>> good morning. the meeting will come to order. welcome to the thursday, april 8th meeting of the public safety & neighborhood services. i'm supervisor gordon mar, and i joined by stefani and matt haney. [inaudible] >> thank you to clerk john carroll. mr. clerk, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: yes, thank you, mr. chair. in order to protect the public, board members and city employees during the covid-19 health emergency, the board of supervisors chamber and committee room are closed. this is taken to all various local, state, and federal orders.

members will attend the meeting through video conference. public comment will be available for each item on this agenda, sfgovtv.org, and we're screening a call-in number across the screen at this time. your opportunity to speak will be available to you via phone. you will dial 415-655-0001, and once you're connected and prompted, entering the meeting i.d. 1878615621and then press ##. when you're connected, your line will be muted and in listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up, dial star followed by three to be added to the speaker line.

the system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly, and turn down your television, radio, or streaming advice. everyone must account for time lapses in today's meeting. alternatively, you can e-mail me, john carroll, and my e-mail address is john.carroll@sfgov.org. alternatively, you can send your written comments to our office and city hall. room 244, city hall, 1 carlton goodlet place, san francisco, california,

94102. and, additionally, mr. chair, we have coordinated interpretation services to be provided by a gentleman named david chu. i would ask if he could provide a brief introduction of himself in chinese. >> hello, everyone, good morning. i'm david chu. i am an interpreter who can speak both cantonese. cant and(indiscernable). i will be able to assist anybody who needs interpretation support. i will be there. >> clerk: mr. chu, can you provide those comments in chinese for any chinese people we have on the line or who are watching the show? >> okay.

[speaking chinese] >> clerk: thank you. >> and finally, mr. chair, any items acted upon today would appear on the board meeting of april 20th unless otherwise stated. >> chairman: thank you, mr. clerk. and thank you, mr. chu, for providing interpretation and ensuring language access for this meeting. please call item 1. >> clerk: agenda 1 is an ordinance suspending (indiscernable) regarding issuance of certain violations and -- excuse me -- waiving certain unpaid assessment fees and fines due to covid-19 emergency. members of the public who

wish to provide public comment should call the public comment number, 415-655-0001. enter the meeting i.d. 1878615621, and then press ## and *3 to enter the queue to speak. mr. chair? >> chairman: thank you. graffiti, like so many issues, have become more challenging during covid. thank you so much, supervisor ronen, for bringing this item forward. the floor is yours. >> thank you so much, chair mar. i appreciate you for having us. the ordinance before you today will temporarily suspend the (indiscernable) for graffiti. i want to thank supervisor chan for your sponsorship. it makes it unlawful both for a person to damage or

deface property with graffiti, as well as for an owner to allow graffiti to remain on private property. it allows public works to issue a notice of violation to a business or property owner ordering removal of graffiti, with fines and possibilities if the own fails to comply with a short timeline. at this time, when small businesses are struggling to stay afloat during shutdowns, to adjust to quickly shifting guidelines and practices and to creatively promote new ways of doing business in outdoor spaces, in demoralizing for the city to force merchants to clean up after vandals or to face fees or penalties. my staff and i hear from small businesses all of the time, as i'm sure you all do as well. they are struggling to hold on, they are tired and they are stressed. and just when we should be offering help, giving them hope, they're handed a notice or a ticket. first their shops are vandalized, and then the city comes along and cites them. i want to share a couple

of examples with you, although i know you all know these stories very, very well. elizabeth vasqué, who owns a mexican grill, her outdoor parklet has been tagged many times, and she has repeatedly painted over the graffiti. nevertheless, the city inspector showed up for, and i, quote, "consultation visit." elizabeth wants to continue painting over the tags, so why is there a worry she will be cited. [inaudible] >> he called the city to ask why he had been charged an inspection fee before the deadline for abatement, but couldn't get a clear answer on what was expected of him. additionally, it took him weeks to get info on how

to apply for a hardship waiver. i think we can assume that every small business on our corridor is facing hardship. why make them go through a prolonged process to prove it? there is a request to waive fees, but that puts the onus on the merchants to take that step. specifically this legislation will suspend the portion of the graffiti ordinance that allows citations to be issued to private owners for the duration of the emergency order and waives any pending fees or fines back to january 1, 2021. the city will continue to be responsible for removing graffiti on public property and will also be allowed to respond quickly to paint over offensive hate speech graffiti. i know that every one of you has been very clear that saving small businesses is a top priority. most san franciscans agree and are stepping up to shop local and help keep

local businesses alive. now is the time to walk that talk and make it easier for them to keep going. that is the message they should be hearing from us, that we have their backs. let's think creatively how we're spending city resources. i'm ready to work with public works, the graffiti board, and the office of small business to find constructive ways to deal with graffiti, rather than expecting our small businesses, the victims in this case, to shoulder the burden. how can we invest and incentivize our murals? can we expand (indiscernable) and creative core programs to paint empty storefronts. thank you to supervisor haney and stefani.

it is hitting across our very different districts. i i appreciate the small business commission for flagging this, and i want to thank small commissioner dajana. i want to thank amy biner, my chief-of-staff, who did the heavy lifting on this legislation and works every single day for small businesses in our city, especially in our district, to help them. amy, you are just amazing. and i'm so grateful for all of your work on this. and we don't have any formal presentation, but my co-sponsors, who are here, they want to say a few works, and public works is here and available to answer any questions, if there are any. i hope we will send this item forward to the full board with recommendation. thanks so much. >> chairman: thank you,

supervisor ronen, again for this. yeah, this is a very important measure, a step that we should take as a city, to support our neighborhood businesses impacted by graffiti and provide some relief. i would love to be added as a co-sponsor as well. supervisor stefani? >> yeah, thank you chair mar and to supervisor ronen, thank you so much for this legislation. when you mentioned it in roll call that day, i know i texted you and said, i want to read that legislation and co-sponsored it as soon as i read it. i think it is vital, and i can't thank you enough. after the horrible year we had in 2020, and our small businesses are suffering so badly, we need to do everything we can to help them. i think we can address graffiti and vandalism without victimizing the small businesses.

so thank you so much. i'm so proud to be able to co-sponsor this legislation, and do everything we can to make sure our small businesses survive through this incredibly difficult time we have all had. thank you, supervisor ronen. >> chairman: supervisor haney? >> thank you chair mar and supervisor ronen and staff. this is a really common-sense thing, especially during the pandemic. a lot of our small businesses are not open. they're not open in regular hours. there has been an increase in property crime and our small businesses have been victimized. and i have heard from many of them about how demoralizing it is when they're the victims, to then turn around and be fined by their own city. so this is really the least that we can do. we can solve this problem. we can address this problem. we can take responsibility for this problem as a city without penalizing people who have been the victims

themselves. we also, you know, in district 6, have a lot of opportunities to destroys graffiti with the support of c.d.c.s and other community partners. and i think we should be supporting and geraldo investing in that even more. and we can address it in an active way, and the city taking responsibility, not expecting small businesses, who are already struggling, to take this on themselves or be fined themselves as a result of being the victims of a crime. so thank you again to supervisor ronen. i'm proud to be a co-sponsor, and also supervisor stefani and the other folks who have worked on this. thank you. >> chairman: supervisor chan? >> thank you, chair mar. i want to thank supervisor ronen for your leadership on this legislation. when i have discussed this with some of our small businesses, they saw that

this is just wonderful news. so i just want to thank you. and i wanted to agree with supervisor haney's suggestion, and that we actually could go the other direction in supporting our small businesses by investing in them. and instead of punishing them for graffiti, that we, as a city, we should provide them the resources and support them. just seeing how great, in terms of the murals in supervisor ronen's district going on, i think in the richmond, in district 1, we would love to see the investments from the city bringing artists together, bringing our communities and community organizations together to support our small businesses to create more murals that is really unique to our neighborhood in that direction, in that investment. and i think this is a great first step to support our small

businesses towards making our neighborhoods more vibrant, and it's what we need to recover from our economy. so thank you. >> chairman: great. thanks, colleagues, for all of your remarks. white don't we go to public comment. mr. clerk, are there any callers on the line. >> clerk: thank you, mr. chair. we're working today with james smith from the department of technology to coordinate our public comment speaker line. i want to mention is brief bit of housekeeping, which is today's meeting was noticed as a potential special quorum of the full board of -- with supervisors ronen, chan, and milgar on the line. today's meeting will be conducted as a regular committee meeting. moving on to public comment, mr. smith is informing me we have roughly six listeners and one in the queue. those connected via none, please press star,

followed by three. if you wish to be added to speak to this item, which is item 1. for those on hold in the queue, please wait until you're prompted to begin. for those who are watching our meeting on cable 26 or through sfgovtv.org, if you wish to speak on this ordinance, call the following number: 415-655-0001. enter the meeting i.d. 1878615621, and then press ## and *3. mr. smith, could you please bring us our public commenters. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is morris garcia. i'm calling to provide a comment on behalf of (indiscernable) who unfortunately had a medical issue come up last night. but feels very strongly in

this ordinance and asked me to rely a statement on her behalf. i'm the district 9 resident visual artist. i want to commend the board for the actions you have taken to support the community (indiscernable) to creative canvasses for artists, and also to point out they have also been targets of graffiti. i'm calling to support the ordinance to suspend and waive the fees for small businesses. we must ensure we're supporting locally-owned businesses that have been and continue to be financially and emotionally impacted by the pandemic. by suspending and waiving the fees, we are helping to make sure that the businesses are not hampered and further strained by the fines. i fully support the

proposal for suspending and waiving fees. >> chairman: thank you for sharing those comments. mr. smith, could you please bring us the next caller. >> hi. good morning. my name is elizabeth vasquez. i also support you guys waiving the fees for the graffiti for the small businesses. my business is on 24th street, between brian and florida. and it had been graffitied about five to six times, and i kept getting complaints from the city. i guess my neighbors would call 3-1-1 and then they came and gave me a courtesy visit from, i believe it was the department of public works, and they called it a compensation visit. and they gave me only a few days to fix the graffiti and make all of the fixtures that they

wanted done. so, yes, i agree that everything -- the fees being given to the small businesses in regards to the small businesses should be waived, because we're just trying to survive as it is. i've been graffitied five or six times, and i was fined the next day. that's my point of view. i think everything should be waived. thank you. >> chairman: thank you for your comments. mr. smith, could you bring us the next caller, please. >> hello, everybody. my name is naz quare, and i'm a resident of this district and a business owner directly on mission street. i just wanted to thank everybody who took the time to think about this small business community and the fact that we're

getting hit really hard. hard by graffiti and tags. and we 100% support this ordinance. the only concern that i wanted to raise is the fact that similar to when we took the responsibility away from property owners about tree maintenance and gave it to g.c.w., which is removal of trees, and the failure to plant a tree that is cared for enough to get (indiscernable). it wasn't for the work of friends of art, there wouldn't be any. i just want to make sure that by taking the responsibility away from business owners and giving it to (indiscernable) we're not creating more issues in the future.

i honestly do not want them to touch my building because i want to take a generic white paint and painting over a green building or a black building -- do they actually care what the building looks like and what is the color of the build? another board member at m.m.a. had a great solution where we help out the city pick up the bill from the hardware store in the city, that maybe they can offer a kit, like a one-time discount on maintenance cost and color -- >> chairman: the speaker's time is concluded. thank you for sharing your comments. mr. smith, could you bring us the next caller, please? >> hello. my name is

(indiscernable). [audio is unclear] >> i am here to support the legislation. first i want to commend supervisor ronen for her help and for creating this action, and also this entire body for trying to push this forward. i want to thank elizabeth vasquez for her request. >> chairman: caller, are you still there? it seems we have lost that caller. oh, she's back. >> i'm sorry, i had muted her.3 >> chairman: she still has a minute left on her

clock. can we bring her back in? >> sorry about that, speaker. i unmuted you. they dropped up. there are no more -- >> chairman: there are no more callers? >> there are no further callers. >> chairman: public comment is now closed. thank you so much to all of the community members that spoke during public comment, especially the mission district merchants. supervisor ronen, do you have anything more? >> thank you, chair mar. i also wanted to thank all of the missions district merchants clearly for this legislation, but because of the amazing support of all of the colleagues, including supervisor melgar, who would like to be added as a co-sponsor as well. this is not just a problem in the mission. it is a problem all over the city. so thanks so much. and i look forward to this passing as soon as possible.

>> chairman: great. thank you, supervisor ronen. i would like to move that we send this item to the full board with a positive recommendation. >> clerk: on the motion offered by chair mar, that this be offered to the april 20th meeting. [roll call] >> clerk: mr. chair, there are three ayes. >> chairman: great. this will be recommended to the full board. mr. clerk, please call item 2. >> clerk: item 2 is a hearing to address concerns on crime and violence targeting asian-american seniors and other vulnerable groups, and the rise of anti-asian racism, including status of investigations, victims' services programs, and other public safety resources and strategies that the departments are employing to reduce crime, and to

promote cross-racial solidarity. members of the public who wish to provide public comment should call 415-655-0001. enter the meeting i.d. 1878615621. press ## to connect to the meeting, and press *3 to enter the queue to speak. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. mr. chair, before we begin, if we could bring mr. chu back into the meeting for a moment so he can interpret the instructions. >> yes. thank you. [speaking chinese]

number numbers>> chairman: grea. thank you, mr. chair. colleagues, thank you for

the opportunity to hold this very important hearing today, which comes at an historic moment of reckoning on racism and violence against asian-americans and pacific islanders around the country. our communities remain traumatized and fearful following the hate and discrimination against us, fueled by president trump's racist rhetoric. like all people of color, our communities have struggled against racism throughout our history in this country, over 150 years, but the recent violence and racism directed at asian-americans has been shocking. and the escalation of violent assaults have made the especially difficult circumstances of covid-19, including mass unemployment, safety risks, even more painful. so much violence has happened since we first called this hearing. the eight people killed in the atlanta massacre targeting asian-american women, more seniors

attacked, too many more afraid to leave their homes, suffering quietly in isolation. from a single word to a homicide, anti-asian racism manifests in insidious way or overt ways. in criminal or non-criminal ways, intentionally or unintentionally, but nonetheless harmful ways. this period has been very difficult for me personally, as someone who started my community organizing in chinatown many years ago. as a supervisor today, representing a district that is majority asian-americans, and as a father and husband, i'm concerned about the safety of my loved ones. i share the pain, the rage, and the demands by aapi communities for meaningful, long-term communities to stop hate and violence against asian-americans and all people of color, immigrants, women, and our elders. in the face of such tragedy and fear, it has

been inspiring to see asian communities come together to take action in unprecedented in impactful ways, nationally and locally. i thank all of the community leaders, activists, and groups who have been organizing rallies, marches, safety patrols, senior escorts, documenting incidents and more. and i thank all of the allies for your support as well. in february, dozens of asian organizations across the bay area joined forces to demand action against violence, recognizing that violence affects all of us. their demands include ensuring victims of all backgrounds and languages to receive full supportive services so they can recover and heal. expanding intervention and intervention-based programs for an fracture that we know will end the cycle of violence and keep all of us safer. we have resources and cross-community education

and healing in asian-american and black communities that humanizes all of us. and they called out survivors of interpersonal violence have historically have not received enough language accessible support. i sponsored this hearing in a response to a cule to action. call to action. we want to support asian-american victims, and how agencies are working with the community. we will grapple with the magnitude of the consequences when we fall short. today we ask departments for a commitment to work closer together and to work closer with community organizations to coordinate a comprehensive citywide plan to prevent crime and violence and to support victims in harmed communities with culturally competent services. colleagues, we have many

presentations today, beginning with and centers on the asian-american community and statements from those most impacted by violence, represented by the coalition for community safety and justice and stop aapi hate. then we will hear from non-law enforcement agencies, the human rights commission, and the office of the civic engagement in immigrant affairs, followed by the street violence intervention program. and then we'll hear from law enforcement agencies, s.f.p.d., and the district attorney's office, and staff from the adult probation and juvenile probation will also be available to answer questions. keeping our community safe is about taking collective responsibility. we as a public body have a mandate to protect people, and when there is harm, a mandate to restore. as a city, we need to hold each other accountable and invest in strategies that work, strategies that unify. we know the long-term

solution to violence is to empower communities with resources, support, and education. i'm looking forward to learning more today from our dedicated city staff identifying how we can work towards an affective, coordinated citywide plan to prevent violence and crime and support victims in harmed communities with culturally competent services. so, thanks again, colleagues, for this opportunity for this hearing and for your participation. supervisor melgar? >> thank you, chair mar. i just wanted to say thank you so much for calling this hearing. our districts are next to each other, and we share a couple of commercial districts that have seen a rise in violence. we, a few weeks ago, had a violent incident involving an older asian veteran that got in the news.

but what didn't get in the news was the lack of support there was for him from veteran services, from just folks who should have been there in terms of community support. so i want to thank you you most of all for your leadership and your approach to uplift community voices,and to leverage the strength that we have in terms of culture and language and community support to tackle this issue, and to build out an infrastructure to support victims. and also to proactively support people's safety based on community. thank you so much. [audio breaking up] making sure we can support and help fund the efforts of community to do all of the things that you listed. so thank you very much for your leadership. >> chairman: thank you. supervisor chan? >> chair mar, thank you.

and i, do, want to thank you for your leadership for calling for his hearing. i'm really proud to be a co-sponsor of this hearing today. you and i share that chinese-american, asian-american, for me, first generation immigrant growing up in san francisco's chinatown, we know that hate against asian-american and communities of color has always existed in the united states. and -- but at this moment, i am so glad to see that communities of color are gathering and standing together against hate. but we also know that for the last however long, we also have suffered as a community because of minority myths, that we deem to be mold minorities, and we're

doing well and we do not need advocacy or support from our city government, but we know that we do. today i also many very grateful for being in the position as an elected position, to be able to co-sponsor this hearing, to carve out a space, a forum, for our community to be able to have this safe space to talk about their fears, their anxiety, their concerns, and how we can actually hear directly from our community the needs that they have. and for our city departments also to be present with us in this forum, to hear from our communities, and i really also thank you to our interpreter, mr. chu, today joining us to make sure there is language access and cultural competency during this during when we are having this public dialogue. thank you, and i really

look forward to not just hearing from our city departments, but really from our community to hear what their concerns are, and i'm eager to hear their voices. so thank you. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor chan. supervisor haney? >> thank you, chair mar. and i want to thank you for your leadership in bringing forward this hearing. and for all of the co-sponsors of the hearing, supervisors chan and melgar for your comments as well. this is a moment of reckoning and a time of reckoning for a problem that has been with us and deep in our country and in our city for a very long time. anti-asian racism, hate, violence against asian people in our city and beyond has been a part of san francisco for a long time. and it has gotten worse

because of what has taken place at the national level. but it is something that has been with us for a long time. and asian leaders, organizations, residents have come forward and said, we need more support. we need more resources. we need you to work with us and listen to us. and there has been some things that have happened that are positive on that. i know last year supervisor mar and supervisor peskin and former mer supervisor fewer were involved in this to bring forward resources to focus on public safety as it related to the asian community, and we can build off of that. but this isn't only about the discrimination and the racism that exists out there in our city and in our country. it is also this systemic racism and failures within our systems to respond in a culturally appropriate way, to respond to victims who are asian, in some

cases for whom there may be language barriers or cultural barriers. and our systems also have to change. so as much as we are going to talk about some of the things that folks are facing outside of our systems, we also know that our systems must be trans transformed to be more adaptive to protect our citizens and their public safety. some of the attacks were in my district, and i want to send my deepest sadness and solidarity with those who have been the victims of assaults and their families, and we have to take action to protect them, and we have to listen to leaders who know how best to do that and transform our systems to make sure we protect the most basic, fundamental right, which is to exist safely without fear, without discrimination, to be able to walk down their

own streets safely. and so i'm looking forward to learning about what we can do. and i want to say as chair of the budget committee, we will take what we hear today also and move forward to make sure we are fully supporting the organizations that are doing this work and meeting the needs of protecting the public safety of our residents. thank you, chair mar. >> chairman: thank you for those comments, supervisor haney. supervisor stefani? >> yes. thank you, chair mar, for holding this incredibly important hearing. we know that violence against the asian community has reached every corner of the prime minister stephen harper the city.i think this is somethg we're absolutely all committed to doing. the videos we've seen, not only just in san francisco, have been absolutely horrific, and across this country, and they've been shocking.

in district 2, we saw -- a man was murdered while he was out for a morning walk. and jeffrey, in pacific heights, delivering food, when he kids were kidnapped, and we were all on pins and needles for hours waiting to see what would happen there. and thank goodness that resulted in them being okay in the end. and then simon lowell witnessed a brutal assault on asian women. those are just a few of the examples in my district. we need to do everything we can to address crime and violence whenever it occurs. and right now the asian community is rightly terrified, and their city needs to protect them from harm. and we need to do everything that we can. i was watching this morning on television, president biden talk about what he was going to do about the plague of gun

violence, and very emotional in terms of someone finally stepping up and saying what they're going to do to address this. and what he said, too, it is his job as the president to protect people in this country. and as, you know, i knew we would be entering into this hearing today, i thought as legislators, the 11 of us on the board of supervisors, it is our job to protect everybody in the city. and it is our job to confront what is happening to the asian-american community. i know we all stand together to deliver on that promise and to provide peace of mind and safety, and to do everything that we can. so thank you, chair mar, again, for holding this incredibly important hearing. we have an obligation to service and responsiveness whenever a vulnerable community is targeted or at risk, and i stand committed to work with all of you to make sure that we do just that. so thank you. >> chairman: thank you so much, supervisor stefani. supervisor ronen?

