them. >> >> supervisor safai: we would like to welcome malia kohen. thank you for joining us. i would like to thank sf gov tv for staffing this meeting. madame clerk, any announcements before we begin? >> please make sure to silence all cell phones. completed speakers cards and copies of documents should be submitted to the clerk. items acted upon today will appear on the june 5th board of

supervisors agenda unless other wise stated. >> supervisor safai: great. please call item number one. >> item number one, the hearing to consider appointing one member, term ending april 30, 2019, and one member, term ending april 30, 2022, to the police commission. there are two open seats and 12 applicants. >> supervisor safai: great. so what we are going to do today folks, those applying, each applicant will have five minutes to make their presentation and we'll go through the entire list. after each presentation members of the committee should should be able to ask any questions. you should stay around for the entire hearing because most likely you will be called back up. then after the presentations of each applicant we will open it up for public comment. please call the name of the first applicant. >> our first applicant is linda franklin but she indicated earlier this morning she will not be attending. the next one is sneh rao.

>> thank you so much for having me before your committee today. i'm the policy director at the human rights commission. during my time in the city i have worked closely with our diverse communities and law enforcement agencies on a wide range of civil rights and public safety issues. i've worked with our lgbt q communities on hate violence and violence prevention. with our immigrants and latina communities, on sanctuary policies and know your rights, with our african-american communities on empowerment and equity, with our arab, muslt -- community on ethnic discrimination. with our jewish communities on antisenatism. i've worked with the san francisco police department, the district attorney's office, the

public defender and the sheriff's department on increasing safety for our most vulnerable populations but also for our law enforcement personnel. for me, the thread that ties this work together is my persistence in finding common ground that is not the lowest common denominator. i would bring that to the police commission. if appointed i would listen to and learn from the lived experience, the wisdom, the suggestions of our police officers and our community members. i will carry that knowledge into diligently working towards implementing the department of justice recommendations, particularly in the areas of use of force, bias and community policing. i know this is not easy work. particularly at this political moment in our city and this historical moment in our

country. i also know that i'm not the most likeliest candidate for police commissioner, but i will work tirelessly to build bridges and try my hardest to move us down the tough but important road towards lasting collaborative reform. thank you for your consideration. i would be happy to take any questio questions. >> supervisor safai: supervisor cohn, would you like to go first? >> yes. it's so great to see so many people committeed about the police commission. sf gov tv if you can get the camera on me, i want to show the stack of binders on my desk for the emphasis of the amount of work that needs to be done. these are binders from the san francisco police department, a part of their updates about

their collaborative reform. i'm excited because it's about time people get excited and pay attention because quite frankly a lot of the issues that the police department, the commission as well as the human rights commission -- the issues they are undertaking every day, yes, they are policy issues but most importantly they are life and death issues that have an impact on people's lives and our goal is to make sure they are positive impacts. if there are ever any point of a negative impact we need to begin to mitigate that. so, sir, thank you for your presentation. i appreciate the time that we were able to spend on the telephone to dive a little bit deeper into your desires to sit on the commission. to the over all applicants in the chamber, i just want to emphasize that there are few things that is important to me that i would like to hear reflected in your response. first of all, i understand you can skip the question as to why

you want to run. we know why you are interested in this awesome position. the main thing that i'm looking to hear from the applicants is what is your understanding of the role and the power and the authority of the police commission. this is a policymaking body that will have lasting effects, particularly -- not only these two appointments but also the two from the mayor -- on the mayor's side. we are at a point where we are rebuilding the commission and the folks that are going to be appointed will be sitting for the next four years. within that four year time we have no idea if chief scott will remain so that mains that this body, the police commission body will have an opportunity to have -- may have an opportunity to pick the next police chief. so i wanted to hear from people, i want to know about their management experience. i want to hear people's experience when it comes to discipline hearings and discipline matters that you've

taken within your own organization. i am looking to learn a little bit about if you are a subject matter expert on a particular topic. i want to know about your experience in working with collaborative body. the police commission is a committee and committee assignments are also dulled out and they have a very awesome responsibility and i need to know that there's leadership on the police commission and i need to know that there are people with a spine that is fortified with titanium able to stand up strong, even when it's an unpopular position. i need to be convinced that you can take the heat. sometimes the police commission hearings can become rukus and exciting. that's a good way to describe it, very exciting. when you think about what we are talking about, hearings on

officers, personnel records, particularly those that have found to be sending racists and homophobic texts, this is the climate that we are living in. i want to hear your understanding of department general orders, how familiar you are of them. are there any particular use of force -- excuse me. are there any particular recommendations from the blue ribbon panel or from the d.o.j. recommendations that you would like to spear head and to move forward. so i'm not looking to hear from novice, people who think it would be cool to serve. i only want to hear from people who have dedicated not only themselves, their professional lives but also their personal lives. i'm interested in people who have been at police commission meetings day in and day out when it's been unpopular and difficult, not when it's sensation sensationalized and the media cameras are paying attention.

