dgo number 3.01 about communication, what exactly is the process that these dgos are communicated? what is the process and then you want it updated? i'm trying to understand the timeline. what needs to be updated? >> sure. you know, the chief and the command staff make the general orders and then that information goes to the officers.

i have had some conversations with officers and what they have told me is all of the information they received from dgo from bulletins an overwhelming and they don't always, you know, have the most up to date information. i think that making sure that it's really clear what the rules are and what the expectations are is important and that we train the officers properly so they know how to implement those orders. that we continue to hold them accountable. i also believe that for those officers who are doing the right thing they should be rewarded and uplifted. >> supervisor cohn: so i just want to just make a small statement. it's the police commission that makes the updates to the general

orders, not the chief or the command staff. what do you consider to be your area of expertise? you obviously have come with a series of experiences in oakland who has a police department that has like phoenix, risen above the horrible acquisitions that plagued the department and now they are actually one of the regions best law enforcement agencies, particularly paying attention to the decreased number of use of force officer-involved shootings. i certainly think that the opd could serve as. >> sure. so, again, once we -- once i got into the oakland mayor's department we had a number of use of force incidents and the federal judge with the

negotiated settlement agreement. we did everything that we could to make sure we address use of force, talk about how we dealt with chases and pursuits and also how we worked on body cameras so that we could have fewer instances of use of force. so we definitely saw some changes in that area. also it was important for us to look at bias into why use of force were used most often with communities of color and we wanted to know why that was. so as i mentioned, we partnered with stanford to do -- to help us evaluate some data and make some recommendations to us as to how we could address some of those issues of bias.

>> you have to work with other people. i often think of a quote that

you have no permanent friends, or enemies in politics, and that at times, you need to work with everyone, and negotiate to try and advance policy. >> supervisor cohen: and, you know, you are a bar employee and recently as of last week, you saw a coordination between police and the san francisco police department in a joint effort to clean up the bart station. i would have to say, you have done a fantastic job so far. i hope it is something that is sustainable. what kind of policy ideas would you be able to bring that would further support or encourage collaboration with other law enforcement agencies? >> sure. well, i worked on that a great deal when i was in the city of oakland. i worked on intergovernmental affairs and i worked to try and, you know, work with the state and the federal government to

leverage resources, because we were short officers. and we had to do everything that we could to make sure that all officers have the resources that they need. here in san francisco, i was involved in that coordination to have our bart police work with san francisco pd. i helped to schedule the meeting with the mayors office, sat in meetings with the general manager, the bart police chief, so that we could identify, you know, how most effectively bart police and san francisco police could work together. and so, as a commissioner, i would support policies that do as much as possible to leverage resources and to have our police

department working more collaboratively with other law enforcement agencies throughout the region. >> supervisor cohen: i have a policy question for you. i wanted to get your opinion on whether or not the departmen def the police accountability, if we should enhance their investigative policy capabilities, and if so, what way would we be able to do that? >> i'm sorry, can you repeat the last part? >> supervisor cohen: the department or police accountability has the ability to audit. do you have a good understanding of d.p.a.? i am looking, from a policy perspective of external oversight, you see the police commission is one entity. how do we begin to marry the two or perhaps expand upon the role and the powers of the department of police accountability? >> i would have to give that some more thought. >> supervisor cohen: ok.

>> but, i think what is important, we have, you know, independent investigations and accountability and we ensure due process. and we try and identify ways to maintain that independence. >> supervisor cohen: have you ever had the opportunity, or the experience in leading or participating in any kind of disciplinary hearing setting, maybe you managed a team of folks and you needed to handle a disciplinary manner? >> yes. >> supervisor cohen: can you tell us about that? >> yes. i have had, first of all, i want to say i have great staff at barth. i, you know, want to acknowledge them. but i have had some situations where there was some issues that i was concerned about. i had to have conversations with

hr, and the union, and other departments at barth. and so i can't go into the details about that, but i have had to deal with them and some challenging staff in situations. >> supervisor cohen: it is a very interesting question, because, it allows insight into, how would you describe it, supervisor stefani? >> well,, you know, the commission should focus on policy. i think in makin making policy,s unfortunate -- important-- >> supervisor cohen: let me narrow it down for you. what should trigger this?

>> that's, -- it depends on the particular circumstances but i always think it's important to consult with folks in the union. but -- before policy is made to get their input about how their representatives might be impacted, and what their concerns are. and so, i would always want to be a listener and make sure that i was fair, and heard the concerns of the unions before policy is actually made so that i am fully understanding of what their challenges are. >> supervisor cohen: excellent. thank you very much. mr chair, i have no other questions. >> supervisor safai: supervisor stefani? >> supervisor stefani: i was the implicit bias question but

that was supervisor safai. ok. i have one quick question. in june of 1994, the voters approved the charter amendment setting the staffing level of our police department at fully duty officers at 1,971. today we are not at that level. but there have been discussions on how we get there, and i wonder if you have any thoughts about city stopping and what you might do you on the commission. we also had a budget and finance hearing where we were asking some questions about our opioid crisis on the streets and realized we really only have ten narcotics officers at this time. i would like to just hear your thoughts on police staffing and how you might play a role in that as a police commissioner. >> sure. well, i think it's important that the officers to have the resources that they need to do their jobs effectively. to keep them safe, as well as the community is that they work

in, say. i think we also have to consider some of the challenges that we are facing at the moment. you mentioned the opioid epidemic, and some -- we also mentioned some of the challenges that are taking place at civic centre. those were things that were necessarily anticipated early on. and so i think that when we see that there are some crises happening in our community, that we need to do what we can to make sure we have enough staff to respond. and so, i also think that it sometimes requires us to be creative and that's why working with other agencies, in a more collaborative manner to leverage resources is important. >> supervisor safai: supervisor yee?