>> yes. thank you so much, chair mar, for bringing this hearing today. clearly it is so important and providing all of us the opportunity to come together and deeply analyze this issue. and, most importantly, what the city is doing in order to address the violence against the asian community that as supervisor haney and so many of you said is not new but has a new level of attention around it because of the escalation, the terrifying and outrageous escalation in violence that has happened recently. i wanted to just briefly highlight, because i've very proud of this work that we've done in the porla neighborhood, which is a majority chinese neighborhood in san francisco. over the years we've worked very closely with community organizations in

the neighborhood to demand and fight for and finally get chinese and cantonese-speaking officers that walk san bruno every single day. and they are amazing. and the community knows them and loves them and feels comfortable because of that personal touch and that personal relationship that has formed over years now, to come forward and talk about how to keep each other safe, keep themselves safe, and report crimes when they do happen. in addition to the cantonese-speaking beat cops that we finally got after years of fighting for it, we also have a substation, a police substation on san bruno avenue that is open a couple days a week, that is usually staffed by the beat officers, that have

deep relationships in the parla community. it has provided a space for people to come in their own neighborhood to report crimes in person, over the phone, with a translator, and it often doesn't feel comfortable or do the trick or provide the type of in-person attention that is often needed in these very sensitive and very painful moments of reporting and talking about crimes towards people. and, finally, i just want to, as a supervisor, as a boss, really commend jennifer lee from my office who is my not only aide, but has become a leader in speaking up and in acting against violence in the asian community. she would be with us right now, but she is in the

portala doing a safety walk, where members of the community come together and show in a very visible way their unity and work that they're doing to protect one another. jennifer has been doing these watches not only here in san francisco, but she lives in oakland and does them on a regular basis in oakland. and it is that type of visible community action, that organizing that direct action, that public show of strength and solidarity that is really sending a message that this is a top priority for leaders and the community all over the country, but definitely here in the bay area, and definitely here in san francisco. i just am so proud and so in awe of the leadership and the activism that jennifer lee is doing in the community for her

community. it is something i admire and support 100%. thank you for your leadership and for stepping up and being such bright lights in your community of leaders that are leading the way together with community members to protect one another. i appreciate you and i'm standing here in solidarity with you, and i excited about the increased attention we have towards this issue today. thank you. >> chairman: thank you so much for those comments, supervisor ronen. i want to tell all of you -- why don't we move into the hearing right now. so we are to have six presentations. so it is going to be a long hearing but very important information presented and discussion that we're going to be able to have with our departments and with the

city on these really urgent issues. so the first presentation is really from the community. and we're going to have sing che, and also representing the coalition for community safety and justice and stop aapi hate. it has been an incredibly powerful and important leader on these issues. and we're very fortunate to have her here. >> thank you so much, chair mar, and to all of the board of supervisors for your show of solidarity and support during a very difficult and devastating time for our communities. i am the co-executive

director of chinese for affirmative action, and also one of the founding partners of stop a.p.i. hate, which is tracking hate across the country. but i'm really here today as a representative of coalition for community safety and justice, whose members comprise of the community youth center, chinese progressive association, and the new breath foundation. and so i would love to present to you our community-based response to violence. so as it has been shared before, this is not something new to our community. and many of the organizations here as part of the coalition have been working together over the decades. we have been the...

[audio breaking up] and racial disparities. i think it is very important to provide some broader context. as i mentioned, as part of stop a.p.i. hate, nationwide we have tracked from march of last year through february close to 3800 incidents. and in the bay area, roughly around, you know, over 900, and in the city of san francisco, about 359. that's about 39% of the bay area incidents. so this is a major problem across the country. and also, you know, in our own backyard. it's important to note

that a majority of the incidents that we're seeing on our site reporting center are not hate crimes per se, but they need equal attention because of the fact that without interventions, without efforts to address this issue holistically, we know that matters can escalate. and, of course, the atlanta area mass murder and shooting is a reminder that this is a real urgent issue and something that requires all of our attention. we also know that women in particular are vulnerable. close to 70% of our respondents are women, and young women and elderly women in particular are being targeted, and for different reasons: sexual

harassment, racist slurs, and also because of the fact that elderly in general -- women in general -- are more vulnerable to these types of incidents. it is really important for us to note, too, that the coalition, although all of us have been working together, again, for decades, we officially formed in 2019 in response to a long-standing incidence of violence and crime and racial tensions. and, of course, the surge in covid-19-related anti-racism and xenophobia has created a greater sense of urgency. our coalition has played an important role in understanding the problem. and we put forth recommendations that really are looking at both how we can address immediate harm, but recognizing that the impacts of violence need

to be looked at within the context of violence and how it affects other communities as well. we have a three-pronged approach. and this approach really is informed by many years of trying to meet the immediate needs of victims and survivors of violence and crime. and many years of trying to understand what is the responsibility of the city? what are the baseline expectations that we can have in terms of language and culture competence? and the recognition that we need to do this across communities to promote racial solidarity and healing. if we are going to affectively address this in the long run. so this is our frame for how we believe that we're going to be able to

address this, including the underlying causes of violence and crime and racial bias. the first component that is critical is a citywide rapid response network. it is vitally important that in the aftermath of violence or harm, that we support the victims' families and survivors, the wrap-around and holistic services, and it is extensive to management. it is a range of financial assistance, mental health support, and at times it means helping them enroll in benefits that they're entitled to. and, of course, helping them to understand the legal system, which can be very daunting, even for english speakers. and we believe that it will be really important

to have a dedicated victims' assistance fund because what is available now is oftentimes inadequate. we also believe that an important component of a rapid response network are immediate safety initiatives that can be done and employed, such as street outreach, so that community members, business owners also know about the programs and services that are available to them. programs like the community escort and other kinds of education and violence prevention programs will be essential to also invest in. we believe that there needs to be a more robust citywide public safety infrastructure. that really, again, addresses the immediate

harm, but also is working in parallel with the types of interventions and preventions that are necessary. we are currently trying to work with the s.f.p.d. with regard to referrals, as well as s.f. general, that also provides referrals when they come into contact with victims who are wanting and needing assistance, as well as with the d.a.'s office in terms of accessing victims' services, and the department of public health and the resources that are available there for victims. these are yet to be formalized. we're in the process of trying to establish those direct lines of communication and coordination. and, obviously, it will be vital for us to work together. and then our interest, of

course, is to really partner with existing intervention and prevention-based programs, to ensure there is language and culture competence, and that coordination is there. and, finally, it is very important for us as a coalition to advance cross-racial healing and solidarity. so often our communities are being pitted against each other. and we know that there is disproportionate levels of crime and violence in low-income, working-class neighborhoods. and this is why we want to equal invest in the abilities of our communities to be able to understand why the drivers -- oe divisions amongst community members, particularly around the chinese and black

communities. and obviously this work will require us to work within and across communities. it is really about addressing harm, immediate harm, but also to prevent future harm. it is really important to acknowledge the racial tensions that exist, and really be able to hold our communities, during this time, but also be able to have honest, authentic conversations about that in order to address our collective safety. this work is necessary in order to find opportunities for our communities to work together. so before i end the formal presentation, i wanted to read a statement from the southeast asian

development center, from their conversations with their clients and staff members. so what i'd like to read is that they have shared that 95% of those who earn $30,000 a year, whose youth high school graduation rate is 70% compared to the national rate of 87%. they are located in the tenderloin, where 30% are asian and a majority being southeast asian. clients and staff walking through our center and through the tenderloin have experienced verbal and sexual harassment, cat calling, groping, and hate insults. and i'm about to use profanity, so just in case there are any family members listening. insults like go back to

china, you (bleep). go back to where you came from. i'm going to (bleeping) beat you up. stupid asians, stupid bitch, go back to your country. residents experience violence on the street, such as being hit, shoved to the ground, or robbed by random people which cause injuries. the latest incidence was of an elderly vietnamese woman brutally beaten and attacked in late september 2020n february of 2021. in the summer of 2020, an elderly vietnamese man was shoved on hyde street in front of sing-sing coffee shop. he died a few weeks later. our youth are forced to buy, sell drugs and are chased if they refuse. [please stand by]

>> supervisor mar: i was wondering if you could speak a little bit more about that and maybe some of the challenges that community groups face in trying to work with city agencies on public safety, certainly, the broader range of issues that are intersecting

here? >> thank you, chair mar. i also wanted to lift up the fact that laywa wu and sarah chan are here with me and could also add, but i will just start by sharing that, again, this call to action and the need for a more robust public safety infrastructure comes from our survivors trying to navigate across government systems, and our intention is to develop a cooperative situation with key city departments that have a critical role in public safety, and the desire here is to develop direct lines of communication to make sure that

we are aware of the provision of services and resources, and obviously, enforcement of our language access ordinance, that we ensure that regardless of your ability to speak english, that you receive the information in language that you can understand that's afforded to all residents here in san francisco. so that's really our desire, and we are heartened by the fact that there is a tremendous amount of interesting and willingness to do so, and we hope to just, again, ensure that it is robust in meeting the immediate needs of our community members during their most dire time of need.

>> chair mar: thank you. great. oh, it looks like supervisor safai has a question -- has a question or some remarks. >> supervisor safai: thank you, supervisor mar. thank you for calling this hearing. very, very timely. really enjoyed cynthia's presentation, and it's been troubling to see the rise in crime and asian hate crime in particular. our committee has come together to condemn these acts of violence and making sure that we're doing everything we can to keep our asian and aapi community members safe. a lot of the attacks against this community needs to stop. i just wanted to note that i

loved to hear what cynthia was saying and love to hear from others. one of the great thing as an elected official is we have the opportunity to be a conduit for great ideas. last year, they came to us and asked that, during the budget process, that we would fund this coalition for safety and restorative justice. i worked with the budget committee at the time, and we were able to lead that process and get this funded and the ball rolling last year. so i really appreciate the work that you're doing and want to continue to help support the work that they're doing. the lost prong -- talks about the first -- talked about the

first prong, but the last prong, talked about building a bridge between the asian and aapi community. we're working on finding a good community organization to work with them in partnership. i think all of that together will make this a robust initiative. i just wanted to put that out there, i know we have the chair of the budget committee on the call. i know all of you are very -- i was going to say, on the call -- in this meeting. still not used to doing this on the computer, but yeah, i just wanted to appreciate the great work that they and the foundation have done over the last year. just wanted to say that we're going to continue to work with them aggressively to say that we're going to make sure that we see this initiative through and ensure that we're putting

the foundation in place to change the culture of violence toward this community because it absolutely needs to stop, and thank you, supervisor mar, for having this. >> chair mar: thank you, supervisor safai, for those remarks. colleagues, i don't know if any of the rest of you have any questions for the coalition for community safety and justice. supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: i do, yes, and thank you for this -- the presentation and for the recommendations and for the work and for bringing everyone together. i did want to ask -- and i know i'm sure we're going to talk about this throughout. you know, one of the things that we've talked about and has received a lot of interest in

discussion is the community-based safety programs, whether that's escorts or having people who are, you know, trained from community organizations who are out there in the neighborhood on a regular basis, and i know we're going to discuss this more with the svip model. i wonder if there are in other models that -- any other models that you're aware of from any other city or that you might recommend as a city a path forward, what that might look like? i know there's a lot of interest in this generally, and we have a much larger presence of organizations like urban alchemy, and a response from the neighborhood and ensuring

the safety of our community. it's something that i'm interested in and i'm hoping to work with the other supervisors here and with neighborhood organizations in district six to develop an approach like this. [inaudible]. >> -- with responses to the community ambassadors, with the, you know, escort ideas,

you know, the community strolls that i think oakland talks about, and it's something that has generated a lot of interest across the country who are dealing with similar issues, so in that way, san francisco has been a leader in terms of coming up with more community-based solutions that are adopted by the city that's sustainable, and i think that is something that should be highlighted. and sarah, did you also -- could we also allow sarah to weigh-in, as well? >> hi. thank you, supervisors, good morning. i think, as supervisor safai has mentioned, that last year we did received [inaudible] from the board of supervisors

and to start these three pronged approach? as of now for the community outreach and other support components that we're heading on has launched and kicked off? currently, we're working with eight victims or survivors to provide wraparound services, and thank you so much for this championship of this funding because otherwise, we wouldn't be able to provide the service much needed for this service -- i mean, for this victims, and really appreciate the partnership with san francisco police department, especially central station, and general hospital, and also our community partners for referring their clients to us so that we can provide the service. in terms of the community outreach piece, the plan is to have them go to the high asian

concentration neighborhoods, especially commercial corridors to actually start to meet and to also get to know the merchant and also the community stakeholders, neighborhood associations, to get them to meet community members and hopefully we can direct them to other city departments to obtain services. we started our first walk in chinatown on tuesday, and today, we'll be on san bruno avenue and also on [inaudible] avenue [inaudible] with the mayor's office together in order to have this commercial corridor. from the tuesday experience, the merchants are very welcome? they felt like the city and also the community partnerships do care about them? they felt like they're being seen, and they also think it would be great if this is one

channel that they could provide input ways to make them safer? i think a lot of them have been affected by antiasian racism events that have happened? many of them have stated that they're very scared, that they have to stay home? their young kids have to stay home, even though the schools will be open very soon, and there's all this fear that they have, and also, at the same time while trying to care about their living and small businesses in san francisco. so we are definitely hearing a lot about the same concerns that they have, but this is the start of a time that they're hopeful for them and we are starting to put resources into the community. >> yeah, thank you so much, sarah. the only thing i want to add --

this is laywa from chinese progressive association is highlighting the infrastructure and the city of san francisco in investing in not only the work of c.p.a. we want to invest in the value of these street patrol initiatives. supervisor mar mentioned this. we genuinely appreciate the initiative of people on the ground who have emerged, right, in an attempt to fill the clear void within our communities in addressing immediate violence, and oftentimes even though with well intentions, if we do not underfund and do not train community members in a way that limits racial profiling, that

really train people to deescalate without exacerbating a situation, that we could ultimately do more harm than good. i think continuing to fund these initiatives by the city to protect our community -- all communities, right, is going to be really critical. >> supervisor haney: thank you. thank you, chair mar. >> chair mar: yeah, thanks for that question, supervisor haney, and for the responses, sarah, and laywa, about community-based safety strategies. you know, i just wanted to maybe go back to the question i had around your engagement with city agencies and maybe some of the challenges that you may have faced, and, you know, i just know even around victim support, i'm aware of the important role that you have

played, the community has has -- association has played in supporting a number of victims, and i think some of these were before the funding was even allocated. you guys have been doing this for years, but i guess my -- my question is just, like, what are the challenges and gaps particularly for victims and the communities that are harmed to connect with city agencies, and, yeah -- and particularly cultural gaps? >> chair mar, thank you for that question. i feel that sarah wan would be in the best position to address that because there are many, many challenges. sarah? >> yes, i'm here. i will answer from my ground experience and definitely seen.

i think with all the services we have been providing, we were able to actually work with the district attorney's office victim's support unit. they might not have all of the languages needed in the asian and pacific islander community? i know they do have two cantonese speaking worker and one vietnamese speaking worker, but there is a challenge to provide workers that can provide worker support services to the family? they also have been challenged because it would be very hard for the victims to really understand the whole criminal and legal process that is going through. they -- there is no, like -- i'd say there's no one from the victim's support unit that can actually provide, except from the district attorney directly about the process of the case?

sometimes it's pretty hard to understand really what is going on? do they need to be subpoenaed to the court? what does that mean? witness statement, all those stuff actually i think culturally something is not necessarily not only asian but i think anybody would feel very strange to or maybe feel a little bit hard to understand what the process about? so -- and then, the other thing is the reach out to the mental health services is also challenging because i think, right now, unless it's referred by i think district attorney victim's support services, even for us, we would not know where to refer within the department of public health for services. a lot of times, we were told that depending on the victims, they would have medical insurance providers, but that would be a lot of hurdles to get through. and i think a lot of things that have challenges is finding

mental health service providers in their language. there are a lot of stakeholders in the asian community to receive mental health services, and most of the time, maybe one out of ten cases we are able to refer for mental health support. a lot of the times, we are falling back on our victim support advocates to do visits and screening and also visit the family member to let them know what the benefit is of receiving mental health services. so i think it's how can we promote this educational awareness of receiving mental health services, especially after they've been through a traumatizing event. i think a lot of concern from the victim is the financial piece. through the victim's support unit under the d.a.s office, they do have victim support program, but it does require a

lot of paperwork, and it might not support their immediate need. let's say if they need some help to replace a cell phone, they need to have, really living expense to buy, like, food and other stuff, it's not there for them, so that's why our coalition has started a victim and survivor fund so that we can provide immediate help and response to these victims, as well. so those are the three immediate needs that we need support going through the legal understanding of it, the mental health services, and lastly, the financial assistance that they might need right away. i hope that's clear, and do you have anything you'd like to add? >> yeah, and we can also add the broader challenges of immigrant communities, you know, historically traditionally underutilizing government resources and services that they're entitled

to. we have to keep in mind that we've had many, many years of antiimmigrant policies at the national level, moving our community underground, fearing that accessing services via the expansion of public charge would jeopardize their neighborhood status, illegal immigrants, just the overall fear of being entangled with law enforcement or the broken trust between the community and agencies historically, so i think as community organizations, we can help to -- to serve as a bridge and to, you know, build better and

more effective sponsor services that's attuned to why there might be barriers to accessing those services. >> chair mar: thank you. yeah, thanks so much, sarah and laywa, for the presentation, for all of your important work, and maybe we can move to the next presentation, so thanks for being here, guys. so next, we're going to hear from -- we're going to have presentations from a couple of nonlaw enforcement city agencies that play an important role in addressing these issues, and we'll start with the human rights commission. so i think representing h.r.c. here today is shakiron [inaudible] representing the office of racial equity.

