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Supervisors press SFPD and DA on officer-involved shooting reforms; committee forwards funding and oversight resolution
Summary
The committee received SFPD and District Attorney updates on implementing recommendations from the civil grand jury and DOJ reviews; the panel was told a draft MOU is under negotiation and that the Board had allocated $1.8 million to add 14 DA positions. Supervisor London Breed entered a resolution to report implementation of recommendation R5.D and oversight was continued.
The Government Audit & Oversight Committee on Oct. 20 heard updates from San Francisco Police Department leadership and the District Attorney's office on steps to implement recommendations about officer-involved shootings (OIS) from the 2015–2016 civil grand jury and a recent DOJ collaborative review.
Commander McEachern told the committee the department had received the DOJ collaborative review, which included more than 270 recommendations, and that the mayor and chief had committed to implementing items within set timeframes. The department is prioritizing recommendations, working on a public OIS web page with statistics and updates, revising general orders, and improving timely notifications to the District Attorney and other responding units.
“We’re currently prioritizing those recommendations and a response plan for the implementation of those reforms,” Commander McEachern said.
Committee members discussed the status of negotiations over a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between SFPD and the District Attorney’s office. Chair Peskin noted that $1.8 million the Board had appropriated to add 14 positions in the District Attorney’s office had been released in part: committee staff recorded $1,500,000 released for hiring in fiscal year 2016–17 with $300,000 retained on Budget and Finance Committee reserve.
Christine DeBerry, speaking for the District Attorney’s office, said the office had posted current procedures and started recruitment for the funded positions but had not yet reached agreement with the department on the MOU. “The criminal investigation remains critically important,” she said, and the DA’s office and SFPD continued to discuss areas of agreement and disagreement in the drafts.
Eric Vanderpool of the 2015–2016 civil grand jury urged all departments to consider the civil grand jury, DOJ, and blue-ribbon-panel reports together and urged a new agreement so OIS investigations could be handled “as independently, and as transparently and as timely as possible.”
Supervisor London Breed asked that the committee enter for the record a resolution reporting that recommendation R5.D had been implemented in light of the budget actions and directed continued oversight to evaluate the DA’s timeliness in completing investigations and issuing charging decisions. The committee agreed to record the motion and recommend the item to the full Board.
The committee said it will continue quarterly oversight briefings to monitor progress on implementation and to ensure the public record shows continued attention to these reforms.