i want to know that people are able to speak on some of the most current and pressing issues that are going before the commission right now and i want to be convinced that you are the right person to fill that role. this is an exciting time. police commissioners are very well respected. it would be an honor to serve on this commission. also noting that you're serving in a policy role so i'm not looking only to hear from an advocate's perspective but i also want to hear policy ideas, initiatives that you would be interesting in implementing and bringing forward before the -- before all of san francisco but specifically with the police commission. i also want you to have an understanding of your understanding of what it's like to be an officer in the city and county of san francisco. i want to hear about your understanding of the mentality, of the challenges. i want to hear your ideas about tra

traini training. i want to know where you stand on tasers. i would love to know how you stand on how you would define yourself as a leader. so that's just a little bit of some of the things that i would like to hear in your short 10-minute presentation. mr. rao, i know you already spent 6 minutes, 7 minutes of your time. you'll have an opportunity to spend the next three or four minutes answering specifically some of these questions. mr. chair, thank you for giving me an opportunity to be here and participate. >> supervisor safai: absolutely. >> if you don't mind i'm going to ask you a pointed question. i want to hear about what your ideas are or what your position is on the artery restraint policy? >> i'm not too familiar with that policy particularly but it's my understanding that the coratic restraint was out lawed

at sfpd and i think that's a good thing because i think that belongs blood flow to the brain and i think at a time when we are trying to heal our community and particularly look closely at force options and build trust with communities that feel that they have been disproportionally impacted by force, to take what appears to be and what others have agreed on as a particularly cruel method out of the tool kit seems sensible to me. >> all right. thank you very much. can you talk to me about interceptionalty? i think that's pretty important. often times people will talk about the composition of the police commission, it should have an african-american, asian, this and that. often times what is left off of the conversation is the lgbtq community. talk to me about intersectionalty? >> thank you for the question. i started at the human rights

commission on august 19th, 2013. that day my boss approaches me, she said, hey, in 48 hours i need you to facilitate a town howl communities between mission police and the lgbt community because they have had hate profiled incidents and we are trying to build trust. by the way, could you facilitate that in spanish. so that was my first assignment. i spent the next 48 hours awake doing all the due diligence, learning about the issues that have occurred to our transgender latino community, learning about the efforts that had and had not been made by the san francisco police department. intersectionality was at the heart. it lies at the nexis of multiple struggles. many would identify as

monolingual spanish speaking. many would identify as undocumented. when you look at their relationships with law enforcement in their home countries as well as here in their host countries, they are sometimes best defined as tough. that's not even talking about the marginalization in terms of gender identity or sexual orientation or the historic marginalization in terms of socio, political or economic spears of our country. that's a community that lies at the intersection of multiple identities. i thought that it was helpful to go into that meeting with an intersection al approach. that's a partnership that we started in 2013. that's a partnership that i'm proud to lead to this day on behalf of the hrc. meeting people where they are at in terms of their lived experience in multiple identities is critical and it's critical for law enforcement. that day we were benefitted by having law enforcement officers, sfpd officers in the room at the

time. at that time it was captain moezer. he was in the room sharing about how you have the right to ask for a spanish-speaking officer on the spot. you have the right for the police officer to respond to you in the genderonopr of your choice. if you feel that you were mistreated by an officer you have to right to ask for that officer's superior on the spot. that i thought was really, really helpful for our translatina community to hear. not from me, not from advocates or out reach providers but from the captain of the police officer that's two blocks from their organization. that's one thing. then you said about not only bringing an lgbt voice but what is it about, you know, intersectionality as a commissioner. supervisor, may i answer that? >> supervisor safai: sure. >> so this is something that i take very seriously. i'm a proud member of the lgbtq