>> thank you so much, chair mar. can you hear me? >> chair mar: yes. >> so thank you so much, chair mar, and supervisors safai and stefani, for allowing me to speak. my name is shakira simle. i am the director of the human rights commission, and i am speaking on behalf of our s.f. human rights initiative director, cheryl wright davis who sends her best to her colleagues. i wanted to ask to share the presentation. >> clerk: i was under the impression that you were going to be sharing your slides today, but if you want me to

share, it'll take a moment. >> yes, could you share, please, for ease of presentation? >> clerk: just a moment, please. >> the hate faced by our asian and black communities is heinous. it's important for us to come together not just in times of crisis and celebration, but also the moments in between. in addition to maintaining visibility and focusing attention to this issue in addressing the issue of antiasian racism or any racism faced by communities of color requires us to talk not only about the interpersonal racism but also seeking structural conclusions in a consistent community led and accountable way. next slide, please. so just for a bit of context for folks, the human rights commission, also known as the

sfhrc is chartered through three primary areas, through our workshops, community-based training, our civil rights workshop, which investigates discrimination in public housing and accommodation, and also through policy of social justice through the committee on racial equity and other initiatives and topics. our approach to our work is always grounded in community and director davis has been a fearless and consistent leader when it comes to this. i want to thank the government and lift that up [inaudible] we respect the agency and self-determination in making this decision that directly impacts their lives. the h.r.c. supports program that arise directly from

community, and we work every day to build culturally responsive programming. in education, we collaborate with communities and city partners and i'll share some examples shortly, and also, we make sure that we connect community with city departments to identify needs and gaps in best practices, as well. next slide, please. next slide. so it's important for us that we put forth community education and policy issues that support cross racial solid -- solidarity work. one of the key -- one of the key parts of that is our c.c.j.

program in which we work with the young asian womens against violence through the community cohort center. [inaudible] this is an incredibly useful program, and this spring, the c.c.j. is working with a few group of students from the community youth center to [inaudible] it's an opportunity for this work to happen with the a.p.i. youth and black youth. [inaudible] at school and in

the classroom? and then also our h.r.c. community roundtable, which i'll talk more about, which has brought together community leaders from across different races and culture and languages every week during the pandemic to help imbue community solutions during covid-19. so next slide, please, and next slide. so a lot of our community work is committed to advancing community based and multiprong approaches that have been uplifted by advocates based on their decades of experience and providing services and organizing. like i said, this work can't happen unless community is at the helm, and the h.r.c. designs our programs and initiatives with that, and that's prepandemic and for years. next slide. one of our initiatives that we're particularly proud of is

our staying together initiative, which is an h.r.c. led collaboration with community leaders and organizations that work together in the fight against racism and discrimination, particularly fighting for antiasian racism, uplifting and -- dismantling violence and then with an emphasis on multiracial solidarity. some group has convened since last fall, and we appreciate them and thank them. next slide, please. so in addition to the work that we do with staying together s.f. in supporting different community coalitions, we have led numerous events to convene leaders, to educate and promote cross racial solidarity. one of our first events happened last october, when we talked about this issue, and one thing that we really want to uplift, in the interests of

time, this coming april 17, we'll be holding a [inaudible] which will be focus on providing tangible, concrete ways in which san franciscans desire to stop antiracist hate can lead directly to action from community members. so when it comes to different tools and strategies that the h.r.c. uses in order to promote social justice, i'll summarize our work, but basically on-the-ground interventions and programming, we are very proud of the work of our multiracial staff working directly with community based and grassroots organizations, and we have led -- have had [inaudible] hours of work put forth owards webinars and community-based

programming, showing up, even when it was scary to do so directly in neighborhoods when incidents happened and also staying long after news cameras and folk that's have gone away. individuals and families are still stuck with their trauma and pain over incidents that have happened. in addition, we also know we can't do this work unless folks can do so in a way that's culturally responsive and linguistically responsible, so we make sure we have multilingual documents and cross cultural access. next slide, please. when it comes to covid-19, again, a lot of these probable issues have existed prepandemic, and what we saw from covid, it basically really, you know, created a situation in that pressure cooker situation in which our community, we're living in

pandemic within pandemics, to combat that from the jump last march, we convened our roundtable, and we've been pushing for rapid testing sites, p.p.e., and vaccination sites throughout the city. [inaudible] which speaks directly to the rise in antiasian hate racism because of covid, and that includes guides between enable and also bystander intervention programming including stop aapi hate. the next slide, please. so i want to focus on this part, which i think is going to be really important in the future. and i like to think about this in three ways: upstream, in the

moment, and downstream. [inaudible] we see a pressing needs to make sure we expand work across all city departments to address these different aspects of financial, [inaudible] and both when it comes to upstream solutions before a hate crime or incident happens, we need to make sure that we're expanding preventative education and countering any zero-sum antiimmigrant narratives in white supremacist extremism from schools and in public spaces like buses and trains. in the moment, you know, this

is very difficult, and we're going to make sure that we're looking at this, by saying, like i said, beyond -- it's super important to make sure that we have [inaudible] for residents and workers and neighborhoods where there's a pattern of increasing hate, and we're happy to work with our citywide agencies on a citywide information campaign including signage in support for folks and ask the intent behind our campaign for solidarity, as i said, on april 17. we need to make sure that there's [inaudible] experiencing incidents of hate crime, and this requires proactive follow up information about next steps so the burden is shifted away from the individual and onto the system itself and then looking at ways that don't meet the threshold for an actual hate crime but hate incident, what are the

resources and inclinations that can happen there. so in closing, these issues are complex in nuance, and at the human rights commission, we strive to bridge the gap between our communities. and last slide, we wanted to share a few resources for communities to follow up with us and happy to answer any particular questions. thank you so much for the time today, and thank you so much, chair mar, for convening this hearing. >> thank you. >> chair mar: thank you so much, director simley, for your presentation and for all the work that you're doing. i had the pleasure of working with you on a town hall back in

in -- on an event at city hall back in february that was a very positive event. i guess i had a question. how do you measure effectiveness and particularly looking at stand together s.f., which is an important initiative that the human rights commission launched, you know, in the past year, you know, to respond to this, the urgent issues? >> so in response to that question, we do that in a number of different ways, and i can work with director davis to follow up to make sure that you have all the information possible. but looking at data and reports and information that come from different city departments, but truly and ultimately, it comes down to the story telling and

lived experience from our community members that tell us are our folks actually better off? what does that look like when it comes to outcomes, and yes, their day-to-day experience, but it comes down to food securities, to housing, to transportation, to folks' abilities to feel safe and included at school and see themselves represented. it's not a one-issue solution. we look at it in a holistically centered way but always look at our constituents as our guiding star. >> chair mar: and i guess i had a question -- another question around equal, i guess, around violence prevention. and i guess maybe the question should be what should h.r.c.s role be to prevent and address

violence where groups of people are potentially being targeted by their age, language, race, or perceived vulnerabilities and also direct support for harmed communities? >> for us, i think it looks like, in a number of different ways, to a, continue our community based relationships and define those solutions as we're hearing from community. number two is looking with our civil rights division and making sure that they have the resources and rights they need in order to work with victims of hate and discrimination, and it's also working directly with the young people in some preventative measure and strengthening our relationships with our community providers not to rebuild the wheel.

we want to make sure that there's stronger coordination, that there's more communication, that there's more transparency, and also accountability and follow up when it comes to our community, so chair mar, i would say that this is definitely something that is important to us and something that we've been working on for such a long time, and it hurts my heart that the community has to see such violence [inaudible] cultural media, but that only shows us the work that we have to do and that we will continue to do through the office of racial equity. happy to do that with you through the initiative and with all the community agencies and departments present today. >> chair mar: great. thank you so much, director simley. colleagues, do you have any questions for director simley and the human rights

commission? seeing none, maybe we can move to the next presentation, but thank you so much, director simley, yeah, for being here, and for the presentation. next, we're going to hear from director adrian ponce of the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs about important language access work that they provide for our city. director pon? >> good morning, chair mar. can everyone hear me? >> chair mar: yes, we can hear you. >> thank you. good morning, chair, committee members and supervisors. adrian pon. i'm the director of the office of civic engagement and

immigrant affairs, and i'm joined by richard whiple and [inaudible] who's with the community ambassadors program. thank you so much for this important hearing and allowing us to participate. i also want to acknowledge our sisters and brothers for the coalition for community safety and justice, c.a.a., stop aapi hate, for the courage and leadership, and as well as our sister departments. so we're -- we have a -- several slides, and i'm going to go through these very quickly, hopefully. as sin mentioned -- we go to the next slide. thank you. as sin mentioned, we have all been here before. aapi violence and hate are not new. as the former executive director of the asian law caucus, i shared the pain both as a community member and as someone who has worked with

this community before. so a little bit about the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs, we provide direct grants and services to the community, and our goal is to serve as a bridge between the community and the -- and city agencies. we -- we were a start-up in 2009, but today, we're a multifunctional office and work very closely with the community and city agencies. so a little bit about what we do on the next slide? so as you can see from the array of programs and initiatives on this list ranging from community safety to immigrant access, language rights and access and workforce development, we are all about engaging and supporting and

connecting community members to information resources and city programs and services. next slide. okay. this is a goal that we share with many of you. you know, we seek a safe, inclusive, and equitable san francisco where everyone can contribute and thrive, and we put safety early on, 12 years ago, into our vision statement, and i'll explain why in just a second. so oceia, we work with a lot of data and information, so i hope to go into a few steps. san francisco is home to one of the most diverse populations in the nation. over 870,000 people jammed into

a very small location. one in three san franciscans is an immigrant. that is more than a third of our population. one-third of our population under -- 45% of our population under the age of five speaks more than one language at home. the population of older adults age 60 or older will increase to about 30% in the next nine years. currently, the population has shifted -- actually, it's shifted over the last 20 years to be -- most of our seniors are immigrants, and 54% of them speak languages another english. many are monolingual and l.e.p.

next slide. okay. so this is why language access and linguistic equity are so important and a part of this conversation today. there are over 109 languages spoken in the city, and it's important are only for emergency and safety services, but also for transactions and requirements: permits, health care, transportation, the every day things that people in the city do, and it's more than just about the language. it involves cultural competency, as well. so oceia is a small office. we do our very best to comply with the l.a.o., the language

access ordinance. language access is not just about translating documents and interpreting what people say some of the times. this is why, as a small office, we really try to interpret the entire meeting because this creates understanding both ways. it's not just about what the monolingual l.e.p. speakers have to say. we want them to understand what is being said about them, as well, so a two-way perspective. you go to the next slide, about the community ambassadors program, this is -- our safety work started in 2010. interestingly enough, following an uptick of violence in -- on asian american seniors and families in the bayview. the aapi community called out for help and demanded actions with over 1,000 residents and

victims protesting at civic center. so the mayor at the time, mayor newsom, the police chief, members of the board of supervisors, met with black clergy and youth leaders, and as a result, more officers were assigned to the affected area, but they were pulled out after six weeks. now we worked with a number of c.b.o. and community leaders at that time to develop a more permanent solution, so these were c.b.o.s led by chinese by affirmative action, marlene tran, dr. joseph marshall from alive and free, sharon hewitt. oceia was given three weeks to develop a program with no resources or staffing. so long story short, we got it

done. we created the community ambassadors program or c.a.p., for short, to provide on going nonlaw enforcement safety presence along business transportation corridors, and where there were hotspots in the community, where there was a lot of street activity. so c.a.p. today is a community-based neighborhood safety and engagement program. it's a job training program. ambassadors are city residents. they're employed by oceia to provide that safety presence while they're assisting, engaging, and helping the public, and we built this as a replicable model that could also be respectful of community expertise and leadership.

[inaudible] >> -- c.a.p. operates. >> okay. hi, everyone. i think there was a bit of a delay or having a difficult time presenting the slides at the same time as adding some comments. thank you for having us today, supervisors? just an overview about what our ambassadors do? it's a very broad program in terms of scope with a general focus on just improving quality of life in public spaces with a focus on safety? it's also a job training program, so really, one part community safety, one part neighborhood engagement, and using partnerships with other city agencies like the human services agency jobs now program to make sure that we are using a pipeline of city

residents who are from the community who understand the needs of their own neighborhoods. some of the services our ambassadors provide is kind of a general scope of work but really centered on community safety? safety escorts and safe passage were kind of one of the original functions? safety escorts are something that we provide today that can be accessed by calling 311 in one of our designated working areas. although we're a prevention based program, we do conduct minor deescalations or interventions when there's no risk to the ambassadors or the public. we do a lot of support around directions and way finding to visitors, towists, reporting issues to 311 or the police department when appropriate, and of course, conducting wellness checks on individuals in the street who may be in need of social services or any form of support or engagement. a lot of our work really centers on connecting with community organizations and

community groups. in recent kind of review in team leads with each of our areas, they talked about the importance of what they do in partnership with community. so for example, in our chinatown team, i heard from our team lead, victor, after a program at self-help for the elderly, they will help them carry their bags home because of fear of violence. similar -- similarly [inaudible] shared with them, so they're very much affected and working directly with community groups. in terms of the neighborhoods that we work in, we have, over

the years, received funding that's very neighborhood specific or responding to particular issues, so these are the neighborhoods that we've worked in that we currently operate in: bayview, chinatown, the mid market/tenderloin-civic center area. it's really focused on the 15 and mission corridor and visitacion valley and portola corridor and san bruno corridor. we typically operate weekdays 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., but it does vary depending on the community needs. and with that, i'll turn it back to director pon. >> thank you so much, rich. here are some key foundings and principles in the c.a.p. program that we have really thought about over the past ten

years: that violence prevention starts with individuals. this is why our training focuses on the individual commitment to living a life free of violence. that is led by dr. joseph marshall from alive and free who trains all of our ambassadors, our fellows, and program participants. one of the reasons why this program works is because of the on going partnership we have with the community. we have forged a culture of we and us rather than them and us, and a lot of this work stems from the 2010 census, and they're community members, so they have a stake for community success, and also thinking

about a path to opportunity, making it possible for people to contribute. we also have a principle of respecting, hearing, and listening to community voices. so i wanted to talk a little bit on the next slide about community resources and opportunity. c.a.p. is just one program solution with a proven track record and, you know, it's a ten-year proven track record. we have recorded every single street interaction, focused on what works best, developed a strategy and program and reached out to the community. we also provided a number of services to the community, and this provides everything from language outreach and assistance, capacity building for c.b.o.s, citizenship, community engagement, immigrant

voting, and other resources, as well as rapid response. and i heard one of the speakers earlier suggest that there be a rapid response created for -- system created for victimed of hate crimes. this is not seally -- victims of hate crimes. this is not solely about resources, but we understand in a time when resources are limited, it's not about more, it's about where you put the investment and how you sustain that support for community-based organizations that are doing the hard lifting, and for victims' rights and services. so we totally support the notion of a rapid response for hate crime victims and wraparound services, and this investment needs to happen not just when there are sudden tasks, but it needs to support the on going work of these

community organizations. and more important, from a department perspective, better coordination systems and programs so that we are all looking out for each other and happy for each other's success. if you go to the next slide, i wanted to end with a couple of slides about solidarity, ending racism, hate, and violence. so this has all come to a head, as you all know. the intersectionality with racial equity, health, housing, layered on top with criminal and environmental justice, linguistic and digital equity, equal access to accurate and timely information during a pandemic, access to services, programs, and opportunity. this is where addressing the hate and violence has to be about all of these things. it's not enough to have a conversation with something bad

happens. we've got to have on going discussion and collaborations before the problems. this last slide frames the issue of white supremacy in bipoc and minority communities. if you go to my very last slide, this is the but, okay? [inaudible] >> -- has affected all of us, but access by the community and victims at this moment are so critical. the image above was created by local indigenous artists by our 2016 census campaign, but it's done for all of the communities that feel that they are inverible and feel -- invisible

and feel that they don't matter. last, .2% of all philanthropic dollars go to support these needs. so there's a perception that this community doesn't need the help. i want to end with this quote by daniel day kim who testified recently, on march 18, at a judiciary committee meeting, that what happens right now will send a message to generations to come as to whether we matter, we as asian pacific islanders, whether the country we call home chooses to erase us or include us, to dismiss us or respect us, to individualize us or not see us. so i want to thank you for allowing this hearing and for letting us to participate.

we can do more as a san francisco family of community members, and with that, rich and i are happy to answer any questions that you may have. [please stand by]

>> i saw that the coverage is limited in san francisco. also the capacity for ambassadors. after all, i wanted to make sure that we do have that language as a culture competency. i'm going to -- i have follow-up more questions on the program. i thought we should start it off with just the budget, the total budget for the program, number of the ambassadors for the existing coverage area and their language capacity. , thank you. >> thank you, supervisor. the budget is really about $1 million. maybe little bit over. it remains pretty much the same for the last ten years. even though we have been asked to do more and stretch ourselves pretty thinly.

we pretty much stretched as far as it would go. it's about $1 million. there's no programmatic funding for the program. we were supported for a number of years by private grants. which have ended in 2018. we're borrowing from other programs to kind of support the community ambassadors. rich will go into the number of balances. >> to add more detail, i think the budget in the current fiscal for ambassador program is a little bit closer to $1.5 million. because the budget cut it's projected to be $1.1 million. there are budget cuts in terms of how the program will be running next year. i can speak to the staffing now.

usually, there's folks entering and exiting the program, usually about 25 ambassadors in total. that's across the various teams. we're arranged in four different teams. we have a district neighborhood team that have about five to six ambassadors in that team provides services in cantonese, vietnamese and spanish. we have teams in the mission that's a smaller team for folks with language capacity in spanish and reassigned folks from other teams when needed to support cantonese. in chinatown team we have ambassadors. central market and tenderloin area, same kind of capacity in terms of having cantonese and

spanish. those are the areas we're working in the language capacity. i'm happy to provide more detail. when we say it's 25 ambassadors, some of those are positions that are funded directly by our office and some are actually job participants that are places in our office during their jobs. i don't think our budget can hold or present -- represent 25 ambassadors. we do our best to partner with other city departments. >> it's about $1 million. but it doesn't really cover all 25 ambassadors is what you're saying? you're sharing the workers with job now program? >> exactly. >> what are the operation hours of the ambassador program? >> the general window is --

across all teams is 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. the teams vary a little bit base the on either community partner needs or request we've been getting in the community. each team is slightly different. our district ten and mid-market tenderloin teams are 9:00 to 6:00. mission and chinatown teams are working 8:00 to 5:00. it is flexible based on what we're hearing from community. things like that. >> with that, generally, 8:00 to 6:00, they are there monday through friday. are they all seven days? >> monday through friday. occasionally for special events, they would work saturday and sunday. right now it's a weekday program. >> i think -- how does ocii

measure success? i think chair mar highlighted in the first two presentations but at the last one. sort of on the city services and to really talk about the measure of success. what does that really look like? what does the measure of success, what the metric of success that you view for community ambassador service program? >> go ahead adrian. >> before you answer that question, supervisor, that's a great question. that's really important. when we were very small start-up office, we decided to pilot everything -- every single one of our programs so the program was piloted for a year. we collected tons of data.

since then, we documented every single interaction, everything is based on data. any tweaks that richard and his team make to the program are based on data that we're collecting every single day through every single interaction. richard, you can go on with the details. we continue to use a number of metrics which rich will explain. >> yeah. just to add some additional texture to that, it is really challenging to measure overall community impact especially when you're trying to measure the absence things like violence or crime. i think that's been a challenge

for us. we try to focus on measuring the impact of what our ambassadors do in terms of tracking services, or any interactions. primarily based on self-reported daily activity logs that each ambassador completes every shift. we tracking number of 311 reports that complete the and number of safety reports. that's helpful. we realized -- we can provide useful data in terms of like how that has changed over the years. sometimes that's more of a reflection of our staffing level than community need. we struggle with figure out how to measure the broader impact. the anecdotal impacts from it community about why our services are so important and from our community partners, i think rely on our presence. it's something were trying to get more zeroed in on but i'm happy to provide some of the data that we do track if that would be helpful.

