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Residents and advocates urge accountability after alleged misconduct; domestic-violence groups praise new SFPD protocols
Summary
Public commenters at the March 23 commission meeting called for additional review of alleged police misconduct, including a youth's account of a warrantless entry, and asked the commission to recall a former official for questions; domestic-violence advocates also thanked the department for new U visa policy and dispatch codes.
Speakers during two public-comment periods at the San Francisco Police Commission meeting raised sharply contrasting views of the department’s work: residents and advocates pressed for accountability over alleged misconduct and pension costs, while service providers praised new protocols for domestic-violence and elder-abuse responses.
Mylan Crump read a letter from a 14-year-old resident of the Alcon Hotel who wrote that on Nov. 19, 2010, "3 cops came in my house for no reason and put guns to our head," that an officer "said, he will put a bullet in my mom," and that the youth said he was physically hurt during the encounter. Crump asked the commission to ensure the child’s concerns are heard and noted potential long-term trauma from such encounters.
Emil Lawrence urged the commission to subpoena or bring back George Gasol for a question-and-answer session about alleged conflicts of interest arising from a widening "crooked cop" probe and said he had submitted a letter to the sheriff seeking a cost analysis of the taser program. David Schneider, who said he is cofounder of UTW (a cab workers group affiliated with the AFL-CIO), pressed the department and SFMTA to add ComStat codes and better real-time reporting to track attacks on cab drivers; Chief Jeffrey Godin responded that adding a code "is a very simple fix."
Other public commenters criticized pension levels and departmental spending practices, arguing that high executive payouts are unsustainable; commissioners and the chair responded by noting pension restorations tied to negotiated concessions and defending officer pay as recognition for hazardous service.
At the same meeting, representatives of the Domestic Violence Consortium and the Child Abuse Council thanked the department for new policies announced earlier that day, praising an institutionalized U visa policy, an elder-abuse unit, and new dispatch codes that distinguish elder abuse (EA), child abuse (CA) and domestic violence (DV). "We're very, very excited about, institutionalizing what is coming to be a cutting edge, leading edge U Visa policy," Beverly Upton said; Kathy Baxter added the new codes will improve data collection and response.
The commission did not take formal action on the public allegations at this meeting; some questions raised during public comment were referred to the Office of Citizen Complaints and department investigators for follow-up.