community. i'm a proud member of asian-american community. in my work at the human rights commission i never saw it as my job just to do the work of the lgbt community or just to do the work of the asian-american, south asian community. i've gone above and beyond to build bridges with communities that might not be my own in the demograph demographic sense but is my own in the sense of neighbors. i think commissioner, yes as an lgbt person or as another demographic member you bring that lived experience and hopefully that lived experience is formative in your policymaking work. you have a responsibility to reach across our communities, form relationships and bring those viewpoints, those struggles, those challenges into your policymaking deliberation. >> i appreciate that. thank you for sharing. i didn't get about this but i'm

going to pose a question here. it's a little bit of something that we need to disc that's the fact that you're a city and county employee. how do you reconcile working for the city and county of san francisco, the hrc that terfaces with the police commission but also with the police department and as well as with the community? so on one hand i can see it as a double -- i see it as a double edged sword, it's a benefit working with all these communities already professio l professionally but i'm wondering how you as a city employee would be elevated to a policymaking body that's setting policy for other city employees, can you reconcile that for me? >> sure. so since i started i have prided myself in offering to my leadership, my executive director, city stake holders independent analysis on a wide range of civil rights and public safety issues. i'm a public servant at the

human rights there. as a permanent civil servant that bolters my commitment even more to, yo you -- you know, calling it as a see it with disregard to how the political winds are blowing at that moment. that is a commitment i walked in with in august of 2013 and that's a commitment that i'll leave with. >> i'm going to pivot to the deputy city attorney real quick. mr. gibner, how are you? i know that you are happy to be here, we are happy to see you. it's always nice. i wanted to get a legal opinion, some kind of an understanding. we have a civil servant employee that is looking to be appointed to a commission. is there a precedent for that? that frowned upon? accepted? what are your thoughts on that? >> deputy city attorney. i can't say whether it's frowned upon or accepted as a policy matter. that's a choice for you

to make. >> i wonder what the charter says. >> there are no laws that prohibit city employees from serving on the police commission. there could be legal ethic issues that are -- or legal conflict issues, excuse me, with the dual role that we would work out with mr. rao and probably would involve a longer conversation between my office and him specifically about his rule at the hrc and how it could over lap. there's no prohibition. >> thank you for bringing that charity. mr. chair, no other questions. >> supervisor safai: so that's one of the questions that i wanted to ask as well, mr. rao, not to hamper on that because i have other questions for you. the definition of your role is to set policy and work with the community on initiatives that

deal with this exact work, public safety issues, civil rights. how do you reconcile that? whether there's a legal conflict or a perceived conflict, you have this one role that you're wearing and we often have that in our position -- i mean, we have multiple roles but there's this concept of conflict of interest, not necessarily based on financial but based on implementation of the work that you're doing. how do you reconcile that? it's not a matter of who you're exit -- committed to and whether you're a civil servant or not but in this role you would be in a policymaking position, overseeing a body that you then in another role in your day-to-day 9:00 to 5:00 or however -- i know you work past 5:00 because you do a lot of community work, but how do you reconcile that conflict? >> thank you, chair for that question. i compartmentalize a lot in my

personal life and professional life. that's what i would bring with me for any conflict that might arise, in addition to what i said around supervisor cohn. it might be an independent civil serva servant. if there was an assignment to the human rights commission with sfpd i would be the first to ask to be recused from that assignment and there's talented people who could handle that assignment. when i say civil rights and public safety as part of my job descripti description, like if i wanted to change an add policy so to prevent antiarab, antimuslim hate speech on our transit vehicles. that to me is a fundamental public safety issue. we had hundreds if not thousands of people seeing messages on our bus systems, our transit

platforms that really aren't sharing in the values of san francisco. we worked with community stake holders across the board and mta leadership and others to change that ad policy as to ban hate speech. that to me is a public safety issue. even if, for example, i may need to ask for reassignment when it comes to public safety issues that are dealing directly with sfpd i would ask my executive director to reassign those to a talented staff member at hrc that could see those through. i see myself moving forward with civil rights and public safety issues. i think that public safety is something that all of us can impact and particularly some of our bigger agencies. >> supervisor safai: i'm going to -- i see supervise yee has been waiting. i have a few more questions but i'm going to move to supervisor yee. >> supervisor yee: thank you, chair. i think supervisor cohn asked a

range of perspectives for you to express and she mentioned tasers. since tasers really is a hot topic at this point, i would just ask specifically what is your stance on tasers and whether -- and then related to that, whether or not you believe that it should be the policy that those regulations of policies around tasers should be made by the vote of the people? >> thank you, supervisor. tasers have concerned me. to put it frankly. i worry that they don't replace firearms and i worry they place deus -- deescalation of timing, space as part of the training.