>> yeah, absolutely. i think that given the fact that we started this program since 2010. it's an annual funding of $1 million, that means we have on and off, even with private funding, we have invested over $10 million in the community ambassador service program. i think it's time to really establish efficient metrics measuring success. i think for the very least, it's like number of people served. how are they served in what way. with that, can help us determine areas that they should be deployed. obviously, the district supervisor for district 1, i see

the needs. i worked with department of public works and i wanted to really understand how are we really utilizing individuals. frankly the ambassadors i met are wonderful. there's no doubt about the quality of the ambassador. what i do worry and have concern is that after a decadesful investment, here we are. we want to make more investment. i think we deserve as a community, more investments. let's make sure that if we're asking as rapid response team and thinking about investments in our community, we ought to be able to say, what are the metrics for us to measure the success and if we can provide improvements and figure out and allocate resources in places where it can really bring us

results. what are the results look like and what do the deliverables look like. that's more of a comment chair mar. i will yield my time. i wrap up my questions here. thank you. >> supervisor mar: thank you, supervisor chan for good questions. i have few follow-up questions about the community ambassador program. i thank director pon highlighting significant surge in violence targeting asians back in 2008 and 2009. i was wondering, since then, there's been -- it's good to see the program continue and expand into other neighborhoods. there's been other similar kind of neighborhood or street based on safety outreach programs that started up. even drawing on some of the

model and examples from the c.a.p. program. there's even the police department, there's foot patrols and walks and community organizations doing patrols and outreach programs too. my question, how does the community ambassador program coordinate with these other similar programs. they're little bit different. there's similarity around neighborhood outreach around safety issues. what level of coordination happens? >> thank you, chair mar. that's a great question. it's not always easy to answer it. in terms of the ambassador program and richard and i don't think fernando is on the line. there's an ongoing conversation that the team has with

community. it's not just when something happens. they meet regularly. they attend the neighborhood meetings for the sfpd. we're always working. coordinating with other groups as you said, over past ten years, a number of similar programs have popped up. when we first started -- those were ambassadors like individuals that goes on and off the muni transportation system. then there was two guides. that was it. over the past ten years, it's been c.d.d.s that created their own ambassador program and tourist association and visitor associations have hired them. i think they've come and gone.

we've tried to be part of the coordinated conversation. there's been some when there was uptick in violence in the civic center area. there were -- that was probably the best coordination. it was the p.d. and local captains and officers, ambassadors, city departments, mental health, everybody. as of today, i don't believe, richard please correct me if i'm incorrect, there's a coordinating body today currently. we do our best to coordinate with each individual organization. there used to be a director of violence prevention out of the mayor's office. in 2010 they wrote this 120-page violence prevention plan. i don't think it ever got to

implementation stage or not all of it. as of today, i don't know if you know who is the point person for violence prevention in the city. we do our best to coordinate individual organization. >> just to add that your individual leads attend monthly. we try to build partnerships with works that in overlapping areas. we train our ambassadors to have the dispatch number for the community benefit district. maybe benefit district can address more quickly than d.p.w. there are many programs on the street providing support whether

it's street cleanliness, safety team. i think the need for coordination is very critical. there's a lot of great work happening. lot of natural partnership kind of surfacing. some additional stewardship to make sure all these programs are really aligned in a similar strategy through m.t.a. or our office or sfpd or community run. more people on the streets in uniform the better in terms like a friendly presence to support people. i do think that's true. i think the coordination need is acute. >> supervisor mar: thank you for that. thanks for all your good work. it sound like there's coordination happening between c.a.p. and other public safety outreach programs on sort of neighborhood or district station

level. there's a lack of sort of citywide coordination or for the various programs. supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: i had a similar question. i won't go too far in it. i constantly hear about ambassadors are doing and the great work. i'm really grateful for what they do. we also, it feels like there are a lot of other similar types of efforts. -- whether it's c.b. some ways they are doing similar things as the ambassadors but may be they are mimicking in

some ways or doing some other types of things in other cases. i'm wondering even for example to ask you this latest effort that was announced by the mayor with the role of sbip and other organizations if community ambassador have role in that and how that differs for what you are doing. it does feel like we all want to expand the ambassadors and also, at the same time, we're expanding all those other types of programs. how do we create something that's coherent and coordinated and people know who they are and what they do and they are well-trained. i think it does feel like we're sort of seeing a dramatic expansion in all different ways. there could be something that is centered around the ambassadors that's a bit more coordinated and coherent rather than having to interact with a lot of these

different other efforts. is there -- i don't know if that's a question more of a statement. is there a role with this latest effort with seip and specific focus around the anti-asian hate incidents. how does the ambassadors fit in that? >> i will make an attempt to answer that in the most diplomatic way possible. no, there's not a role that was defined in that effort for the community ambassadors. however, we do see our role as continuing to support all the community efforts and if it's the street violence prevention folks or the c.b.d., we will continue to partner with them. the simple answer is no. there's no role to expand any of

these efforts. >> supervisor haney: thank you. >> supervisor mar: the next presentation was going to be on the street violence intervention program. why don't we go to that. mr. carrillo? >> good afternoon everyone. i'm director for the street violence intervention program. i don't know if we have a slide available.

>> good afternoon, we have your presentation. give us a moment to retrieve it and pull it up. >> okay. >> supervisor mar: your presentation is up. >> i don't see it. okay. it's not showing on my screen for some reason. >> the presentation is displaying for the viewers here. i can see it. it's full screen. >> that's interesting. i have it up on my screen and i

can present it from there. the street violence intervention program is an outreach program. it was created in 2013 to intervene with youth related to street violence in the city and county of san francisco. the history goes back over 30 years. there was violence in the mission district, violence in the bayview and there was a program that was developed. that was developed in '84. it was a mission to go on friday, and saturday nights where lot of youth were partnering in garages and on the street. they would pick up youth, take them to mission rec center, take them on outing and drive them home when they were drunk. they developed a program called

the real alternative program, called r.a.p. it provided -- targeted school for home boys. they learned about baton rouge and science. -- biology and science. back in 2000, -- let me back up. at the same time, in the bayview, there was brothers against guns and there were other community agencies that were working together to try to prevent violence. in 2000, there was uptick violence in the city and especially in the mission. community response network was built to address pretty much five different neighborhoods. western, mission, bayview and the o.m.i. in 2013, c.r.m. was transitioned

to health right 360. i was asked to take over this program. the youth that we serve are 10 to 35-year-old. we deal with at-risk. those kids hanging on the block and not involved with anything, those are at-risk that have some criminal justices involvement. those that are in risk that considered perpetrators or victims of those that are perpetrated. what we do, we do street outreach and we do crises response. the street outreach is we go to the hot spot neighborhoods. when covid is not happening. we will walk the neighborhood,

talk to the transitional -- the young adults that are at risk to violence. we ask what will it take to get you off the block. most of the time they will say go back to school or support with substance abuse treatment or mental health service. we connect the dots to do that. we do community building events. we have almost 30 staff. they are african-americans, latino and park islanders. island -- pacific islanders. we do lot of community event. we take youth to different outings to get them away from the blocks that they are from. we do safe passage. if there's someone at school who might have a problem getting to and from school, where they need

support, we may do safe passage for the youth. we do conflict mediation. we do preventive education and we have intensive mentorship program. we follow the youth. we'll make a referral to an education, let's say to y.c.d., they'll go through a job readiness training program to try to get a job. we will support them during that duration to make sure they have the support. we also do crises response. when a shooting happen or stabbing, there's a text that goes out from sfpd or d.p.h. they dispatch a worker who will work with the victim or immediate family. we do crowd control, rumor

control, deescalation, whatever we can do from the hospital and into the community where there might be problems. we try to do that mediation. we started the process of -- reimagining [indiscernible] the youth are not hanging out as much as they have been. we've been supporting other areas. food distribution. there's a lot of food lines in different communities. we've been supporting with that. covid testing. we've been supporting with covid testing. we've been transporting people who are getting vaccinated from let's say 24 state to sf general

hospital. different locations to make sure they are getting vaccinated. we're working with the mayor's announcement as far as working with ambassadors with c.y.c. to start to establish some walk abouts in chinatown and o.m.i. we're more than willing to work with whomever to be supportive to this cause. there was a question about violence prevention coordinator with the mayor's office. that person is james caldwell. i can send that information to whomever. he is the public safety officer that's working directly for the mayor's office. he would be the person to contact this coordination that we're doing. that's the short version.

i can answer any questions that you have. >> supervisor mar: thank you so much for your presentation. i had a question. can you talk more about what the plan is to partner with other a.p.i. community groups to address the crime and violence that we're seeing right now? what the time line is for that as well? >> we are working on that. we received sort of like an announcement of coordination. that funding to do this. we're at the beginning stages of finding out how many svip workers will be available.

we have to hire culturally responsive folks that can speak the language. we have today, african-american, latino and pacific islanders. mostly samoan realm that are prone to violence in san francisco. once we get funding, i can start that hiring process. i'm waiting for that green light to be able to start that in motion. we have been speaking with the sheriff. we will start to coordinate our efforts to figure out how best to be supportive. meeting the community needs. >> supervisor mar: is this going to be a partnership or it's a

coordinated program? >> that's still to be defined. whatever we can do to support each other in this cause. as a matter of fact, we've started the walkabouts in chinatown yesterday. we're going to be in san bruno this afternoon. we're having the wheels in motion. there's different community advocates. there's different groups right now that are formulating their own walkabouts. we want to have a coordinated effort so we're all speaking the same language and we're all trained properly. we can be supportive as possible. we're still working out those details. >> supervisor mar: even for the walkabout that you started in chinatown, is that being done

with c.y.c. folks? >> yes. >> supervisor mar: that's great. how are you coordinating with the existing sort of patrol groups or outreach even from the last presentation, there's a community ambassador team in chinatown, how you're coordinating with other safety outreach efforts? >> we're just starting this dialogue. i need to connect with the leaders from those groups. the walkabout groups and with the ambassador program to write this all out. i'm just starting to process now. >> supervisor mar: got it. thank you. colleagues, do you have any questions for mr. carrillo about

svip's work? supervisor chan? >> supervisor chan: i want to thank you for this work. it really is not easy. i think it's more of common question. very similarly to my question to director pon about the community ambassador program. training qualification and the metric of measuring success, really look forward to like supervisor haney have talked about earlier. looking and identify some coordinated effort citywide and different type of programs that we're working on to make sure we're efficient and we know the

metric of success measuring of that and perhaps working along with the controllers office to identify those per forma metrics so we can have some type of audit or annual reporting to really figure out the results and the deliverables. >> thank you. >> supervisor mar: supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: thank you so much for your work and your team. you just do such extraordinary work, keeping people safe. when we look at some of the success that san francisco has had reducing some of the violence in our city, i think you all have been consistently at the center of that. so thank you for that. i had two kind of connecting questions. i know that you all work with a lot of different folks and a lot

of the work that do you is around working with young people, which i think is really critically important. one of the questions i had is how with this particular effort, which is really working with seniors and working with sort of a different population. how that transition is happening for you all in terms of either training or partnership with c.y.c. and other organizations that do work with seniors more often. you can speak to that shift from working with different set of populations that you're working to protect here. >> i'm a senior. it has to be developed. we've been talking through this whole covid, the work in it city, all of us have to

reimagine what we've done in the past. there are trying it times now. all ever us need to be open. we're going to walk with the senior citizens, we'll help with sfmta, with the ambassador and the police. we're all in it together to make everyone feel as safe as possible. we'll have to change our schedules. we'll have to develop specific proofs that we'll go out and support those folks. we have to be culturally confident, we have to peek the language. we have to get trained. >> supervisor haney: i'm wondering how this works and what are the different roles,

different organizations and leaders in a situation like in tenderloin where we have variety of safety challenges. we have concerns around some of these violent acts of hatred and racism and hate crimes. we have seniors who are vulnerable and concerned about walking down the street in many cases. there's a lot of organizations that are involved and have a role and all of that. are you playing a role of helping to coordinate all of that? are you putting actual people out on the street to be out there invisible and help with intervention? are you helping to train some of the people who are going out there. are you coordinating with different groups that might be playing a role? i'm trying to understand how this looks like in a

neighborhood like the tenderloin when we have such tremendous need. what role you're playing and how this creates -- [indiscernible] >> supervisor, we have to work that out. the street outreach that we do at harbor road is different than the tenderloin. i'll be honest with you, i myself, went through there years ago as a young adult. i know that walking the beach in the tenderloin with someone trying to buy drugs, you have these jackets, these svip sweatshirts not will not work well those who are buying and selling. we have to make sure everybody is safe. we have to develop a coordinated effort how to do that. the cbos there, we need to

work with them. i don't have the answers now. i'm willing to do whatever we can to help those folks. lot of it's all substance abuse. there's mental health issues. wie need to connect the dots to get people to the supportive services that they need. >> supervisor haney: i appreciate that. definitely, agree with you on the complexity of neighborhoods. every neighborhood is different. one things i appreciate about your work, you all understand that. you understand how to approach. in way that's connected with the organizations and meet us there. is there a timeline for this work? is there a time in which sort of when you be able operational or scale up. when we can expect impact of this? obviously, there's a lot of

urgency that our residents and constituents feel around this issue of safety. we know that there was some announcements around this. we are supportive of. it's harder for me to understand how to share with my constituents when they'll see some impact of that. >> right. i put in the request to james caldwell who's the chief officer of criminal justice and public safety. i just added his information on the chat line so we can all communicate with him. i'm waiting to hear back to him when the funding stream will start to roll in so we can start to figure this out. in the meantime, we started talking about how best to set the protocols for training protocols, the hiring of staff, on boarding to work that out so we can start to develop some timelines.

i don't have an answer as of yet. we're working diligently to get that information. >> supervisor haney: thank you. i appreciate your work. thank you. >> supervisor mar: thanks for the good question preview haney. we also have available on d.p.h. representative, svip is housed under d.p.h. crises services program. stephanie felder here? >> hello. >> supervisor mar: hi. i had a question about d.p.h. this is more around victim support and services and the question is what's d.p.h.'s role

response to violent crimes. specifically with language on culture barriers when they've been targeted by their race, languagability and age? this is chair mar. i have a question about d.p.h.'s role in supporting victims of violent crime. specifically where they have language and cultural barriers. they may have been targeted by their race, age or vulnerability. >> most recently, we've been getting information from sfpd regarding victims that have been affected by these types of

crimes. we have had our cantonese and mandarin staff reach out. we have a 24-hour crises line where anyone can call to get support. we do have language capability. >> supervisor mar: that's good to hear. is this support to particularly asian victims of violent crime? offering mental health services. is this a new support from d.p.h.? that's been created recently as a result of the surge in cases? is this something you've been providing? >> this is something we've been providing ongoing for a while now, for years.

>> supervisor mar: i don't know if you can speak to the numbers of cases in individuals that you're supporting specifically a.p.i. individuals. has that increased. >> the resembles from -- the referrals from the police has increased. over the last few months, it increased. >> supervisor mar: do you -- you connect them to mental health services? d.p.h. mental health services or community provider? >> it depends on what the individual would like. we can take them in-house and provide that individual treatment. we just kind of assess their needs if they need to be linked back to victim of crime. if you're interested in mental

health, we can link them to the outpatient clinic or provide the service here at crises. >> supervisor mar: thank you so much. if there's no other questions for svip or d.p.h., we can move on to the sfpd presentation. i believe we have chief scott here and his team to do the presentation. are you still here? >> yes, supervisor, i'm here. let me thank you for chairing this important meeting and bringing attention and awareness to this issue. which is one of the most important issues we have going now. i'll start by introducing my

co-presenter which are acting deputy chief commander. i will open it up and turn it over to acting deputy chiefs. first, i want to start with the san francisco police department, recognizes that our asian-american pacific islanders, aapi community has been deeply impacted by all the senseless violence not happened in our city and in this region but on a national scale over the last few months. frankly in reality, we seen some horrific crimes against senior members of the aapi community over the last few years. i hate to say that. that is sad reality. we seen a rise in violence against our aapi community

members. we're seen devastating consequences of those directly impacted and their families. those consequences includes heightened sense of fear and anxiety. people who just want to go about their daily activities of life. some are afraid to do so. that is very problematic. however you want to look at this issue, that is very problematic. fear and hate is not what our city is about. we have to work collaboratively to change what's happening and the anxiety associated with the fear of crime. we're going to talk about how we are doing our part to do that. as i said, acting deputy chief will speak more to that. in october of last year, where the mayor was urging, the board urging, we knew we had to do

more. we created a community liaison unit also known as c.l.u. to support victims of these types of. incidents and crimes. unfortunately, they were put to tack right away. we had the homicide that happened months ago. that community stepped up to support his family during this crises situation. that's what they put together for. since then, they have supported our investigators and our team and the families that have been victims to these types of crimes and other types of serious crimes. they've done a really good job. we like to expand the footprint of the c.l.u. it really speaks to the other part that i talked about reducing the anxiety, helping people navigate when they are involved in situations like

this. navigate through the processes, city government, linking them with the right resources including the district attorney, victim support unit and resources like that and the community-based resources that are out there. there are lot of community based resources that can support our city and victims of these types of incidents. as a department, also, we're constantly assessing our strategies and inviting our aapi stakeholders to continue to brainstorm with us. those meetings will give solutions to address this issue. we've already seen some dividends of that. we're thinking community collaborations and community safety loss and strategies like that. which have been very effective not only raising awareness but letting people know that we're there to support.

our aati collaborations have been very helpful in that regard. i want to thank our newest commissioner for his work in this. he has been -- he hit the ground running on that. we've done community walks. we've done rallies. he's partnering in bringing all of of this together. i want to thank him i know he's not here. and all the commissioners for their support on this issue. i want to thank you, chair mar, supervisors stefani to present. with that, i will turn it over to acting deputy chief.

>> thank you, chief. as you will see in this, we

actually saw a decrease from 2020 to 2021, a slight decrease. in it, we're looking at crimes such as assault, robberies etcetera. we did have one homicide that i'll talk about later in the presentation. you'll see a trending. we have noticed trending higher from 2021 and i'll talk about that a little bit more in the slide. we looked at actually incidents involving elderly asian-americans and all elderly victims. you can see that we're between 2019, 2020 and 2021, the trend has been pretty close. it's between 19%, 17% of victims are asian-americans and this

relatively stayed the same. we're seeing that same trend. we are seeing more people come forward definitely since february, march, talking to special victims unit on this. our hate crimes are actually investigated -- [indiscernible] if somebody can please go on mute. the hate crimes are actually investigated by our special investigations division. every single patrol officer is trained on hate crimes.

every single patrol officer that is out there every investigator is trained to look for indicators of hate crime and to elevate that and make sure that we capture those incidents by the way they investigate and write the report and how the case is investigated. if you look at the stats here, we did see a decrease from 2019 to 2020 but we also ran the raw numbers. when you look at the raw numbers they talk about full hate incidents. we saw an increase of rec and --increase with 2019 to 2020. especially in the last few months where lot of cases are highlighted. more people are coming forward to us and reporting this.

which is actually great news. we do want to hold people accountable that commit these crimes. we want to educate the public how to prevent these crimes. you'll see the numbers right now, these are actually victims. so the incidents are about seven that we looked at in 2021 that are actually chargeable as a hate crime. i'll go little bit more into that in the next slide. the way we determine hate crime, we're actually dictated by a general order. we have very specific training on how to identify hate crimes. our general order 6.13 is based on both the civil rights act of 1976 and the dane act, the state

act for civil rights of 1987. our policy is based on both of those acts and we go much further into it on victim outreach. basically, the premise of it, any crime, violent, threatening acts that are based directed on a person or property, some of the things that we look at as far as what those -- we look at race, the person's gender, religion, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, age, disability. we looked at these factors. the critical part is the motivation. by somebody committing the crime, we want to show that

their motivation for committing this crime was primarily based on one of these indicators -- one of these victim indicators what cause them to commit the crime. that's sometimes very hard. that's why if you look at the overall cases, bring it to the level of chargeable hate crime. the cases that we had this year, out of those cases, every case that we have brought up to that level and have been able to present it to the district attorney, the offenders have been charged on those cases as a hate crime. lot of these cases are open. i can't go into lot of details on the specifics of the case. i can give you generally what's going on with the cases.

in addition to specific training that's formalized, we also -- we just recently reached out to all patrol officers and refreshed their training on indicators of hate crime recording and then victim outreach. >> deputy chief. >> supervisor mar: can i ask few questions about the last few slides? you're saying -- you're saying 2021 so far, there's been seven cases that have been charged as hate crimes with aapi motivation is anti-asian prejudice? >> seven cases that have been identified out of those seven have been charged, the others are open investigations. >> supervisor mar: the previous

slide showed 15. >> 15 victims. some of them have multiple victims. >> supervisor mar: okay. [please stand by]

>> chair mar: yeah, sure. i know about that. >> next slide. so i'm going to turn it over -- and we'll have an opportunity for questions and answers. i'm going to turn it over to

commander fong. >> thank you, acting deputy chief, chief scott. good afternoon, chair mar, members of the board and community members and general public. my name is darryl fong, and i'm commander of the community engagement division. the department has utilized the chief's asian pacific islander forum as a communication platform to connect with stakeholders in the aapi community on safety concerns and strategic responses. four members consisting of community stakeholders and representatives from organizations have included the asian pacific american community center, charity culture service center, kimochi senior center, usucsf asian

health institute, the northern california national federation of filipino americans, and the southeast facilities commission. the [inaudible] asian pacific islander, american public affairs also known as apaba on the creation of an anonymous tip line. this was implemented to ensure access to reporting for monolingual speakers to address potential barriers causing underreporting of incidents. the department is also currently working with our language access vendor on expansion of this deploying to include the languages of vietnamese, filipino, russian, korean, japanese, spanish, and

thai to [inaudible] the department has implemented a policy to track all prejudice-based more accurately track incidents involving the asian american pacific islander -- providing additional resources with officers present within the aapi community in commercial corridors citywide.

