Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Civil Rights Jttf Mou topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Civil‑rights groups urge Police Commission review after new SFPD–FBI MOU
Summary
ACLU, Asian Law Caucus and CAIR speakers told the Police Commission the memorandum of understanding between the SFPD and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force appears to remove local safeguards required by SFPD General Order 8.1(o). Commissioners and department leaders agreed to schedule a joint hearing with the Human Rights Commission to review the MOU and community concerns.
The ACLU and local civil‑rights groups asked the San Francisco Police Commission on April 6 to review a newly released memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the San Francisco Police Department and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, saying the agreement appears to lessen local oversight and conflict with SFPD policy.
John Crewe, who identified himself as an ACLU affiliate, said the MOU released two days earlier “shows, from our point of view, the opposite” of earlier assurances that SFPD officers assigned to the JTTF would remain subject to General Order 8.1(o). Crewe said provisions that previously protected local policy and supervisory responsibilities “are gone” and urged the commission to take immediate attention.
Veena Dubal, staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus, traced the history of San Francisco’s relationship with the JTTF and said the 2002 MOU had expressly required SFPD officers to follow local rules. Her reading of the new MOU, she said, indicates that FBI practices and guidelines would govern JTTF officers instead of local law, a change that, if correct, would have been executed without the commission’s formal authority.
Zahra Bilu of the Bay Area chapter of the Council on American‑Islamic Relations cited case examples she said raised civil‑rights concerns when local officers worked with the JTTF. She asked the commission to keep community harms in view as it considers the legal and policy implications.
Commissioners and department officials responded that they take the concerns seriously. Chief Jeff Godown and Commander Mahoney told the panel that, as a practical matter, SFPD officers would follow General Order 8.1(o) in the event of any conflict between local policy and outside guidelines. The commission president said the body will pursue a public review: commissioners agreed to schedule a joint hearing with the Human Rights Commission within two to three weeks to present the MOU, hear testimony and clarify how local policy and federal partnership should interact.
The commission did not take immediate formal action on the MOU at the April 6 meeting. Instead, it asked staff and counsel to arrange the joint hearing, and commissioners said they will receive more briefing materials before that session.