i'm also worried about the impact of tasers on our minority communities, particularly our african-american communities. i was a part of a taser policy working group that advised the san francisco police commission over the course over the last year on tasers. i was joined by the aclu, the bar association and coalition of the homelessness and other stake holders. at the end of the day the research that we did showed that after tasers were implemented by metro police departments across the country it resulted in a spike in officer involved shootings. so i'm in fact concerned that tasers don't replace firearms. i know a lot of the talking points around tasers might lead one to believe they do. i haven't found compelling research they decrease officer-involved shootings. as to your point, you know, i think it eludes to proposition h. you know, i think the san francisco police commission as the civilian oversight body for

the san francisco police department should set policy for the department, particularly when it comes to force options and even more particularly when it comes to potentially lethal force options. i regret that we are at this place with prop h. i think what it does unfortunately is crowd sources policy at the ballot box on a very technical and potentially lethal weapon and i don't see that as the most responsible way forward on that issue. >> supervisor yee: thank you. just so that the other candidates are coming up, if you could answer the same question when you come up. >> supervisor safai: any other questions for this particular candidate? i have a couple questions to follow up as well. i'll give you two at a time. if you can make your answers briefer because we have 12 ple here today. it's final. i appreciate the in depth response. so can you talk a little bit

about your own personal experiences, maybe with interacting with the police department and how those experiences might benefit your work on the commission and/or -- and then also work th the community. the role that you all are in, you have to be able to work with all different departments, you have to work with -- you're in a position of doing disciplinary as as supervisor cohn said. first i would like to hear about your own personal interactions with the police department and how that would form your work and then secondly to drill in on one of the questions she laid out, what have you personally been involved in in terms of your line of work in doing disciplinary review? >> thank you. as for my personal intersections with law enforcement in san francisco, the few times that i have had personal interactions with the san francisco police department i want to be honest, they have been great. they have been great. but i will -- if we can broaden

the definition of law enforcement to include the department of homeland security and tsa after 9/11, i will say that that is one area where i have felt unsafe. not because of aing that was done to me. it's because of a perception i had going into an airport with a beard or the motivation that i speculated on that something could have happened when they pulled me aside for a secondary search. you know, in the context of post-9/11 i have felt on guard with law enforcement in our airports. i think that's mostly my own bringing to the table. you know, i think that's the issue that we grapple with. a lot of the trust issues we have in our communities, some of them are real trust gaps based on personal interactions, some of them are perceived trust gaps that i shouldn't do this, i should shouldn't act that way

because of our communities historical relationship with that law enforcement agency. on the personal issue i would leave it at that. then on the second -- sorry. >> supervisor safai: second question. >> then on the second question, i have not directly participated in disciplinary review in the sense that you are referring to where the police commission would exercise that responsibility. i have been a part of the leadership team at the human rights commission. i've been involved in hiring staff, overseeing a $4 million budget at my previous organization i over saw ten program officers based across latin america and investigated a range of human rights issues. i think at the heart of the disciplinary review process is are you able to look at all of the facts and make sound judgment based on those facts in an objective fashion. that's work that i did in 10 or 12 latin american countries. that's work that i've done with

a range of human rights issues in our city. you know, i would bring a sense of independence, judgement to any disciplinary cases before me. >> supervisor safai: and then another question supervisor cohn talked about or referred to were the d.o.j. reforms. which of those reforms do you think is the most important and how do you think that you in your role as a commissioner would help to move those reform measures forward? >> thank you. so, you know, i think the d.o.j. recommendations in a whole as a use of force, hiring practices, recruitment retention offer a blueprint for how we build trust with our communities. if i had to narrow it down i would say recommendation 1.1 is critical. i think that it's 1.1 for a

reason, i think that it's the most important. recommendation 1.1 talks about how between 2013 and 2016 of the 11 fatal officer-involved shootings nine of them involved people of color. the department of justice asked us really research that, bring in an outside institution and understand why it was the case that the overwhelming majority of those people were people of color. could it -- institutional bias could be at play and we need more bias training certainly. what are other factors that may have impacted that? could it have been that they were coming from a high stress situation into another high stress situation. was it around calls for service, was it around training, was it around who their supervisor was? i think some in depth analysis around that would go a long way in building trust with our