this plan includes deploying staffing within the district station supplemented by officers in plain clothes, specialized units such as our tactical unit, motorcycles from our traffic division to provide greater visibility and presence to enhance safety within neighborhoods. the department is also in a process of creating a deployment plan consisting of department members from the asian peace officers association who have volunteered for deployment to areas impacted by incidents of victimization involving members of the aapi community within residential as well as commercial corridors to provide additional presence and support. next slide, please. >> chair mar: commander fong, can i just ask a few quick questions on the last slide or the one you just shared? >> sure. >> chair mar: and it's sort of a follow up on my question to

deputy chief iswani. so you reported that the department is updating your policy to more accurately reflect incidents targeting the aapi community. >> yeah. >> chair mar: what's the timeline on that? >> that actually -- that policy was actually just released today -- or i'm sorry, yesterday, in which we implemented a process instruct ed our members how to report hate based incidents. even if it doesn't rise to the level of hate crime, there's a list of how to identify victims, whether this is

prejudice based or whether this individual was targeted due to one of the protected classes. >> chair mar: great. >> and that process is actually being overseen and spear headed by our community liaison unit here in the community engagement, in which we'll be utilizing this data to track any trends or incidents that we have determined impacting various neighborhoods within the neighborhoods citywide. >> chair mar: very glad to hear about that. and then, you also had a point that there's a dash -- data dashboard that's been created to better track and report on crime trends within the aapi community. is that a public dashboard or is that internal? >> it is an internal dashboard, supervisor, in which we're utilizing particularly as we seen incidents of violence impacting our seniors not only within the aapi communities but

all communities, and we've been really kind of focusing on the types of incidents that have been occurring within these incidents citywide and developing alternatives in the response plan. >> chair mar: okay. thank you. >> absolutely. so the department's education and outreach efforts have been spear headed by the liaison unit been the community engagement unit. the community liaison unit was established in november 2020 in response to a reported increase of prejudice based incidents within the community to better serve the aapi community and all other marginalized underserved communities. community liaison unit is comprised of four sergeants and

two officers who serve as liaison to the aapi community as well as latinx, hispanic, and other marginalized communities. -- supportive resources,

including victim services, which often is through the d.a.s office, language access assistance, crisis response support, which is facilitated through the department of public health and executive director and her team, as well as community response support. as of april 5, the department has assisted in 57 cases year-to-date, and these incidences have included incidents involving home invasion, homicide and assaults, elder abuse, burglaries, robberies, traffic related fatalities as well as hate crimes. next slide, please. the community liaison unit spear heads engagement with the community in coordination with the district station captains in response to a hate crime or a violent crime impact in the community. the district captains will conduct outreach efforts through their respective

platforms such as the community police advisory boards, through newsletters, social media, using twitter as a platform, merchant and neighborhood associations as well as partnership with community-based organizations. now some of the community-based organizations that the department has collaborated with on outreach and supportive services include the community center, executive director sarah wan. and i just want to thank sarah and her team for the tremendous amount of support she's provided to our department as we've connected victims of incidents to her and her team as indicated earlier, providing wraparound services, whether that's financial and/or crisis support, so really want to highlight that. i know sarah's been working with both our members of our c.l.u. team as well as

captaining and his staff at central station. other organizations were instrumental in helping us to create and develop the outreach material utilized in our community safety walks, promoting the anonymous tip line specifically for the chinese community of chinese and cantonese american speakers, asian american community center, chinatown community development center, the chinese chamber of commerce, chinese consolidated benevolent association, the chinatown merchants' association, the aapi council, as well as the outer sunset merchants association that the department has been engaged with. now as an example earlier, it was mentioned in community outreach and collaboration, in

the past two months, there have been community safety walks that have been organized by our community liaison unit as well as in the taraval, bayview, and sunset district often populated by members of the community as well as community leaders focused on educating the community on safety prevention and department resources and particularly highlighting the tip line for monolanguage speakers in the chinese community. next slide, please. now all department members are trained -- although c.l.u. leads our community policing efforts throughout the

department, all members are trained in best practices with appropriate resources and support. they provide information on i get -- on rights, and facilitate crisis support through the department of mental health. next slide, please. the department's language access capacity currently consists of 286 certified

bilingual officers. these are certified in the five core languages of cantonese, spanish, mandarin, tagalog and russian. in addition, 100 bilingual officers are also versed in 30 other languages as well as 92 certified civilian members, 33 bilingual civilian members, totaling 522 bilingual members with over 30 spoken languages. this summarizes the department's community outreach and services support. i'd like to turn this back over to the acting deputy chief to provide an update regarding several incidents that are highlighted involving members of the aapi community. >> hi. we picked just a couple of

sample cases. in this, of course, the first one, pretty much everybody knows about on january 30, in the anza vista, an 84-year-old thai male was walking, and basically, the suspect ran across and pushed him to the ground. the victim fell, struck his head, and he died from his injuries. in that case, there were two individuals arrested. at this point, one of the two has been charged, and that person's been charged with murder and elder abuse, and he is still in custody. the second one is a home invasion robbery. it's still an open investigation, so i'll try to limit how much i say on it, but we do have one suspect in custody. we see a lot of these crimes, home invasion robberies,

especially in the portola and the avenues, some of the neighborhood streets. on this one, 500 block of campbell, two victims in their 80s were home when the suspect came up, rang the doorbell, and then gained entry to the home with firearms and ransacked the house. we have one individual arrested on it, and he is being charged with kidnapping for robbery and robbery, and we are looking at some other suspects. it is an open case. the next one is harassing phone calls to a business owner where somebody calls the business owner on their personal phone and makes threats. this is currently an open case by our special investigations division, and these are just sample cases, but i'd love to transition this to any kind of

question-and-answer on the next slide. >> chair mar: thank you so much for the presentation, deputy chief and commander. actually, just on those three cases that you highlighted, i was just curious whether any of them are categorized as a hate crime or a prejudice-based incident. >> the third one is because the comments made by the actual suspect made specific comments that indicated it was a hate crimes. so with hate crimes, what we train our officers is when they go out to the scene, it's critical to do a full interview and to try to get things such as statements the person made, immediately write down the statements, retain any kind of

photos, audio recordings of any kind of remarks the person made because the remarks are critical if something gets classified later as a hate crime. >> chair mar: thank you. and then, the other two are not hate crimes or were not identified as prejudice-based? >> that's correct, but we are, on both of these investigations -- they're still on going. even the homicide investigation -- a homicide investigation is always on going to the point of conviction, so those are both active cases. >> chair mar: and commander fong reported there's a new department policy where you'll be tracking prejudice-based

incidents. is that correct? when i asked you about that before, you referred me to professor jung at s.f. state for the data. >> yes. so we do -- so if a case gets referred to our criminal investigations division, we do have the stats of those cases that are reviewed and referred as a hate crime, even though they might not make that cut, so we have those stats, but not everything gets reported to us. generally, if someone makes a report in public, etc., that doesn't equate to a criminal matter. many people don't call 911 or don't call us. we actually encourage people to call us, number one, to try to mitigate it, but we should document it because in the future, if this person commits a crime, it goes into the

motivation of the actual suspect, so their history can play a factor if, later on, they get charged with a hate crime. >> and supervisor, i may -- so the community liaison unit will be working with our special investigations division to support their efforts. they're the lead on the criminal investigation, but for us, we will be tracking or monitoring these prejudice-based incident as i mentioned earlier in terms of identifying any trends that may be in need for response. >> chair mar: mm-hmm. thank you. yeah, i'm just, you know, obviously, there -- one aspect of these urgent issues is there's been a lot of frustration within the -- within our community -- or within the community about the

lack of accurate or complete data, you know, that that really reflects the extent of the problem, so it's good that the department is taking some steps to track prejudice-based incidents, and then, there's the crime dashboard. is there -- so you -- commander fung, you said this new data dashboard that is showing the crime trends within the aapi community, is there a reason why that can't be made public? >> i know it was created for us, you know, as a tool for identifying a deployment response to these issues. i can't speak to whether, you know, that information clark

county developed and serves as a purpose in supporting the district stations both from a community standpoint as well as an enforcement standpoint, so we are just starting the process of utilizing it specifically as we've seen an increase in incidents impacting our elders or elder population, just identifying areas where, and the types of crimes that we are identifying that are happening throughout the city. >> and supervisor mar, if i could pitch in, we'll see if we have the capability to do that given our current technology infrastructure. if we can't -- we'll let you know if we can in the format you want us to in a follow up with the rest of the board, so

we'll let you know if we can put the dashboard or something like that in the public realm, as well, but definitely, the data infrastructure, we'll see if we can make that public, so i'll get back to you. >> chair mar: thank you. i think that would be very important to the community to see that data, and yeah, just your overall regular crime dashboard that you have, that i know a lot of the people in the community and the public refer to that, so i think justum, -- just monitoring the data would be good. >> so one actively now seeking out cases, so even if a case isn't reported as a hate crime,

we'll look at individual cases, we'll look at crimes that are occurring, and we'll look at under factors and we'll even re-call witnesses and ask them about things that might have happened, things that might have been said, so we're going back, just looking at crimes against elderly asians and underlying factors, even if it wasn't reported initially. >> chair mar: great. thank you. thank you for that. >> thank you.

>> chair mar: supervisor chan? . >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair mar. i think it's important to go back into prevention so to speak by developing relationship with community and community liaison. i think for me what, really, in the last few weeks, the most heartbreaking moment, and i think that many probably agree with me is that, you know, the video that, when we all saw mrs. shen, the elderly woman in downtown being attacked, and she just amazingly just try to defend herself. the video clipping by that time that i saw was that, you know, like, e.m.t. is already on screen. there's some police officer on scene, and the assailants was arrested at the same moment. and in that video, she was -- she was speaking chinese, you know, and i can see the surrounding responding, both the officers and e.m.t.s, like,

the first responder did not quite understand her. they were not, you know -- when they were on-site. however, i mean, the -- in terms of in their body language, they kind of understand her, but that -- that was a red flag for me, working in city government, just learning crisis response from someone like, you know, formerly now retired charles morimoto who talked about crisis response and the need of having d.p.h., department of public health and other folks being on the scene, responding to witnesses and others, people needings at the scene. so i think the question is

specifically, because now, we're talking about rapid response teams in collaboration with our community partners. i just wanted to understand, you know, a model as it currently exists, and how do you, as a department, currently do at the moment? as it currently exists, the protocols, it wasn't enough -- and that's not in any disrespect to all the hard work that everybody is already doing, but at that moment, i feel like there's a lack of cultural and most importantly language competency at that scene at that moment through that video. how can we improve that, what -- or is this an isolated incident? help me understand what can we do better as a city in that moment to support the victim? who obviously -- trying to help -- trying to get people to understand what she's saying

she was not the assailant because i think there was the worry, in her defending herself, that she's going to be misunderstood as an attacker? >> supervisor, this is chief scott. i'll start, and i know both the acting deputy chief and commander fong will probably want to weigh-in on this, but i'll start in on the bigger picture of the department and how we recruit. i know we made this presentation to the board in past presentations, but when you look at our department, the last five or so years, we've become more diverse than we already have, and when you look at the different layers of the department, like the executive layer, the command staff, the sergeants, and then, the police officer pool, the police officer pool is the most diverse part of our department. so one of the fundamental

things that we have to keep doing is recruit the diversity that the city needs and wants, and that goes a long way, you know, bigger picture, long-term, when we have more officers that are certified with different languages that are culturally competent about different cultures and different ethnicities and the like. all those things matter, and they matter a lot, so we have made some tremendous progress, and all of us have been involved in this process, but it really starts there. and i know that darryl had spoke a little bit about language assets and i know i'd like him to reiterate that and dig into that, because that's the other thing about diversity, for people that don't some english and all of that, we need to have access to

language so that they can communicate. there's a lot more that we're doing to try to help with that, but i'll pass that back to darryl and lot, if you want to come in. >> thank you, chief. so i'll first address the cultural competency issue. all of our officers go through a cultural competency training and emergent process as part of their training process when they're recruited. they go through the academy, they're exposed to training, and that's exposed to them during the training process, as well. in addition to that, we do --

as the chief referenced, we have a very clear policy in terms of a protocol for language access. each member of our department in all ten district stations as well as our airport bureau have been trained in what we call the inside application, which is a language access app on their department cell phones, which i referenced earlier in my presentation, which provides them access to interpretation for over 250 languages. that can be done both audioly as well as video because as we know, face-to-face engagement allows a level of comfort, particularly in a traumatic situation involving the victim. so there is a process, a protocol which we always try to have an officer, a bilingual officer respond to the scene of an incident to provide interpretation if needed. absent that, the officer will

utilize that application under -- on their department cell phones for interpretation should there be a language access issue or challenge, and there's also the utilization of civilian interpreters, as well, if needed to help actually interpret at the scene. so with -- we do have a policy for serving members of our aapi community. the victim was very traumatized in that incident, but in terms of incident, there was a bilingual officer that responded to the scene. my team is community liaison officers did also follow up with the victim and her family to provide support in terms of language access as well as

victim services all in that particular incident once we were notified of that particular incident. >> supervisor chan: i mean, thank you, commander fong. i think the two key things that i'm learning from that incident, though, two things were occurring. i think all -- i want to say all incidents, right, especially when you are involved -- when the police department is involved, they probably are oftentimes very fluid and very traumatizing, and there was -- or at least i was hoping that you wouldn't need to be on the scene. so just trying to understand, again, so at that moment, was any of the officers or any of the first responders, did they all have the same access to language app that you just mentioned and was it utilized in that scenario? and i think that case got a lot

of attention, which is a very good thing. there are also cases, i am sure, and i think i know, was not recorded on a video, and therefore, less attention to it, and this one got the follow up that it deserves, and just wanted, generally speaking, for the follow up for other cases that may not be as high profile, knowing that you have limited resources and how are those responses are -- have been for the victims? >> so to answer your first question, supervisor, which is yes, all the officers do have access to that application, as mentioned. all officers have been trained in the communications, and they have access to the application on their department cell phone.

as to whether or not that application was utilized during this particular incident, i do not have knowledge of that, but i -- what i can tell you is that there was follow up with the victim and their family in which interpretation and various services were provided. >> and if i could chime in, supervisor. so as with the chief said, we actually have a very diverse police departments. we have just shy of 400 asian police officers. we have one of the most diverse police departments in california. just to illustrate this, one of the hate crimes that i was recently looking at occurred in the tenderloin on building gate. the responding officers, the responding officers -- one of

the officers actually had the same last name as the victim in the incident and provided vietnamese services. they were able to identify the perpetrator, who went into this business and said he was going to kill all chinese and was going to shoot all chinese, actually identified him. the officers of tenderloin responded immediately, and that person is now being charged with a hate crime. as you go to some of these downtown districts, these neighboring districts constantly work as a team. they know if they need language services -- i was at union square at a crime scene, and we needed language that was pretty rare, and i went on the radio, and we immediately -- like, within 20 minutes, we were able to get an officer from another district to be able to do

interpretation for this really complex investigation right on the scene, so i thank you for bringing this up. we constantly strive to be even more diverse, but out on the streets, the officers are out there, and many times, they're able to do their jobs because of the diversity of the department access to language services and also access to community, where they can give us direction of a suspect, description of a suspect immediately. >> thank you. and i'll say one other thing, supervisor, because i think you raised a really excellent and important point. the high profile case raises attention, but all of them deserve attention. i just wanted to highlight a few things. there's such a highlight of our

asian -- aapi community, and that awareness is also within police department. we are very, very in tune with what's happening because, i want to go back to something i said earlier about the impact of, particularly when things go viral, and they get another a lot of immediate -- get a lot of media coverage and we are very aware of that, so one of the things is our response has to be the same, whether it's a high profile case or a case that nobody knows about in terms of the general public because it's that important right now. it's such a sense of, you know, we have to get on top of this,

not just as a city but beyond san francisco, so we are very, very sensitive to these cases right now, and when we see -- i know i meet with the commander defonte and commander fong on this. with that said, we always need to get better, and that's what the c.l.u. is about, to really provide more services to victims because once you are victimized, as many of us on this call have been victims of crimes, then, what kind of services do you receive in you know, how do we respond? not just whether we solve it, but when you call us, did we call you back? is this where you've got to go through ten phone tree levels to get to a person, and those things matter. so this is where we're trying

to get better as an organization with those things because those things do matter, and we are very in tune with that, so i just want to say, i thank you for raising that issue because it's very important. if we fall short, we need to address it at all levels of this organization because we do need to address it if we fall short. >> thank you, chief scott, and commander fong and laswani. i think this is my last comment. i absolutely agree with chief scott that diversity start with the recruitment, and i am seeing, you know, we have 522 bilingual certified officers is an accomplishment, no doubt. at the same time, this is a world class city and county of san francisco, and we have, you know, 800-something thousand

residents and million -- more than a million visitors daily -- well, this is probably a pandemic -- this is before pandemic stats, but i hope to have this continuing step of visitorship coming back to the city, so just wanted to continue to advocate for diversity in our police department -- frankly, not just our police department, really all city departments, and this is what this meeting is about, is to make sure we do have that language and cultural competency not just our police department but all city services, and thank you, chair mar, for indulging me and allowing me to ask these questions. >> chair mar: thank you, supervisor chan, for those very good questions, and yeah, just wanted to say i do appreciate all the work that's been done by the department around diversity, the force, and diversefying the force and also

expanding language access and cultural competency, but it seems like there's a lot more work that needs to be done. when i started as supervisor in 2019, i was surprised to find that taraval station had only seven cantonese certified bilingual officers out of 110 officers at the station, and i think there was only one mandarin certified officer at the station, so that is clearly not -- you know, not adequate to -- to serve the communities, especially in the sunset, where over 50% of the population, you know, is asian american. and i had -- you know, had an experience even, just as an example on one crime scene prior to covid. there were a group of asian owned businesses or chinese

owned businesses on noriega that was vandalized on one night. so i happened to be out on the crime scene when the -- the -- the -- the taraval officers were on scene investigating, but no one was able to communicate with the merchants, so my wife had to step in and do interpretation on the scene, because she was with me at the time, yeah, so i just -- you know, i think that this is really important piece of the work, aspect of the work that really needs to continue, is to expand the certified bilingual staff, particularly meeting the needs of the neighborhoods, you know, of the district stations. and then, i guess i have a question. is there a role that community organizations can play, you know, who have -- who would have the -- not just the life

lingual competency but sort of the knowledge of the community, particularly in, yeah, in violent crime investigation and -- like, commander fong, i think you mentioned that c.y.c. has been engaged in some of the high profile cases, so i'm just curious how that happens and that's, like, a common practice because that -- >> yes. they've been a tremendous partner under the coalition of community safety and justice initiative. as i mentioned, director sarah wan, she's been tremendous in providing support, particularly in these incidents. we had an incident in the central district that occurred last week in which she was able to provide support to the victim as well as the husband in that particular case in terms of language access as well as wraparound services, so we have been communicating and

partnering with c.y.c. very closely, but we welcome also other organizations and how we can work together to reach our communities with all the communities within the aapi community as well as support their efforts in terms of enhancing safety in the neighborhoods. >> chair mar: thank you. and just maybe a follow up and a broader question around victims support -- or follow up with victims and support, so it sounds like that's one role that the c.l.u. is playing for certain victims, particularly for prejudice based incidents, and to my question is how is that victim support coordinated with the district attorney's victim services unit and also community organizations or coalitions like ptsj?