>> supervisor yee: let me follow-up with supervisor cohen questions in the meeting. your answer was that you would meet with the labour to try to understand their concerns. i mean, i'm glad you take that approach. but often times, what i find is even when you try to look at other perspectives, there might be another perspective that is compounded with a labourer. we need to change something so it is safer for the community. not everything becomes hunky-dory and you can work everything out with everybody. if there is a situation where labour or poa is not wanted,

because it impacts us in a certain way, but the community is saying to you, please support it, a particular issue, because if you don't, then this will be a negative impact on the community and the residence. how would you handle that? >> well, i think i would listen to the residence's concerns very strongly. and, yeah,, i think i would listen to the residence views and, you know, i know there will be times where the unions may not agree with decisions, and sometimes it is hard and difficult decisions that need to be made. and, you know, as a policymaker, they may not always agree with some of the policies that i would make. but i think it's very important

to listen to the community, and their concerns, and to see what we could do to address those. >> supervisor stefani: what's your answer -- >> supervisor yee: and what's your answer around the use of tasers? >> the use of tasers? well the city of oakland has been using tasers for quite some time, i support less lethal forms of force, but i think that we need to do everything we can to train our officers to de-escalate incidents, and to have crisis training so that it doesn't get to that point. but, i support less lethal options, for sure. >> supervisor stefani: there was a second part to my question, which is what is your policy around things like tasers

and taking to the voters? >> no, i don't think so. >> supervisor safai: supervisor stefani? >> supervisor cohen: just a clarification. specifically to supervisor yee's question with the use of tasers, you support the use of a less lethal form. so you do support the use of tasers? >> yes, i do. >> supervisor cohen: all right. thank you. >> supervisor safai: miss everhart, you answered a lot of questions, we know again we had conversations. for the record, i met with every single applicants that put in an application and spent a lot of time and we have followed up if there was additional things, and we made ourselves available to an additional information. we did meet with every single applicant that what their application in in a timely manner. that is everyone that's in front of us today. so i appreciate the conversation that we had. in terms of -- just a policy reminder question, you are a san

francisco resident, but the majority of your work has been in oakland. this position is all about the work in san francisco, and effective policy and san francisco and police department in san francisco. how do you respond to that? >> sure. well, the majority of my family is from san francisco. i live in san francisco now. as i mentioned, with my work at part, i was in san francisco on san francisco issues pretty regularly and with san francisco stakeholders. you know, my time in the mayor's office, i was offered a position in the oakland mayor's office and i thought that we had an opportunity to make great changes in the city of oakland. but i also would like to mention that i mentioned in the sentences -- i worked in the san francisco district attorney's office when i was in law school, and also, when i worked on

haley's presidential campaign, that was also in san francisco and i worked a lot in the community at the northern california director. i have done work in both cities. >> supervisor safai: right. i guess what i'm referring to, this is something that is applicable to all of the folks that are in front of us today, the issues in san francisco, although some of them are universal, some of them are also very specific. and so being able to draw from community experience, but also experience in the workplace with the way in which policies have been implemented in san francisco, we have a whole to seven he do department of justice recommendations as upturns -- pertains to san francisco. that's very specific, right? there is munich -- work in the community that is very specific in terms of trying to guide the process. the relationship and the history of the san francisco poa is very specific.

this commission, i guess i will refrain from making any comment about this commission, but this commission has been working on some issues for a very long time, and in some ways, it's been tripping over itself, in my opinion. so, these are very specific to san francisco. this is not to minimize any of the work that you have done, as the supervisors have said, the work that you have done in san francisco in terms of working on police reform can be very informative, and in this position, you know, it could be very helpful to have fresh eyes, but how are you going to approach that specifically if you are selected to this commission? >> sure. as you stated, i think it's important to approach these issues with a lot of fresh eyes, and i have experience doing a lot of this type of work. i know what the challenges way for the city of oakland.

and how we overcame those challenges, and what some of the successes were and i would like to see, you know, us, here in san francisco, do what worked. for example,, partnering with stanford, i think would be a good thing to do, particularly to address bias. as one example, but i certainly would want to make sure that my work was representative of the community and san francisco. i would certainly meet with a lot of community stakeholders, and better understand what their issues are. i've had a lot of conversations with san francisco police officers so that i could learn more about the issues that they say, and i would want to make sure that my work on the commission was reflective of the

values of the san francisco community. >> supervisor safai: great. any other questions from the committee members? >> supervisor cohen: yeah,, i just wanted to touch on something you said in your remarks, and he said it again and kept highlighting stanford university. that's an interesting point because it's a larger contextual issue. one of the recommendations that came up in the department of justice, and even when i was doing the work around revamping the department of accountability, had to do with having a specific expert that would be able to analyse and process the data. and we were looking for an entity that would be independent and unbiased. there is a professor that is located at stanford they did a tremendous amount of work around police departments across the entire country. and so, in the last year and a half that we've been working with chief scott, we've been implementing very systematically, quite frankly, the 272 recommendations that the doj had given us two years ago,

just about. and we've already solidified, and find an mou to be working with the professor. so that is already afoot and underway. it is quite frankly, very exciting to know that we are moving in the direction. with that said, i think sfpd has made some considerable strides, particularly under the leadership to incorporate the recommendations from the department of justice, given the newcomb political climate with president trump at the white house, and jeff sessions, and i will close there. thank you very much for your interest. mr chair, i turn the rest over to you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. any other questions for miss everhart, right now? we will take a five-minute recess. please, thank you.