communities and i think that we are all worthy of that effort. >> supervisor safai: supervisor stefani? >> supervisor stefani: thank you. i'm wondering how you would work around policies that bring all viewpoints into question. >> the first recommendation from the d.o.j. was community policing. there's those that interact with law enforcement or are touched by sfpd activity that the police didn department did not adhere to the rights of justice. like the right to be notified as to what you've done wrong. the right to present your case,

the right to a fair hearing. this is a pal pable sense and the department of justice flagged this for us. i think if we can move forward just with that one very simple area -- so sorry, not simple. there's nothing simple about it. in just that one recommendation narrowly move forward on increasing awareness around the principals of procedural justice, what are the policies of when they are arriving at a scene and there could be an altercation? how does the sfpd intac with people on the scene? what are the rights of the people on the scene? i think that could go a long way in building trust. i think the way we can do that some of the infrastructure we have in place the chief has forums. i think that we can leverage the chief's forums. there's a great program, the community safety initiative, that my executive director cheryl davis was one of the cofounders of. you know, working with young people. i think that we need to have forums and use those forums to

address procedural justice issues and know your rights capacity to start building trust. once we do that accountability is critical and making sure our department of police accountability is doing its out reach to make sure communities are aware of that recourse mechanism. >> supervisor stefani: thank you for that answer. another thing that i was going to mention and you did mention is the implicit bias training. i don't know if -- have you had a chance to take implicit bias training in the city? >> i have my and my colleague zoe would hate that i am mentioning her name, is one of the architects of that training. i just wanted to give credit where it's due. i think that it's powerful. >> supervisor stefani: i do too. i've had that training as county clerk and it was amazing. i think it's something -- one of my conversations with jill marshall was that he was going to work on training and that was the next thing he really wanted to work on. i'm wondering if you would commit to that as the police

commissioner and how you see that playing out as a role? >> absolutely. i think two years back the department sort of leadership went through a bias training program at the time and that included command staff and others in leadership positions. i would love to expand that to all officers. i understand they are pressed for time. there's a lot of training that needs to happen. i can't imagine a more important training that has to happen at this political moment in our city. >> supervisor stefani: i agree. thanks. >> supervisor safai: meet and confer, what do you think about that and how do you think about hindering that concept? >> thank you for that question. i love our unions, organized labor, collective bargaining. i understand for a process as

the tool that is used between management and labor to reach consensus under a wide range of issues that could have effect working conditions. i suspect your question is in terms of the department of justice recommendations, the 272 recommendations and which ones may or may not in fact constitute a change in working conditions. i would defer to our city attorney for guidance on which of the recommendations constitutes a change and which may or may not trigger the meet and confer process. that is something that i would need sort of guidance from from our city attorney lawyers and other experts. >> supervisor safai: have you ever worked with organized labor in this city? >> i have not. >> supervisor safai: have you attended -- another question that supervisor cohn asked in

terms of everyone that's going to be speaking today, in terms of your presentation, have you attended police commission hearings, not just recently as it's been part of the news but more over the course of the last few years? >> you know, i was definitey at a couple meetings that lasted until midnight in november and march. i attended a couple other meetings. i would say, you know, i can't recall exactly how many but i've attended them. i would say more so within the last couple of years, not since i started at the hrc. >> supervisor safai: thank you. any other members of the body have anymore questions right now for mr. rao? okay. please have a seat. we will call you back up if we have further questions. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. please call the next person.

madame clerk, please call the next name. >> next applicant is julie soo. >> supervisor safai: miss soo, please come forward. you have five minutes to address the body maximum and then we will ask you questions. >> thank you, supervisors. i come before you today because i have the experience and the capacity to serve in this very important commission. since 2009 i've served on the commission on the status of women, i've served on the saint francis memorial hospital board and i also serve on state and national boards where i fight hate crimes, look at racial profiling. i've worked -- i've been a professional for the last 18 years at the department of insurance as an attorney. the last 16 which i've been an enforcement attorney levelling disciplinary actions against agents, insurance agents and brokers. it really takes the community and that's why i'm here bridges