>> so our team at c.l.u., they have been working with both peter and hannah at the d.a.s office victim services. they have been referring, really cases -- so i'll give you an example of a case that happened in japantown in the northern district in just last week in which the victim had her purse taken out of are vehicle. the d.a.s office had reached out to us, attempting to identify the victim in that particular case. our c.l.u. team was able to work with our investigations team and identify that particular victim and connect that victim with the d.a.s victim services to provide them the support that they needed, so it's been reciprocal, where we've been working together to report victims that are reporting these instances are provided that conduit to support, but as i also

mentioned, c.y.c. and department of public health, the executive director and her team, in terms of providing mental health or crisis support for victims that have been impacted, as well. >> chair mar: mm-hmm. thank you. and for that -- the point around and engaging with community organizations like c.y.c. or the tcsj, is that kind of done on a case-by-case basis or is that a standard practice on certain types of cases -- incidences and cases? >> it's pretty much standard practice, particularly if there's victim support resources that are needed in these cases. where we've worked with other organizations is in addition to the support is providing the outreach for education, so another example, we are planning to work with kimochi, the senior center in japantown, in an event where seniors are

participating in a lunch event as well as safety tips to those seniors that have been impacted, so our work with the different c.b.o.s take on different supportive functions, if you will, but we've been working with different organizations on different aspects of that. >> chair mar: and one -- one last question i just thought of it around the expanding bilingual certified officers. i know at taraval station, there's a number of officers there, like, chinese or asian officers that aren't necessarily certified bilingual, but they can speak some language or have some language capacity. i was wondering if there's ever been consideration or a plan to help support sort of upscaling

and providing some training -- language training and -- actually, it's more than language, but it's cultural competency training to support officers who might just need a little bit of support in order to become certified? >> sure. so we are -- we have a language access liaison officer for the department, and she worked with both the certified bilingual officers as well as those that may not be certified, as you were referencing, supervisor, but may speak another language in terms of acquiring certification for that. we are also in communication with the department of human resources on expanding our language certification capacity? because as you mentioned, it is -- and supervisor chan raised this point, our efforts are to continue to expand the capacity to make sure we're meeting the needs of our diverse community, so we are always looking for those

opportunities, and our language access officer leads those efforts. >> chair mar: thank you. actually, i did have one final question, and i know, i remember, i think it was after the assault on some of those high-profile incidents that happened, and there was just growing concern and -- and -- and about the rise in concern about the incidents against the asian american community, that the department announced it was deploying foot patrols in asian --arian -- high asian -- asian -- high asian neighborhoods, and i was wondering if there was a plan to deploy that particular strategy? >> yeah.

so at each district station, there was a deployment plan that is, you know, actually crafted by each of the district station captains based on identified needs or response to a particular incident. as you mentioned, that homicide incident that occurred back on january 28, just to share a little more information about that, not only did c.l.u. respond out and connect with the daughter of the decedent, but they determined that there was a cultural competency issue, that the family was obviously of thai descent. they were able to secure a monk to deploy out to the chapel and assist with the actual services. in addition, there was support that was provided through the department of public health through the family as well as victim services through the

d.a.s office. this community liaison unit also worked with the district captain on a deployment plan where c.l.u. officers went out and engaged the residents in the neighborhood, also walked the foot beat for a period of a couple days in coordination with the district station officers. and that's continued based on the personnel and prioritisation of the particular issues in the district, but i know that the captain has prioritized that based on the incident that occurred, as well. >> and if i could add, chair mar, to what commander fong said, as much as we can continue the foot beat, we will. sometimes we have to share priorities, but for example, bayview along the san bruno corridor, those beats have been

consistent. they're still out there, and that community really appreciates that. they know the community, and those officers will continue to do that. captain -- captain julian ng in central district and the chinatown foot beat will be consistent. we'd like to put more of them out there, definitely, but we do continually deploy the foot beats in that area. and some of them, like in your area, the district stations, it has not been as consistent as we would like it, but as commander fong mentioned, we're going to do everything we can to keep deployment. as commander fong mentioned, we have to shift deployment to other communities, but we want to make sure that we have foot beats in communities that need it the most. sometimes in reality, we have to pool those resources to put out fires in other parts of the

city, so to speak, but there will be a priority, and i know that the captain is doing that in your district, and the bayview and central district captain is, as well. we're going to keep working at it, you know. there's some challenges, but we're going to keep working at it. >> supervisor, if i may add, as well, in our earlier presentation, specialized supervisors throughout the department has been collaborating and providing supervision in the specific districts, as well. i know in speaking with captain ng, he'd had specialized officers out there in a limited capacity to support the in his capacity at prevention efforts. >> chair mar: yeah, i certainly

feel that foot beats and foot patrols can play a really important role not just in responding to cry -- crisis situations like we had and what we're dealing with, but safety in our commercial corridors and neighborhoods, so i actually -- actually, i want to also go back to a question that came up in some of the -- with some of the previous presenters, and that's about coordination. what sort of coordination is there among the different neighborhood based or street outreach programs? you know, there's -- both as the community ambassadors program. we had the presentation on sbit and they're canvassing, and then, there's community-based organizations that do it, but even on a volunteer basis, in chinatown, there's u.p.c.

how does the department coordinate with those efforts, particularly foot patrols, but also just more generally. >> well, as an example, many of our safety walks, we've engaged community-based organizations working with the district captains. as evidence, the one we conducted with the communities, helping coordinate a safety walk with the merchants in getting the word out related to the anonymous tip line as well as safety tips. just to share with you a conversation that i had with captain ng yesterday, i know that sbit mentioned they were out on a safety walk yesterday. the officers were a part of that, as well, so we are collaborating particularly at the district station level, who

also have community liaison officers which work in close coordination with our community liaison unit. so that is the connection that we're making. oftentimes, it's through the district stations and their partnerships and relationships that they have built with the community stakeholders within their district, so that's how we are working together. >> and if i could add, supervisors, and chair mar, also, from a higher level, there's good coordination, and we'll start with the mayor's office or her public safety points of contact, which are ivy lee and james caldwell. we meet on a regular basis, and there's lots to bring to the table in terms of community groups and what they bring to the table. james caldwell is our contact

with the mayor's initiative in violence prevention program that's about to start. and i think the community infrastructure piece, that's going to build that out. we are coordinating with mr. caldwell. i heard arturo, the speaker before us, him and his team, because that resource, we believe will bring value to what we're trying to do as a city, have resource with people, and how that's supposed to work, there'll be people from the community that are just supposed to be support for this aapi community and other communities, and it's about having support out there in the community, walking elderly people through the community when they need assistance and that type of thing. so we are definitely coordinating on that end, as well. and then, in terms of what commander fong is talking about, and i've been on conversations with commander fong as well as commander

niswani and those organizations. those organizations need support, they need funding to continue to do what they need to do, and i know the board is supportive of that because we have to complement each other's work. and sarah wan, and a whole host of others, we really got closer to over this last year. some of this is not new. we were doing this before i came to town, and we want to do what works with the community-based organizations, as well. and to your point of your question, make sure we're well coordinated, so we're working well together on those issues. >> chair mar: yeah. i believe there's a lot of good work, important work happening, and there's different safety outreach programs in -- in the department and in other city departments, like oceia and the

community benefit districts have their community ambassadors -- or safety ambassadors, and community groups also have their programs, and there's a certain history and -- and -- and -- and capacity and roles for all of these different programs, but it does seem there's a need for -- for just an overall citywide coordination and a more comprehensive plan and strategy just to ensure that, yeah, all these programs are being as effective as possible. and then, you know, just from my perspective, a lot of these programs are being concentrated -- a lot of these programs don't exist in my certain districts, and they're concentrated in neighborhoods that have certain needs, yeah, but i would like to see more of a citywide, a comprehensive citywide plan for coordination of the various thinking youch

rate ski wide programs. >> thank you. we totally agree with that, and we're doing our part to pull that together as much as we can do our part. >> chair mar: well thanks, thank you so much, acting deputy chief and chief and commander. colleagues, unless you have any other questions, we can move onto the final presentation -- great, so why don't we do that. >> thank you. thank you, chair mar, and your fellow colleagues. thank you, all. [please stand by]

. >> chair mar: yes, we can see it. >> great. so this is just an overview around our office's --

[inaudible] >> -- was based on hate. of those six cases that we filed, five of the six involved asian or african american

victims. six hate crimes filed so far in the first quarter of 2021. that compares to nine total that were filed in 2020. three of those nine in 2020 had asian american or pacific islander victims. one of the three, again, there, was based on sexual orientation or gender identity, so we are seeing an uptick in hate crimes that we're filing, we're seeing an uptick in hate crimes investigations that are being done by the police, and that's something that you heard commander baswani speak to. we're engaged in collaborative interdepartmental trainings as of last week, where we shared

best practices for investigating potential hate crimes and gathering the kind of evidence that we need to be able to allege and successfully prove a hate crime allegation in a case where there's some other underlying criminal act. the -- moving onto the issue of access and language cultural competency, this is an issue in a city as proudly diverse as san francisco. it's an area where we continue to make progress, but not nearly fast enough. we've been limited, of course, by the budget context since i took office. we've been limited in hiring because of the covid budget and the requirement of every single position that i hire in my office not just by the mayor but the budget office. that substantially slows down

our ability to replace people who have left the office. notwithstanding those challenges, the members of our office do speak fluently at least 12 separate languages, including chinese, mandarin, and tagalog, including other languages, as well. when i took office a little over 14 months ago, we had one cantonese speakers in the office and no mandarin speakers. now, we have 14 that speak cantonese and one mandarin. it's not enough, but over time, we'll be able to fill the office with employees that are culturally and linguistically fluent. our victim advocate team is the most diverse in terms of

culture and language and background team within our office. it's a tremendously diverse group of folks who are working hard to support people who've been harmed by crime. we engage in on going trainings on cultural humility, working with bipoc and minority communities. in 2020, for example, our staff participated in over 1,000 hours of on going professional development with regard to victim services. similarly, with regard to our attorneys, the folks who are actually presenting evidence to judges and juries, the folks who are making charging decisions and working collaboratively with our partners in the police department to identify next steps in the investigation or to figure out what more evidence may be needed to successfully prove a charge, the attorneys engaged in regular trainings on issues including racial justice and

equity, vulnerable victims, marcy's law, which is the california victims' bill of rights, as well as victim compensation and restitution. as we heard a few moments ago, community-based organizations play a critical role, and

that's -- in many cases, that never happens at all. if a case is never cleared by the police, if it continues to be under investigation, then we may never know that it occurred and have no ability to contact the victim directly. that's a gap that community-based organizations and broader communications can help to fill, and it's my hope that we can talk about working collaboratively to address. some of the community partnerships that we have, just to give you details, include the community coalition and social justice work group with c.y.c., and sarah wan and her whole team have been really

valuable partners with this work and a number of specific cases, and we really rely on them for their expertise as well as to help provide services that are needed. the c.y.c. partnership, as i said, is really essential when dealing with monolingual chinese crime victims and survivors, and we also have an on going restorative justice collaborative that's been meeting for over a year as part of a directive to repair some of the damaged relationships between the aapi community and the african american community in san francisco. we know that sometimes these crimes can lead to tension and

misunderstanding and can erode trust, and that on going effort is a mission across diverse communities in san francisco. to give you a little bit of a sense of how the case flow works when dealing with a new crime or new crime victim when attempting to provide victim services, the first step is to match a client or a survivor of crime with an advocate, and we do that based on a number of criteria. one of them is, of course, language and culture whenever possible as well as the particular kind of victimization. we know that victims who suffer different kinds of victimization suffer from different kinds of experiences and trauma, so it's our most

experienced officers that work a homicide investigation. before we can connect advocates with a survivor, we have to know about the victim, and we only know about that when the police forwards it to us for a charging decision.

we as a city should be providing services to victims and survivors of crime regardless of whether police are able to solve it or whether my lawyers are able to prosecute it. we know that they are harmed, we know that they need services and processes immediately. in those cases where we are able to match an advocate with a victim or survivor, the need step is to provide assistance to those survivors, and there is a really complex benefits process. so, for example, the california victim compensation board offers a range of benefits and compensation opportunities for victims of violent crime. much, much less is available for victims of property crime, and that's another locate of gap in local services and state

services. but even victims of violent crimes need to go through a claims processing procedure with the california victim compensation board. it can be time-consuming, it can be laborious, and particularly for limited english speakers or folks who experience cultural barriers to the particularly local bureaucracies that we have locally and in san francisco, having the help of a skilled crisis advocate can help expedite those claims. nevertheless, it's often a lengthy process, and we know that not all survivors of crime can wait to get reimbursed. not all of them have the ability to pay for their medical bills to be paid while

they're waiting on the victims advocacy board. another critical role that our victims advocates play is helping to navigate the criminal justice system and bureaucracy. [please stand by]

services outside of the scope of our capacity. and now i want to turn specifically to how we handle this, and i touched on this earlier. and we are engaging with the police department around investigating and gathering evidence in hate crime or potential hate crime cases. the way that it works in my office is that we have a single

assistant district attorney who is a specialist in hate crimes and she's received supplemental training and focuses her work on hate crime cases. she's dealt with a wide range of issues, including race in the law and lgbtq issues and more. she handles cases vertically. so when police bring us a case they believe that may have a potential hate crime, they are flagged and so she specializes in this area and she sees all of the incoming potential hate crime cases and she makes decisions in partnership with the management in the office, about whether and how to charge those cases. and that way we ensure

consistency and equity within those stations. and if and when she charges the case as a hate crime she'd handle that through to completion. that's how we're set up so that the victim and the community can work with a single point person who has developed expertise. again, we're open to feedback from the board or the community if there's a better or a preferred way to approach handling these cases. and also i want to emphasize something that i have mentioned which is our collaboration with the san francisco police department in this area. as i had mentioned we have done some trainings recently to help sfpd individual officers and sergeants and so on, to be able to understand specifically what kinds of evidence we need before we can prove a hate crime or even charge one. as you have heard from police, we really need more than just

the identity of the victim. we need to know what sort of criminal history the suspect has engaged in in the past. is there a pattern of targeting particular kinds of victims? were there statements made of the time of the assault or robbery or other crime that suggests a racial or a gender-based issue? and we work with police to do additional follow-up investigation. for example, to prepare search warrants for social media accounts to see if there's hate speech posted on facebook or wechat or other areas where people may have a publicly accessible documented history of expressing hateful ideas that could give us evidence that we need to prove a hate crime allegation. and in addition to the training that i had mentioned, we also

have prepared a hate officer field guide to ensure that officers all across our city are aware of the evidence that we need them to collect to support possible hate crime allegations we're going to continue to work closely with chief scott and all of his team to investigate hate crimes, to improve the communication and collaboration around gathering evidence needed to successfully to present these kinds of cases to judges and to juries. and we also have a critical resource they want to make sure that the public and the board are aware of. we have a hate crime hotline. a hotline for members of the public who may have seen a hate crime or may want to document a hate incident. i want to be very clear, this is not a replacement for calling 911, if you see a crime in progress. you should call 911 if there's a

crime in progress. but if you have information about a potential hate crime or about hate incidents it's not in progress. our hotline is available and we have the ability to check and to review what messages we receive in multiple different languages, so we're going to encourage folks in the community, if you see something, say something. we also have been really proactive over the past year in trying to engage the community and to provide education and trainings on the difference between, for example, a hate speech and a hate crime. and all of the things that are in between. we have had a dozen community trainings for the public to better to understand these issues, their rights, and what we can and can't do, depending on the circumstances. we also, as we have discussed earlier, we have victim

advocates who understand these issues and can help survivors navigate the criminal justice process and support them through investigations, court hearings, claims processing, and more. we know as i have mentioned throughout my presentation that there are significant challenges and gaps. we know that san francisco expects and deserves better from all of us. i want to give you a couple of examples of things that i see as really critical challenges and service gaps that i beg all of you to help us to fill as a city. first of all, there's really no dedicated funding stream from the city for victims' services. i want to say that again -- there's no dedicated funding stream from the city for victims' services. virtually all of our victims' services work in the d.a.'s office is grant funded. so i implore you to put our money where our mouth is as a

city. we have to put victims first and that means that we as a city have to phone victim services, if we want more services, which we do. if we believe, as i know that weall do, that victims of crime and those with cultural barriers and those who have been targeted because of a potential identity deserve our priority and our help, and then we must fund the services that they need. and that's not happening today. we have limited resources, limited based on what grants we can obtain. and we also spend a tremendous amount of time doing the really detail oriented work of filling out these sorts of applications, to both get the grant money and also to help the victims and survivors to navigate the claims processing procedures with cl c.b.c. and we need to make sure that the city is funding emergency resources for folks who need them and then the city

can get reimbursed down the line by state fund. and we need to dramatically expand our language capacity. it is not fair to the two victim advocates in our office who are fluent in cantonese that they handle every single case with a cantonese-speaking victim. and in a city as diverse as san francisco and with as many cantonese speaking people in san francisco, we need more victim advocates who speak those languages. so i would urge you to take a close look at the budget proposal that i submitted months ago, well ahead of the long overdue attention to this critical issue. the budget that i submitted has a number of very specific requests and, in fact, the only area where i'm asking to grow my footprint as an office beyond what it was on my first day, is in victims' services. it's the only area where i'm asking the city to grow the

footprint of the d.a.'s office is victims' services. and there's specific issues that i'm asking for that i know that are essential and there are critical gaps in what our office and our city currently does for crime victims. first of all, we want to create a 24/7 crime victim hotline. and we want it to be run in partnership with the community-based organizations. this will allow those who have been victimized and may have questions about what to do, where to go for help, to 24/7 get answers to those questions where they be legal or relate to social services or medical care it's a critical and a major gap in current service provisions. our budget creates a pathway to establishing that hotline in partnership with c.b.o.s. second, we need to build trust and communicate the services that are available to communities. all too often, especially with immigrant communities, people

who are entitled to services that already exist don't access those services. and so my budget proposes to create two credible messenger victim advocates who would work with vulnerable communities to explain the services that are available and to help survivors who may have prior negative experiences with the criminal legal system to come back and to request the services and support that they're entitled to. third, we know that some victims, especially victims who have been targeted because of their identity, because of their language, or their national origin or their sexual orientation suffer from complex trauma as a result of the crime and we need clinical social workers who have the training and the expertise to help to support crime survivors as they navigate those traumas. we don't have those resources today and victims need them and

deserve them. next, there is a major gap in san francisco victims' services today. and we don't have the ability to provide victim advocates in cases involving property crime. we know that property crime is a major problem in san francisco -- it has been for years. shoplifting, vandalism, they are major problems for our residents, for our homeowners. and yet it doesn't often have staffing and doesn't have a budget and doesn't have the ability to provide victim advocates. i urge you to help us to do that. finally, as i have mentioned, going through the state victim compensation board process is slow and arduous. most survivors of violent crime simply don't have the ability to

wait months or longer to get reimbursed for medical expenses so we need an emergency victim fund coming out of our general funds here in san francisco at the local level to help with costs that are not covered or won't be covered for an extensive period of time by the state victim compensation board we don't have anywhere near enough funding to meet the emergency needs of victims, and that's why we see in the headlines folks relying on gofundme pages. it's great that the community is stepping up and it's great that there are generous supportive people to support crime victims, but the community deserves and expects that from us as a city. i urge you to help us to help the community in these situations. so let me stop there. and open up for questions that any of you may have or any other conversations about these

issues. >> thank you so much. colleagues, do you have any questions? supervisor chan? >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair mar, and thank you so much for joining us and making your presentation today. so i have just some questions specifically about your victims' advocates. and i hear you loud and clear that we need more services and we need more resources. just kind out of curiosity, how many victim advocates do you have on your team and what are their case levels? >> i'm afraid that i don't have the specific numbers for you. but what i can tell you is that we have a number of gaps of vacancies that we have not been allowed to fill or replace, including leadership positions. one of our most senior victim advocates, for example, has been working at the covid emergency

response center since the beginning of the pandemic. and we have others that folks have moved that we haven't been able to fill going through both h.r. and the mayor. the other thing that's important to mention in terms of caseload, supervisor chan, is that it varies dramatically depending on the category. our homicide advocates have far fewer cases than the advocates who handle less serious but still violent crimes. in terms of the overall average, i can provide that for you later today. >> supervisor chan: that's great. just kind of to have an understanding about caseload in general would be tremendously helpful. also it's good to see that you are -- i think especially, you know, the focus and the topic of this hearing today about asian-american community and it's great to see the community partnerships that you have and

to understand when you mention community partnership, what does that look like, the partnership? >> yes, thank you for that. it's a huge part of what we do and we'd like to be able to continue these partnerships, even as we expand our own services. what those partnerships look like depend a little bit on the particulars of the case. but i give you one example. there are a couple examples to help to illustrate. you know, when -- when a crime occurs, as i mentioned, we don't know that the crime occurred until or unless the police present us with an assault case, a clear case, which happens in fewer than half -- it happens in about 10% of the reported crimes and a much higher percentage in serious cases. so until that happens, we actually have no way to know

that there's a victim or know -- to how to contact the victim unless community-based organizations reach out to us. so one of the things that community-based organizations do is they notify us. they put us in contact with folks who have been victimized and who need services. and then the other thing is that when there are victims who have needs beyond the scope of what our office can provide, certainly as i mentioned, we don't have the kind of clinical social workers that we need, so in many instances, we participate in collaborations with community-based organizations who can provide deeper or more engaged services that we know victims need and that our staff really don't have the ability to provide. another area is language access if we have, for example, i mentioned that we have a number of staff that -- three now that speak cantonese and one that

speaks mandarin, but we -- you know, we don't have staff that speak tiawenese so we need the community-based organizations to help us even with basic communication so that we can empower victims and survivors to be heard, so we know what their wishes are, and we can let the court know what those wishes are as well. those are just a few examples of our partnerships. >> supervisor chan: great. i guess that i wanted to have a better understanding. so i think that when we talk about resources and funding, i just wanted to have a better understanding of what that partnership -- my assumption is that i hope that, you know, that there's also -- whether it's a contract or an m.o.u., you know, to solidify those partnerships to really allow the city to understand what those

partnerships really entails and the responsibilities and roles without community organizations and that sort of leads to my second part of my question. you know, i see that your budget ask and, you have very specific mentions about clinical social workers, the needs of the victims, and i absolutely agree, giving my really brief experience, you know, working in the d.a.'s office, i have seen that victims in needs of housint medical situations, right, because if a victim of domestic violence or any kind, especially knowing the asian-american community, and multi-generational households, if there's any type of family violence or domestic violence that occurs, it's very challenging for them to find housing or some other ways to support themselves. and that's also including child -- like, alimony and all of that. are there any standing m.o.u.

that the d.a.'s office currently has with city agencies like human services agency or the department of public health to at least at this moment to provide some type of support for victims? and working with your victim advocate unit? >> well, let me first to go back and just provide the answer that i wasn't able to to the last question. i did just get those numbers for you. we have a total of 24 victim advocates and if you average it out they have between 300 and 400 cases each. so that gives you the sense of the really heroic work that our victim advocates are doing and the challenges they face in providing the quality of service and attention to each individual victim that we as san franciscans deserve and expect. the caseloads are crushing and we need city funding to supplement and it's simply inadequate. to answer your next question,

supervisor chan, we do have some m.o.u.s with some particular groups within ucsff, for example, where we can refer people for complex trauma services. but i think that this is -- your question highlights the opportunity to expand interagency partnerships and to clarify where d.p.h., for example, can step in and to provide services that are needed, and where the d.a.'s office has to take the lead, the board gives us the advance clinical social workers that we're asking for. but to give you a very precise number, we have approximately 80 separate m.o.u.s with c.b.o.s and other city agency agencies. so we continue to look for opportunities to formalize and to expand our partnerships. >> supervisor chan: thank you.