with the police force. i believe with everyone at the take we have better results. so for example with the domestic violence homicides, for a while we had at least a dozen domestic violence homicides per year. only with the justice encouraged panel convened by the department on the status of women and the commission on the status of women were we able to tackle that problem and now we have the family violence council. for a while we were able to reduce the domestic violence homicides down to zero. that is because we had representatives from the da's office, the police. also the courts, social workers, people from the school district. so i believe in a collaborative approach. when everyone is at the table we have better results. i also look at some very basic things of our citizens. they look for public safety. i have at least a dozen 89-year-old aunts, people who

grew up with my mother elementary school through high school and still live isn't the city today. some solve them -- some of them drive, many don't. they don't ride public transportation when they don't feel safe. i would say the same thing with school children. the immigrant community is of upmost important to me, particularly the limited english proficient or the isolated immigrants that don't have english capacity at all. i worked on the equal access to ordnance service here. it lost by 36 votes but supervisor mark leno was able to pick that up. i conducted the public hearings on that and i worked with the city attorney's office on language and together we built something that is an important function for the entire city. i believe in a we and us versus

them kind of mentality. so if everyone at the table we can look at statistics, data collection metrics and reports and that leads to accountability. the key issues identified in the 2016d.o.j. report talks about use of force, bias, community collaborative policing, accountability and recruitment. we can't have accountability if we don't have metrics and statistics. much of the report also talked about incomplete reports or inadequate reports and they even mentioned templates. if you listen to many of the audio tapes from the commission on the status of women, i have talked about templates, stand d standardizing recording and making it easier so we have numbers and accurate data. i do come from my previous background before i became an attorney was mathematician and statustician. it's important to measure deficiencies so we know where we are moving forward.

i believe that i have additional relationships within the community. i'm not just someone who knows about the community but i am e mersed in the community and i believe going out into field rips. many people don't feel comfortable coming to city hall and i believe that it's vital for communers -- commissioners to be in the communities so they get an idea of is what on their minds. we will have a change in the mayor in 18 months from now and we may have another change in the mayor. we also may be losing a police chief. i think this position takes someone who has experience, who has some kind of consistency. there's still a learning curve. i'm used to sorting through tons of documents, tons of numbers. i've been with the democratic party platform committee as a cochair and i rallied at least

30 writers and taken public testimony to craft a single document on policy. >> supervisor safai: great. thank you. questions? supervisor yee. >> supervisor yee: i asked a question about the issue of tasers and where you stand with tasers and where you stand with whether or not there should be policies that is driven by public votes? >> so my initial reaction to tasers was that i am absolutely against them. they can be lethal to themselves. i've spoken to different jurisdictions many civilians, many city councils. they believe that tasers offer another often. i don't think that things should go to the ballot box. it's the job of the

commissioners to take public testimony and public view into account as they are crafting policy. when you have something at the ballot box any little change has to go back to the ballot box. so you are delaying any kind of implementation of policy. you also have the process of developing recommendations of a policy, commission recommendation into general orders. that also takes time. as you -- this body has mentioned, the meet and confer process. that's another layer of time delay. yonl -- i don't think that things should go to the ballot box. right now with the body cameras that have been implemented i believe that another tool -- the police with adequate training are ready to consider another tool. i have spoken to some police officers as well and they feel that batons are potentially more lethal tan tasers. -- than tasers.

>> supervisor safai: next question. do you want me to ask your favorite question? >> supervisor yee: sure. >> supervisor safai: have you attended any commission meetings? if you have how many over the last few years? >> i have not attended them in person in the last few years. i do work collaborative with police officers, particularly with domestic violence and human trafficking issues. i also attend task force involving the fbi, homeland security on these particular issues. when i was president of the commission on the status of women i was very concerned about lack of language access, particularly with domestic violence victims and also implementation of the justice data system and so i requested a meeting with -- a joint meeting with the police commission, thomas masuko was president and we worked collaborative on that. so we were satisfied that going forward there would be monitoring from both of our

commissions on language access and accountability by police officers. >> supervisor safai: so this is your second time applying the last few years. what would you say about -- is different in terms of now, applying now verses then and what have you experienced or seen that motivated you to apply again for this position? >> i think i've been concerned because now we have the communi community being uncomfortable with each other. we have african-american men hauled away in the starbucks waiting to use the restroom. we have reports from african-americaning wanting to barbecue at lake merit. i see an escalation of hate crimes. in the 1990s on i worked on an asian caucus. if we put aside politics we can