(indiscernible) it's more of a comment than a question. i want to say hats off to you. i, again, you know, my brief time at the d.a.'s office under former d.a. kamala harris, she spearheaded a hate crime division and that was actually championed by now judge victor wang, he was our former hate crime division chief. and just learning from him how challenging it really is to charge hate crimes and seeing the statistics that you have presented today, i really appreciate the effort that you and your team have put in to really to making sure that we highlight the hate crime cases in san francisco. it certainly is not easy to prove someone's intent to commit a crime. so, thank you. >> thank you, supervisor chan and we always welcome your input and suggestions as we

collectively strive to rise to this moment and to recognize the historic opportunity to right many of the wrongs that, sadly, the aapi community has tolerated, all too often in silence. the hatred, the violence, the discrimination that we know that go all the way back to the arrival of the very first boats from china six generations ago here in san francisco. and i welcome the opportunity to work with all of you to continue engaging and answering your questions and getting suggestions from you about how my office can do a better job supporting our vulnerable communities. thank you, supervisor chan. >> thank you. supervisor haney. >> supervisor haney: thank you, chair mar, and thank you for being with us and for your work to prioritize victims and victims' services. i wanted to ask about the challenge that you outlined

around the fact that there are so many victims in our city who may not be receiving services because either the -- when it's reported to police there's not enough information to bring the case fully to you or when a suspect, you know, is apprehended or charged, and as a result there are, you know, actually most of our victims of crime in this city wouldn't actually necessarily reach you in your office, even though you have some of the victims' services that would be available to them. is -- is the possible implementation of a hotline a way to try to address that? and then, what does that mean in terms of the resources that would be required to meet the

need that is even much greater than what you have now? i mean, if you already have challenges with the number of -- of the victims services and advocates, social workers who are responding to people who -- to the victims who come to you now, how would you, if there would be a managed -- you know, now serving an additional 100,000, and is there other ways that you think that we might be able to address that challenge? we didn't, you know, we talked a bit with sfpd about their victims' services but, you know, right now if a case is reported to sfpd, you have some opportunities in your office, and how do we make sure that people aren't falling through the cracks and that they are getting to somebody who can support them and to help them and to get them services and not

fall through the cracks, either because, you know, a case doesn't come to you or because they're not calling the right number or not connected to the right organization? >> thank you, supervisor haney. and it's really a critical question. and i think that it's one that we could spend a lot of time unpacking and diving into. because the reality is that 24 victim advocates in a city as big as san francisco, is not near big enough, it's not even the tip of the iceberg. in 2020, to give you an example, we received over 8,900 bookings from police, that means that there were 8,900 cases that police brought to us for potential prosecution. now in every one of those cases there may be more than a single victim, there may be multiple victims. with 24 advocates we can't possibly address the needs in all 8,900 cases that the police

brought us, much less all of the other cases where police never solved the case and never cleared it, right. and i want to be very clear, that this is in no way a criticism of the police and they're solving every case they can and bringing them to us. but there's always a significant percentage, in most cities, the majority of the cases that get reported do not result in an arrest. so we need to do a couple things. first of all we need to dramatically expand the number of victim advocates in our office and the resources for c.b.o.s and for city agencies like d.p.h. that can provide these needed services, and we also need to create a systematic pathway for the police and other first responder law enforcement agencies to connect victims to services in real-time. my office is more than willing to play that role as we triage and connecting people with appropriate c.b.o.s or other city services.

but to do that we need resources. and, you know, i want to be clear about the numbers again. you know, because you asked, supervisor haney, kind of what it would take. when i took office on day one, i inherited approximately 5,200 open criminal cases, right. now most of these cases have at least one victim. and in a time since i have been in office we have filed more than 5,000 new additional criminal cases. 24 victim advocates, right. and it's just nowhere near adequate for the needs of the community, and the victim hotline that we're proposing, because we're very conscious of a tight budget and because we want to be efficient with resources, what we are proposing is a $650,000 budget which would then basically be administered by a community-based organization. we'll do -- we'll play out an r.f.p. and we'll look at which

organizations have the language skills, the cultural competency, and we will work with them to run this 24-hour hotline. we based our proposal on a successful model in washington, d.c. and the price tag that we put on it is based, again, on that model in washington, d.c. so i think that this is a perfect example of how at a very modest price that we can work with community to ensure that 24/7 there is a place survivors of crime can go to at least get a preliminary answer to their questions and pointed in the right direction. i think that we need much more than that. we need to start a victims rights and property crime cases and we need to start giving my hard-working victim advocates caseloads that are manageable and allow them to really build relationships with the victims that they're serving. and we need to make sure that the victim advocates in my office speak all of the languages of this amazing city.

>> okay, thank you, supervisor haney. i wanted to follow up on the question and district attorney, your response around so many victims falling through the cracks and not really receiving and the coordination with the offices. and in the presentation, and the community liaison unit is now providing for victims, and those who face prejudice and crime, and then there's the community organizations and d.p.h. as well. so how are you coordinating actually planning for victim support and services with the

other departments? >> as i mentioned, chair mar, we have 80 separate m.o.u.s and operational agreements with other community-based organizations and city departments, including d.h.s. and d.p.h. and the trauma recovery center. so i'm happy to provide some examples of what those partnerships look like. but just to give you kind of one example of our partnership with the trauma recovery center, and because my office does not have the kind of skilled clinical social worker staff capacity that we know that many victims need, when we get connected with a victim of crime who has presented some of the complex traumas that are common among survivors of violent crime, we have an agreement to allow them to be referred to the trauma recovery center where they get

paired up with a skilled professional and can receive those services. that allows us to be a broader service for c.b.o.s and agencies. we're very happy to continue to provide that kind of referral service to make sure that people have the benefits and services, but, again, to do so we need more victim advocates and more resources for our partnerships so they have the bandwidth and the capacity to provide services that are needed. >> thank you. and it was good to hear about your collaboration with sfpd on hate crime prosecution and the different uses of that.

>> it's an area, frankly, where we can continue to do more. as i have mentioned i think that, you know, for example, i would love a framework -- and this is something that i look forward to speaking with chief scott about and i haven't had a chance to do that, but some of the conversations that i had with you and your staff helped with this idea. and we could develop a framework where our office is notified as soon as a crime occurs, even while the investigation is ongoing. instead of waiting for police to finalize a report which, of course, takes time and they have to document the evidence and write it up in a way that is formal and so on, it would be wonderful if one of first things that sfpd does is to notify our victim advocates and we could

respond as helpful, again, with the appropriate resources to the scene or to the hospital and to provide those service referrals immediately as the investigation is ongoing. and without regard to whether an arrest is made or charges are filed. >> thank you. one final question. it's good to hear about having access to cantonese and mandarin, and even recently there's been a number of the victims or high profile victims of crime that have been thai and vietnamese and filipino and other ethnicities, so how do you hand emvictim smentd for those other languages beyond the common ones like spanish and

such? >> thank you for that critical question as well, chair mar. it's something that i had meant to mention earlier and i'm so appreciative that you brought it up. there are two areas to address here and this, again, has overlap with what sfpd testified to in the prior presentation. we have the ability to use a language line for, the interpretation line, for those languages that our staff don't speak. and it's a good back-up and failsafe but it's inadequate for a number of reasons. the first is that we don't always even know the appropriate language to call in for, right, especially when we deal with different dialects of language groups. i'll tell you a story from my

own experience if i may briefly, chair mar. when i was in college i was a volunteer interpreter at the yale new haven hospital in spanish. and i was called into an emergency c-section as an interpreter where the patient, the woman, was about to give birth and was having complications and needed to understand what the doctors were doing and to get informed consent. and they called me as a spanish interpreter and once i got there i realized that this woman, this patient, did not speak spanish, she spoke portuguese, a totally different language. now that kind of mistake occurs every day. and not only do we need more staff that speak more languages, but we need training so people know how to identify languages they may not speak. we need the ability to get the right interpreter on the phone line in real-time, especially as sfpd testified to, when there may be an ongoing emergency and

first responders need to know who to arrest, who to protect, which direction a suspect may have fled in. so we need far better capacity on our front line teams and, of course, within my victim advocates as well. the other area that i want to mention that san francisco, i think that has a real gap in services to limited english speakers is in the courtroom myself. let me explain what i mean by that. the u.s. constitution requires that people accused of a crime, defendants who don't speak english to be given an interpreter and they are paid for by the court but there's no similar or reciprocal right for crime victims. my victim advocates will often play the role as an interpreter in the courtroom, made all the more difficult by covid-19 and you can't sit next to someone

and whisper in their ear when we engage in social distancing. and it should not play the role as interpreter for simultaneously interpretation of court proceedings, it's a very different and a specialized skill. and we need to make sure that whether a victim speaks thai or farsi or urdu, whatever the language may be, spanish or portuguese, right, back to my example when i was an interpreter, we need to make sure that they have a city-provided interpreter who is qualified in simultaneous interpretation and can help them to understand exactly what is being said in a case where they were the victim. we don't have that and we need it. >> thank you. (indiscernible) supervisor stefani did you have a question? >> supervisor stefani: chair mar, i do not have any questions

at this moment, thank you. >> well, thank you so much, district attorney, for the presentation and for the discussion. and, yeah, and thank you for highlighting the -- particularly the victim services and the supports that your office is doing and your proposal to really expand that to meet the needs. >> thank you, chair mar, and i look forward to working with you and the rest of the board to address these gaps as quickly as possible. >> thanks. well, so we have finished all of our presentations, yeah, for this long hearing. but why don't we go to public hearing. >> clerk: jim smith is working with our comment line to bring the callers into our meeting. for those who have already connected via phone press star, followed by 3 to be added to the

queue to speak for this item. for those already on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until you are prompted to begin and you will hear prompts informing that you your line is unmuted. on watching via a streaming link or capable channel 26, if you wish to speak on this item call in now by following the instructions which are displayed on your screen. dial 1-(415)-655-0001. and the meeting 187, 861, 5621. press the pound symbol twice and then press star, followed by 3, to enter the queue to speak. before we bring in a first caller, if i can once again invite mr. chu to provide interpretation of these instructions for the public commenters who may speak chinese. mr. chu, are you there?

mr. chu, can you try it one more time? >> okay. >> clerk: now we're hearing you >> okay, thank you, thank you for letting me know. okay [speaking foreign language]

[speaking chinese]

>> clerk: thank you very much, mr. chu. >> thank you. >> clerk: mr. smith, could you bring us our first caller. >> caller: hello, supervisors, thank you for having this hearing. my name is david wu, and i'm with the filipino cultural heritage district. the attacks and violence and the killing of asian women and others in georgia has shaken all of us and left many community members here in san francisco fearing to go outside. these attacks locally have included attacks on elderly filipino residents, including recent attacks in the financial district and in my neighborhood unfortunately, this senseless hate and violence is not new. it has historically occurred in the u.s. and california and san francisco. and we also know that this is the daily experience of indigenous black immigrant and other people of color, poor and unhoused communities.

they are working on setting up safety escorts for seniors, self-defense classes, and expanded senior services to combat the further isolation as well as addressing mental health and holding educational discussions to understand the roots of anti-asian violence and the importance of solidarity. these and similar efforts are done without additional resources. we must provide resources to support this work and to support our a.p.i. communities here in san francisco to provide community-based solutions, thank you. >> clerk: thank you very much for your comments, david wu. mr. smith, can you bring us the next caller, please. >> hi, good afternoon, supervisors, and thank you for your leadership in addressing this issue. i am jenny bok on behalf of the a.p.i. council, 57 community-based organizations. the council has been supporting

resources and funding for the coalition of community safety and justice. due to the increased incidents of violence against the appi community since the start of the pandemic, and addressing xenophobia is more important than other. when incidents of hate in san francisco make up 39% of bay-area incidents and the bay area is making up nearly a fourth of the a.p.i. hate crime incidents, this coalition is critical in being able to address healing, build on work towards restorative justice and solidarity work and to prevent further harm and to promote safety in our community. i hope that you can support in supporting the community safety and justice. thank you. >> clerk: thank you very much for sharing your comments. mr. smith, bring us the next caller, please. >> caller: hello, everyone, my

name is nikita sammy, i'm a south asian public defender and the vice president of the asian criminal trial association and we are devastated by the attacks on our asian community and we stand in solidarity with supervisor mar and the appi advocates and victims of this violence. in looking ways to protect our asian-american brothers and sisters, rather than a broken system, we must invest in community-based solutions. we have relied too long on police and prosecution and prisons to protect us from racialized violence. these institutions are systematically bias, disproportionate and dehumanizing. these institutions have failed in the last 170 years to remedy the root causes of violence in our community. we need to increase police presence, to have bureaucracy or

to push for more incarceration. we call to invest in our community and to prioritize support for mental health and treatment and restorative justice and responses to racialized violence. to bring all people together, including our black, indigenous, communities to promote unity. we cannot charge and punish our way out of this moment. we must partner together to have a society where we can live and thrive as individuals and in community. thank you so much, everyone. >> clerk: thank you for sharing your comments. mr. smith, can you bring us the next caller, please. >> caller: good afternoon, i am ashley vanett, here from safe and sound, a family violence council. thank you for calling this hearing. we condemn the rhetoric and the

violence against asian and asian-american and pacific islander communities and the acts of oppression on elderly people. we stand in solidarity with the communities and acknowledge that these recent attacks are not isolated incidents, but, rather, the result of the legacy of anti-aapi violence and xenophobia and we must remain vigilant to the way that the bias and prejudice affect us and to continue to work to have actional ways to address this and all forms of prejudice, stigmatizaton and racism. we applaud the city's efforts to expand the safety teams and to have self-help for the elderly senior programs. we know how important it is to meet people where they are and to provide services in a safe, welcoming atmosphere and in a multilingual and a culturally responsive manner. we ask you to acknowledge how

racism with tightening law enforcement can exacerbate issues and inflict trauma on the appi community. we call on the city to invest in trusted grassroots and community-based resources in order to strengthen support for appi seniors. today we ask all san franciscans to combat anti-appi racism and address the devastating impacts, thank you for your time. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. mr. smith, can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hi, my name is leanne and i'm calling to report our (indiscernible) members and i will be sharing a statement. i am ben chen, a 10th grader at loyola high school and a member (indiscernible) and during this pandemic there's been a lot of racial tensions between the different races accusing each other of being the problem. more specifically the ongoing

tensions between the black and the asian communities worry me. the negative stereotypes that many asians and blacks have about each other are counter product to societal progress. these negative stereotypes have often translated to real life tragedies, and in order to solve these racial problems i believe that we need to solve these problems at the source. starting at the racist stereotypes being spread around at the local community. more resources that are community driven such as this will provide the stereotypes that we have about each other. i demand additional coordination and funding to be diverted to the resources where anti-racial progress can be made. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. mr. smith, can you bring us the next caller, please. >> good afternoon, i'm crystal van and i'm with chinese for

affirmative action and i'll translate the testimony from joyce li from san francisco on asian violence and community safety. i'm deeply saddened and afraid of the recent attacks and violence against asians in the united states. a nation of immigrants from different cultures and ethnicities. the problems of racial discrimination is not new, but as the former president made racist remarks during last year's pandemic and led others to target and blame asians for bringing the virus into the united states. and it's worsened the discrimination against asians. for example, at the beginning of the pandemic as we wear masks to protect not only ourselves and others from the virus, that we were verbally abused and beaten and accused of having and spreading the virus. now that the san francisco unified school district is quickly reinstating physical classes in schools, i as a parent am more concerned than ever of the safety of my children regarding discrimination and violent attacks. i implore our representative and

the members of the government to not make racist remarks and to strengthen the ethnic studies and cultural competencies at younger ages and to understand the immigration history and the contributions of asians in the united states. i hope to mitigate the problem through educational channels. furthermore, it's crucial that our government have adequate resources for those who face language barriers that have been heightened during the pandemic. so that all groups can eliminate the problem of racial discrimination and may form a harmonious community of mutual aid and support. thank you. >> clerk: thank you, crystal yen for the translation of those comments. mr. smith, can you bring us the next caller, please. >> caller: well, commissioners, my name is francesco de costa and i have been an advocate for

40 years. this hearing is about crime and violence targeting the asian-american seniors. i want to remind you that 40% of our population are seniors. and you supervisors and the mayor haven't done a needs assessment. i challenge you that months ago that we should have sunday all f our seniors some type of information about the discussion that is being had at this meeting. our seniors are dying. another from racist remarks and during this pandemic. i repeat, our elders, our seniors, asians and others are

dying. and we are talking about this, that and the other and not focusing on our elders. and we have a younger generation that hasn't been taught to respect the seniors. that's on us. i'm a senior. but i take every opportunity to tell our youngsters to respect their seniors. and they listen to me. so let's stop talking in circles about this, that and the other, and let us do a major assessment on the 40% of our seniors and take action. thank you very much. >> clerk: thank you, mr. de costa. mr. smith, you can bring us the next caller, please.

is there a caller on the line? >> caller: yeah, thank you very much to the supervisors for creating this space for the community to voice our safety concerns. my name is canwin wynn on behalf of the southeastern asian staff and it's to have a healthy and self-sufficient asian-american community. for over 40 years we have dedicated to lifting children, youth and families from cambodia and laos and vietnam out of poverty. we work with those for needs and skills to build successful futures. with the rise of violence against our community, the challenges that we face have increased. there's amplified trauma and barriers, with the paralyzing

fear that at any moment of the day that when leaving their homes that they will become a target of violence. the antiasian hate has hit our efforts, as some of our clients refuse to attend appointments out of fear of being attacked. and some expressed that they are afraid to go for food, just to stay safe. and we need to reestablish safety for the aapi community and the district. the following are just some ideas and activities that we hope that you would consider. one, pool resources and best practices with various community-based organizations and organize solidarity movements to stop anti-asian hate in the neighborhood. two, in language personal safety training resources for community members. three, have standard training for community members. four, additional chaperons for our elders to and from

appointments and errands. five, promote open and outdoor spaces for neighborhood community appreciation. six, open one single platform in which they can connect with each other and, finally, have racial education opportunities. thank you very much, supervisors. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. mr. smith, can you bring us the next caller, please. >> caller: hello, can you hear me? >> clerk: yes, we can, please begin. >> caller: okay. so i question the wisdom of the victims' services proposal, because, you know, we have social services in the city and so i don't understand why the district attorney's office wouldn't refer victims to social

services and why, you know, the various social services couldn't have, you know, specialized programs for victims of violent crimes or other crime. so, i mean, the district attorney's office is not a social services agency. it's designed to prosecute defenders. so i don't understand why we're turning the district attorney's office into a social service agency. this is not clear to me. you know, the district attorney's office has a mission and it should be on that, instead of becoming a social service agency. so if the district attorney's office could better coordinate with the social service office that might be a better solution than simply expanding its budget.