get something done. i saw the documentary or nora manetta and george w. bush when he was president did not want to round up our muslim american brothers and sisters because he did not want them to suffer the same same fate -- same fate he had when he was interned as a child. >> supervisor safai: thank you. supervisor cohn or supervisor stefani? >> i'll go. >> supervisor safai: supervisor cohn. >> you served on the women's commission for how in years? >> since 2009. >> you're still a commissioner there? >> yes. >> i like your background, i like the fact that you have a mass background. one of the things i've tried to do in my work in working with our police department has to do with the gathering of data and

statistics when it comes to stops and searchs, when it comes to a myriad of stats. i think that would be an interesting perspective for consideration on the police commission. would you be willing to use that part of your background skills to help dive down because one of the things -- you might be familiar with com stat? >> yes. >> it's a vehicle and mechanism that collects a lot of data. part of our challenges is that data is not really easy to digest and to create reports. it's hard for us to know whether or not, say, officer with badge number 123 has a repeated history of unlawful searchs and seizures or has a uncanny ability to pull over people in the mission district. the point i'm trying to make is there's a story that can be told

by the numbers and i think that that would be an interest -- that'sing in -- that's interesting in your background. however what does concern me is this is your second time applying to the police commission and i asked the question over a year and a half ago if you attended a police commission meeting and you said no. that was in my opinion a very difficult hurdle for me to just get over. here you come today asking again the question if you've attended a police commission hearing and the answer is still no. i'd like for you to reconcile how can you come to this body and ask for appointment to a commission you haven't attended? >> good question, supervisor. even though i have not attended i continue to work with different police task forces in my work on the commission on the status of women. i also monitor the meetings by looking at the agenda and the minute items and i've kept abreast of the issues that have happened on the police commission. i also attend town hall meetings when they are held by the

commission. so they are off site. they are not necessarily in city hall or -- >> which town hall meetings did you attend? >> in the communities such as west portal and other communities where they are talking about public safety or there are community concerns. >> so to be quite fair, watching something on television and experiencing it in the committee room is a very important experience because the energy is so raw when you have to experience when they shut down the meeting because of protesting and you can feel the anger and the intensity. that doesn't translate necessarily on television and certainly doesn't translate in the minutes. i want to know there's a person that can withstand that heat. it's intense. >> i understand that and i have taken heat on different

positions. some issues are not right on our platform and i have taken heat for that. i am used to dealing with a lot of emotion. i also take very seriously the work i do from day-to-day. i do take public testimony in terms of translating what has been passed by the legislature into regulation. >> thank you for checking my assumption and for highlighting that. my final question is for you to describe your work in communities. you described chinese seniors, you described some work within the women's community as a commissioner on the commission on the status of women. i want to hear about the work that you've done about the most -- the work that you've done within communities that are most

impacted by the police. >> there's a growing immigrant

chinese community. if we don't have things and message -- and language, we can never be good representatives. >> let's talk about the statistics. we are not always talking about police interactions. we are talking about this and the asian community. i want to talk about your experience and understanding in being able to connect with real fears within the district and with in the neighborhood. that is what i am trying to feed out. because of on one thing that i m hearing that concerns me is that you are focused on the trends, and understanding what the trends are. but less on what real people are experiencing on the streets. quite frankly, a lot of times these aren't even reports that are made, or reported. it is pulled through and you hear it at the barbershop, you

know, to hear it in the streets. i want you to tell me the work, your level of understanding and being able to humanize a black man's experience and rationalize his fear for walking down the street. rationalize, -- you reference it by being black and that is trending, but being able to put, maybe, a friend or make it real. you know, people's lives and what it's like to be profiled, what it's like -- and being able to be empathetic and being able to understand. to walk into a grocery store and be profiled. to walk into a higher supply store and they want you to check your bag. that is the level of specificity that i want to see here from you on your level of understanding, when again, we are talking about community is that high hat -- have this interaction.