>> clerk: thank you. are there further callers in the queue? >> there are no callers in the queue. >> clerk: thank you. >> great, thank you. public comment is now closed. i want to thank everyone, all of the community members and the advocates who have spoke during public comment and -- yeah, thank you so much and for all of the work that you're doing around these urgent issues. colleagues it's been a very long hearing so i'll be brief. it's clear that there are many programs and initiatives by many departments and agencies trying to prevent violence and we need a greater understanding of how they're similar and different and where there are redundancies and where there can be areas of collaboration. and the range of anti-racism and violence is great, and not just stopping hate crimes but we need

a spectrum of policies to meet these various needs across both non-law enforcement and law enforcement agencies. at the same time we need to ensure that where prejudice exists and that investigations are adequate and there's fair and effective consequences. community-based organizations have truly stepped up to meet a large gap in rapid victim response, and educating and supporting the community around public safety. however, the onus should not be on our community organizations to figure out what city agencies are doing and what resources are available. we as a city always need to step up. given the testimony this afternoon i'm committing to funding public safety work in the asian-american community as a top priority in our upcoming budget. this could include supporting the community's capacity to provide community safety infrastructure in language and culturally acceptable ways. victim wrap around services and care management, expanding the

community street outreach and restorative programming, cross-cultural racial organizing and multipronged strategies to address the root causes of violence. i'm complitting to the development also of a city-wide plan to prevent violence and crime and to support victims in harmed communities with adequate language access and culturally competent services. i ask that the department, law enforcement and non-law enforcement agencies come together and to work with community partners to devise this plan which is so urgently needed. i would like to see the first meeting convened in april in a proposed plan presented by the end of may. and a second hearing to be called some time in june. so, colleagues, today i will make a motion to -- to table this hearing -- or to continue this hearing to the call of the chair. and along with supervisor chan, we will be bringing forth a

resolution formalizing our request, and i urge you, colleagues to stand in solidarity and to support this critical work. thank you. colleagues, do you have any closing remarks before we wrap up this hearing? supervisor chan? >> supervisor chan: well, chair mar, and supervisor stefani and supervisor haney, thank you so much for really allowing this opportunity for us to have this hearing. i really appreciate you taking just -- i want to just thank for your patience and time in hearing us out. and my takeaway for today's hearing is really this -- just hearing how our community organizations serving our asian-american appi communities have really stepped up during this time and that, you know, hearing our law enforcement agency both the police department and the district attorney's office to talk about the fact how much they are really in need of our community

organizations in this time of need, assisting our communities, i really want to urge our city departments and that is including the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs to really think during this process of providing the city services to be inclusive, to be inclusive of our community organizations and to be inclusive in partnership and not working in silo and to work in partnership with each other with the city agencies as well as with our community organizations. and i also want to urge all of them to solidify and to really to formalize these relationships and these partnerships. we should not be dependent on them on an ad hoc style, to just call upon them because we have relationships with them, in that they would always do the right thing. so i want to urge our city departments to do that, and to

formalize these relationships. thank you very much, colleagues, i appreciate your time and patience today. >> thank you, supervisor chan. supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: thank you, chair mar and thank you supervisor chan. and supervisor staph staph and l of the community leaders who came forward today. i think we're able to identify, you know, through the presentations both the work that is being done and i think that the work that needs to be done and some of the gaps that exist we know that when it comes to being proactive with the community outreach and the prevention, that there's a lot more that is happening and a lot more that needs to be done and the same on victims' services and supports. i just want to -- i want to provide my backing to your comments, both supervisor chan and supervisor mar and my commitment to work with both of you in the budget committee to make sure that we're

prioritizing this in the coming months. so i want to make that pledge to you and to our community partners and the departments as well that we will look at this as a priority when the departments come in front of us in the coming weeks and months. i know that supervisor mar will do that as well in his capacity as a member of the budget committee as well, so thank you again for calling this hearing and for everyone who is working so hard to keep everyone in our community safe. >> thank you, supervisor haney. supervisor stefani? >> supervisor stefani: thank you again, chair mar, for this important hearing today. it's very informative and i thank supervisor chan for joining us and for your remarks so important. and, you know, i also want to make sure that those who are watching and that the aapi community knows that we should and will find a way to conquer

this issue and address this issue regardless of budget. and it's not dependent on a budget increase, we have an obligation to help you and to solve these problems, no matter what. so, i am committed to doing that and i am committed to making sure that we work together. (please stand by)

>> hello everyone. i'm san francisco mayor london breed and i'm really happy to join you all today. can we believe that it's been over a year now since we've

been living in the new world of the covid-19 pandemic. and i know that i'm smiling right now and it has everything to do with the fact that all of what we've done and everything that we've talked about in the past in terms of where we need to get to, we're finally getting there. and so today, as a result of the work from our governor and the state, today is the first official day for those who are over the age of 50 can actually get the vaccine. we've announced before, people over the age of 65, emergency workers, restaurant workers, public safety personnel, essential workers, grocery store clerks, muni drivers and others are still eligible. but we are now adding an additional group to the eligibility pool.

here in san francisco, our efforts have been really incredible and dr. colfax will talk a little bit more about that. but at least 45% of san franciscans have received their first dose. and over 62% of those over the age of 65 have received their second dose as well, they're fully vaccinated. this is higher than the national and state average. san francisco is doing an incredible job with vaccinating people and some of you probably have seen some of the reports that suggest san franciscans in general are those who most likely want the vaccine. that's why our efforts have been so successful. and, yes, we know it's been challenging with certain communities and we knew that if we didn't embed equity in our

outreach efforts to address this pandemic from day one with testing and resources, but also with the vaccine, then we wouldn't be where we are today. this is why in neighborhoods like the bayviewpoint and other places where we are seeing high rates of infection. this is why we have set up pop-up and mobile sites and locations in those neighborhoods and have made it easy for people to access vaccines without an appointment because we knew that was going to be critical to getting those who are a little hesitant about getting the vaccine. it would prevent them from doing it. we knew that especially many of our seniors didn't have access to the internet and may not understand how to use a computer and it was important to make it easy for them to access the vaccine.

and our partnership with people like annie chung who you will hear from in a moment with the seniors, the large senior population we have in chinatown and the work she's done and the outreach she has made to reach those seniors. meeting people where they are and putting equity at the forefront of everything we do is why san francisco has been a leader, not just in the number of case rates and the number of deaths in our very dense city, but a leader on rolling out the vaccine and getting people back to the lives that we know and love. but we're still not there. we expect by this weekend we'll be at 50% of san franciscans vaccinated. and, by mid may, we expect to be at 80%. so we're moving right along,

but we also have to remind ourselves that this is not over. we are still in a pandemic. we still need to be cautious around others, wearing our mask, socially distanced and following the health guidelines in a way that's going to keep us safe and keep our numbers down. we have about twenty people in the hospital right now. one of the lowest numbers we've experienced since this pandemic. we should be proud of what we've been able to accomplish in this city and i can't wait until we're at that point where we are able to socialize without masks. where we are able to go back to events. and that time is coming sooner rather than later. next friday is opening day. the san francisco giants opening day. and although they are limited

in the number of people that they will be able to allow in the ball park, they work with our department of public health to come up with a plan to keep people who are in the ball park safe as they buy concessions and go to the restrooms and interact with one another. they're limiting the number of people who can come to the ball park. you have to have proof of a vaccination or proof that you've been tested within a certain time period, but you know what, that's better than not having opening day allow fans at all. so there will be fans, there will be games. we will see this city start to come alive again one day at a time on this beautiful sunny day where the temperature is expected to be over 82 degrees. let's not get too comfortable because i know most of us are going to want to go hang out in our parks and enjoy the outdoors on this beautiful day in san francisco, but we still

need to be mindful. we're still in the pandemic, and if we want more days like this, if we want more opportunities to open more things in our city, it still requires each and every one of us to do our part. now this sunday is easter sunday. and, i don't know about you, but easter is one of my favorite holidays because what it means is that spring is here. and, when i was growing up, we got to wear our hats and new dresses and that's when we got our new outfits. it was always easter sunday. i look forward to coming together with my family and my community. and this year is going to be a little bit different. so i want to ask you all to be very careful. i know that a lot of you may want to have events and gatherings and so one of the things that dr. colfax will talk about or the guidelines in what we suggest you to do in order to safely gather with friends and family because we

don't want you to do what you might of typically done. we want you to do what's safe to do so that we can continue to get out of this pandemic. with that, i want to introduce dr. grant colfax. >> thank you. hi everybody. and thank you, mayor breed for your ongoing leadership in this unprecedented time. i'm delighted today that we're able to make vaccines available for all san franciscans ages 50 and over. with this expansion and eligibility, thousands of san franciscans will be able to get protection from covid, begin to safely interact with vaccinated

loved ones, contribute to our collective effort to vaccinate the entire city, to achieve herd immunity, and allow us to more safely open our economy. this expansion and eligibility comes as we are very close to reaching the milestone of 50% of our adult population having received at least one dose of the vaccine. and, for our residents 65 and over who we know are most at risk for complications, hospitalizations and dying from covid-19, an impressive 82% have received at least one dose and 62% are now fully vaccinated. as a city overall, we are doing much better at slowing the spread of this virus. at the peak of our surge, earlier this year, we were averaging 370 new cases a day.

as of last week, that number was down to 33. so i am optimistic for our future, but we also still need to be realistic about where things stand today. by no means are we out of the woods yet and cases in san francisco have slowly started to climb again. now we're still at a low rate, but just in the last week, we've seen an increase of 20% in our case rate. this is not unexpected. we know as cities re-open including in san francisco, cases gradually go up. the virus is again spreading, so we must be vigilant in wearing masks, social distancing, and following the precautions that we know slows the spread. after all, together we have beaten back three surges. and i know we do not want to see a significant fourth surge

here. we are seeing alarming conditions in other parts of the country. as you know, the cdc director and other health care experts are worried. that is why it's so important for us to fully immunize our city. until we reach that all-important herd immunity, the virus will always have the possibility of surging again. and, of course, variants remain a concern. they are here in the bay area and we must remain vigilant. and though the state's expanded eligibility comes as welcome news and i'm grateful for this, we still don't have enough vaccine supply. our ability to serve all those who are eligible depends on that supply and we don't have enough supply yet. so we are ready to go when those vaccines come. we have the infrastructure in place to vaccinate at least

20,000 san franciscans a day. we are ready to get those vaccine into arms, we just don't have the vaccine. and, if we have sufficient supply to achieve our capacity, we could have over 80% of adults vaccinated with first doses by mid may. now, although the state does now currently allow for fully vaccinated individuals to interact indoors with fully vaccinated people from other households without masks, the san francisco health department agrees with the cdc around small private indoor social gatherings. once the state allows us, and we're hopeful the state will follow the cdc guidelines very soon because they are based in science and evidence and give people fully vaccinated a chance to engage with others in a way we haven't been able to do so for over a year, we will loosen restrictions so that

vaccinated individuals can safely interact indoors and small gatherings unmasked with other household members that are also fully vaccinate or otherwise low risk single households. this is yet another reason to get vaccinated. i have to also include a reminder in this, that even if you get vaccinated and are fully vaccinated, if you get symptoms or are exposed to somebody with covid-19, please get tested. testing remains a key cornerstone to our ability to slow the spread of the virus. these vaccines are excellent and safe, but they aren't perfect. as we expand eligibility to more san franciscans, our admission is to bring vaccines to those communities most impacted by covid-19. and, therefore, we will continue to prioritize equitable distribution throughout the city. one great example of how we can do this is through our mobile

vaccination teams and tomorrow alone, we will be conducting vaccinations at the white house for the blind and at ping u.n. housing site in chinatown. still using our shelter-in-place in town. today i was at next door shelter where i have a clinic and it was amazing to be able to take patients i was see right over to the mobile vaccine team getting vaccine to arms in realtime. as we gradually move forward in the opening of our city, we will do so carefully. we will make sure that as we loosen restrictions to support businesses, bring back jobs, and restore the vibrancy of the city. we are on the right path, we are making great progress. thank you. keep the mask on. stay strong.

get vaccinated when you're eligible and it's your turn and let's hope that vaccine supply to improve. thank you. >> thank you, dr. colfax. and now i want to introduce annie chung with self-help for the elderly. thank you so much for being here today. >> good morning everyone. thank you, mayor breed. and dr. grant colfax. may i thank you really the department of public health and all your teams that are working on the covid response. we feel really proud to be a community partner because every time when our community is facing challenges whether it's with testing or with the vaccines rolled out, we always feel there's someone at d.p.h. that we can go to and express

our concerns and very quickly, i think mayor breed and her team have responded, you know, to our community needs. for example, back in january and february when we found that vaccines are beginning to be available, none of our seniors and none of the community who don't speak english well could navigate those sign-up sites. when we expressed the need for bilingual materials, your team came up with the flyers. yet the sites were still in english. so they couldn't get the vaccines. so i think as we work closely with the response. and we feel that -- it's really important that we bring the vaccines to the community versus waiting, you know, for

those diverse community who don't have the internet nor the language capacity to sign up for a vaccine appointment. so really, thank you, on behalf of all of our seniors for listening and responding to our needs. we work closely with the all-american medical group, the chinese hospital, the chinese health coalition, the ymca chinatown coalition, and also cdc. so as a group, we can go around and do outreach and also education work on how important it is for our community to be vaccinated. when d.p.h. expanded the qualification considering s.r.o. residents to qualify as congregate housing, we were very happy. so as of tomorrow, you will start to see all the residents

in public housing as well as s.r.o. residents in chinatown. we'll get them vaccinated very soon. we work closely with aamg doctors who are all bi-lingual. where the seniors are picking up their daily meals and right there, the community doctors also give the injections and the vaccinations to our seniors. you can see the big smiles on our seniors' faces despite they were worried they would have some side effect, but because they have their own doctors during the i inoculation and they are excited they are really familiar and comfortable, so that lowered the sense of discomfort and fear. so i think that's a good model, director colfax to bring the vaccines to really where the patients and the clients are and then they get a sense that, you know, the whole city and

the whole community is taken care of, their needs. we are thankful for the departments and mayor breed particularly for your team. thank you, really so much. we appreciate the efforts that you're opening up the vaccine to people from 50 years and older, but we're still concerned that there's 10% to 20% of seniors that are still not vaccinated. so we'll work closely with your staff to bring the vaccines to the homebound seniors as our next project. it's a labor of love, but from our experience in doing the covid response work, we're not short of volunteers. i think there are many volunteers who are willing to be drivers, volunteer doctors and helpers to bring the vaccines to the thousands of homebound seniors and persons with disabilities.

so we'll work closely with you on that project. so thank you very much, mayor and dr. colfax. we need our community to be vaccinate. thank you. >> thank you, again, annie, for being here with us today and also the work that you do to take care of so many seniors and i cannot wait until we're open again so i can go visit them and enjoy the entertainment and food and festivities. i know it's especially hard for some of our seniors living in isolation. so having self-help for the elderly and keep that connection with them is so critical in getting people vaccinated is so important because i know more than anything, they want to come together again. so, with that, thank you all for joining us.

and, at this time, we'll take a few questions. >> the reality of people [inaudible] employment right away, what do you think of people who might get frustrated trying to navigate the system? are you concerned for the people who are eligible before this group [inaudible] now that more people are trying to sign on? >> i'm not concerned because of the efforts that we talked about as far as equity because we have mobile sites. we have people who are going to certain neighborhoods where we see high infection rates who are providing the vaccine to people and so we're taking our lead from community based organizations, but we did this from the very beginning. that's why over 62% of people over the age of 65 in san francisco are vaccinated and over 80% of them have already received their first dose. that's unheard of on a national level. i'm not concerned about reaching those communities.

and, keep in mind i don't think we'll ever get to 100% because there are some people who are hesitant and that's why i got the vaccine. i wanted people in the western edition where we had a lot of folks who were saying i'm not going to get the vaccine. i wanted them to see that i got it and that it's safe and that they should get it too and i know there were a few people including one of my friend's mom and she said i'm only here because you're here, mayor, and i'll go ahead and get it. that's really where we are and what we're going to do. i'm not concerned because of the city's efforts and our work and the prioritizization for certain zip codes and the places where people can drop in and get the vaccine, but, you know, we're going to have more supply on top of that. so it's going to be a lot easier and it just requires people to be a little patient

and we're going to get there. >> more than two weeks fully vaccinated. are you feeling any differently? >> i am smiling more, i think. i think, for me, i'm still wearing my mask and doing my part and keeping my distance. and i still -- i think it's now out of habit, but i'm looking forward to maybe before i probably would have never gone to the giants opening day, but now i'll probably stop by and check it out a little bit. so i'm a little bit more comfortable, i think, going out in public. for the most part, i'm hoping we get more san franciscans vaccinated. >> [inaudible] >> yeah. i just think that it's unfortunate and it's another distraction from getting our

kids back in school. i think, you know, when the grown-ups all of a sudden become the story and become the distraction and this case and many other things that have sadly happened at the school board, then it takes away from what's most important and no one person should be more important than protecting and supporting our kids and getting them back in school. >> [inaudible] >> i'm not prepared to provide any updates as to where we are. i mean, this is a pending lawsuit, so we want to make sure what's appropriate to say and what isn't appropriate to say before we start talking specifically about things that we plan to do. i do know this is one of the reasons, you know, not necessarily a lawsuit, but the lack of movement by the school district is one of the reasons why we're developing this

program "summer together" because we can't just wait for them to sit around and get their stuff together. we have kids struggling now. and if you think about it the achievement gap was problematic and it's gotten worse. and you think about what's going to happen to these kids if they don't get the kind of education they deserve to get within the next couple of years, then we're going to have a problems. i'm focusing on what they're going to do. the kids will have the ability to participate in a program that will help with the learning loss that they i'm sure experienced over the course of this past year during the pandemic >> [inaudible] >> as i said, i am not prepared to talk about that at this time. i want to make sure that i understand the legalities. it just happened yesterday. so before i make any public

statements or comments, i want to make sure i understand fully what this could mean and what the city can do to participate or be involved in this in any kind of way. it is a lawsuit that's geared towards specific members and the school district and we know that the school district is its own entity. we also know that the city stands ready and willing to help to support our kids in any way we possibly can. and, as i said, this is another, you know, unfortunate failure of, you know, a particular individual in this case as it relates to our children. if you really care about kids, then there are things you just will do or will not do to impact their lives and i think it's unfortunate we're at this state of affairs. >> [inaudible]

>> well, the appetite, you mean of the people once folks are in a better place of being vaccinated? well, i know that most people are going to want to come together with people that they may have not been able to come together with before especially those who have elderly parents. i'm hearing a lot about people who had babies and they wanted the babies to meet their grandparents. and so i'm seeing a lot more of that where people are feeling a lot more comfortable and less afraid of possibly having an impact on someone who is more vulnerable. i think that people are going to want to get together more. i want to go see a play or a concert or -- i'll take anything at this point, but i'm

going to be more interested in doing things that we haven't been able to do as a result of this pandemic. i'm looking forward to seeing people singing. like, right now, there's a prohibition right now on those who can go out and entertainment, there's some limitations here because we are still in this, but we have to proceed with caution because the last thing i want to do is come to the people of san francisco and say, yes, we're at 80%, first vaccinations of all san franciscans, but, guess what, we're seeing a surge and i have to shut the city down again. like that's the last thing i want us to do. so i think we're still going to need to proceed with caution. we're going to have to ride this wave and continue to do our very best. >> [inaudible] >> i can't hear you at all. i'm sorry.

>> [inaudible] >> the advice to find an appointment for the seniors? we're going to be doing a lot of outreach not just with self-help for the elderly, but we have aging and adult services. a lot of our programs to be able to identify seniors in those hardest hit communities through outreach and the various programs we fund and offering, you know, rides to seniors and letting them know about the specific locations and being able to walk with the seniors and i'll give you an example. so maxine hall where i got my vaccine in the wherein district location. you don't need maxine hall. so folks that are part of an organization of seniors like people at the senior service center there are people there who offered to walk them or use the vans to drive them around the corner if they want to get their vaccine are canning them

every single day and there's just another of organic outreach everett that's happening with a number of agencies that serve senior communities throughout san francisco. >> i was going to ask more about the following [inaudible] >> okay. anything else? >> [inaudible] >> i can commit to san francisco's what? >> you can commit [inaudible] >> no. i can't commit that. all right. thank you.

>> good morning and welcome to the board of supervisors rule committee monday, april 12th, 2021. i'm the chair of the committee aaron peskin joined by supervisor mandelman and soon