>> i wholeheartedly agree with you. the statistics are usually underreported. i brought that up first because they don't even report. but the black and brown communities, it is... i went to st. louis and i was taken to where michael brown was shot and i met with community leaders. i think one of your members was there, and to find out -- this is a holistic approach. >> what reason did you go there? >> what reason? >> yeah. >> i went there to screen my film. >> i you went there not really to dig and, you went to screen a film? >> i went to screen out -- screen a film and i was invited by the community because i saw that -- >> the point is draw -- that i am driving, is like you almost went there to interact and get first-hand experience but actually went there for other reasons and it was convenient for you to be part of this

panel, and convenient for you to experience ferguson. do you see? >> i would not say it was convenient for me, i again to the trust of the community for them to want me to go there and see what happens there. i also, if i may finish, i have past experience as a journalist. i was elected as a healthcare journalist. i was in oakland with the use of rising community organization behind a high school. a man who is one of the alameda county public health doctors said that if a young african-american man does not finish high school, his life expectancy is cut. if that doesn't shock everybody in this room, our entire community, then i don't know what would get to you. >> beyond the shock and all, beyond the headline, beyond the superficial, i met a gentleman,

have you kept a relationship with him, did you help them get into college, did you help them raise any money, i am looking for real action. my other question is, for what reason are you interested in leaving the commission on the status of women that has done a phenomenal work? i applaud that commission. why do you want to leave that commission to go to the police commission? >> i feel like i can add more to the police commission. it's broader in scope. and we are also looking at sanctuary policies, and overall criminal justice. that is why i want to. >> all right. speaking of sanctuary policies, a former member of the board of supervisors has taken an interest in this position when it comes to sanctuary city. can you talk about your opinion on what she is saying? assuming that you, i mean -- >> i've been following it. i have not spoken to her personally. i know she earlier on had crafted policies when she was a

member of the board of supervisors. i believe in sanctuary policy because we are less safe when people don't feel like they can come out and report when they are victims of crime. i don't believe that the policy was to harbour people who have felonies and in particular, violent felonies. >> you would believe with angela's position? >> if it is narrowly tailored, yes. >> thanyou why. i have no other questions. >> supervisor stefani? >> supervisor stefani: thank you. have you, yourself, had implicit bias training and how do you feel about bringing that to the police department? >> yes, we have called it unconscious bias training. i go through a lot of training as a state employee, estate attorney as well as a commissioner. and i am proud that i scored well on it not having a lot of bias. i think everyone carries some

bias based on personal experiences, and i believe that, just as we had the family violence in that school district involved. , unconscious bias should start an elementary school, because all of these perceptions begin at a very young age. i think it's vital for every police officer. we can't have good recruitment and training unless we have suitable candidates who don't come in with particular biases and stereotyping against communities of colour. >> supervisor stefani: thank you. one of the other things you mentioned was your work on domestic violence and i want to thank you for your work and reminded me of a law that was passed recently. it allows a family member to petition a court to remove firearms from those who are a danger to themselves or others. and wants a judg once a judge da firearm should be removed, the police department then has to go in and make a welfare check and

remove any weapons. it is my understanding, at this time the police department have not yet formed any policy around that. so as a police commissioner, would you be watching for state laws that come down that require the police department to enact new policies around laws that are as important as this? given era gun violence epidemic, it is something that is so extremely important. i want to know that people are watching when laws are passed in this state that requires police departments for -- to pass new things, and you would be watching for that and helping them implement them. >> indeed i would. at the department, on the status of women, we have a legislative a monitorinmonitoring group to r particular laws. the laws are empty unless they are in forest and they're monitored. i also would advocate that there are more women officers going on well for -- welfare checks when we had those kidnapping cases? -...

from a personal experience with the police, it goes back to my grandfather. he recalls when he was nine or ten years old and that would have been in the not early 19 hundreds. a white mob went through chinatown and killed his uncle about the police did nothing about it because it was a chinese person. language wasn't an issue. my grandfather grew up bilingual. i had that particular experience. even back then, because of the chinese eight exclusion act and the exclusionary act, they could not testify in court, even if the perpetrator were caught. and then more modernly, my on my father's side of the family, i had a cousin who emigrated with his parents. my father's brother's family, in 1982 this country. a couple years later, he disappeared. there's been no word about what happened to him. his mom has since passed away. there has not been closure for that family. i have been heartened and that

at least the police officers were dedicated on cold cases would check in periodically to see, and to inform what's been going on. >> any other questions right now from committee members? seeing then, please have a seat and we will call you back if we have any further questions. please call the next applicant. >> the next applicant is... >> hello. >> one more time, and slowly. >> please call me nana, everyone does. it makes things a lot easier. i have my law° and my mba in finance. i am a member of the estate board of california. after completing graduate school, i worked or ernst and young,di