San Francisco police disciplinary records are treated as if they’re some sort of state secret that the mere taxpayers who fund their salaries have no right to see. But the department does have to make a few things public every now and then, and present findings to the Police Commission.
The commission hasn’t met in five weeks, and since the mayor moved to gut its authority, the panel isn’t able to so much in the way of setting binding policy (which is, after all, why we have a Police Commission).
But it still gets reports, and at the Wednesday/11 meeting, the Police Department and the Department of Police Accountability will share some alarming facts.
Among other things, it appears that the cops aren’t taking seriously the rules around activating body-worn cameras. More than 25 percent of the IAD disciplinary cases in the first quarter of 2024 involved officers failing to turn on their cameras during an incident. The DPA found that 16 percent of its cases involved improper searches and seizures.
We aren’t supposed to know the names of the officers, but we get some summaries of problems with officer-involved shootings. For example:
Two officers responded to a complaint that a man was pounding on his neighbor’s wall, in violation of a restraining order. The suspect repeatedly yelled at the cops, told them to get away from his house, and at one point punched one of them. From the report:
The subject then aggressively pulled open the security gate door and stepped through the gateway but remained on the landing. Officers both moved back slightly as the subject advanced and waved their right hand, and ordered they leave. Officer #2 had removed their pepper spray cannister as the subject approached and warned them that they would be sprayed to which the subject responded with profanity. The subject continued to make aggressive waving gestures with their hand, at which point Officer #2 deployed their pepper spray towards the subject who kicked outward toward Officer #2 and then retreated into their home. The pepper spray contacted all three people.
So: The cops pepper sprayed themselves, as well as the suspect. They had to retreat and call an ambulance. The man went back into his house, but they still tried to arrest the guy:
Both officers told interviewers that they thought this was an opportunity to try to arrest the subject. But the subject retreated as the officers advanced with Officer #1 in the lead with their baton, which they used to strike the subject at least twice. The subject also reached for Officer #1 with a closed fist and struck them in the face. The contact caused Officer #1 to fall backwards down the stairs past Officer #2. Officer #2, left to face the subject alone who had positional/height advantage, had limited force options as the pepper spray and baton failed to prevent the subject from attacking. Officer #2 drew their department issued firearm and fired, striking the subject twice.
The subject lived. The Internal Affairs Division decided that shooting was “proper conduct.” The man, it appears, could have died—for banging on his neighbor’s wall.
The Department of Police Accountability had some serious problems with the way this was handled. We don’t know what, if any, discipline the cops received.
The commission will also hear about what appears to be an incident from 2019 that led then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin to file charges against the officer who fired his gun. After Boudin was recalled, DA Brooke Jenkins dropped all the charged.
The weapons discharge panel concluded that the cop’s actions were just fine.
And we have this one, from 2023:
On April 23rd, 2023, at approximately 6:15 PM, the officer was inside their residence and offduty. The officer was detailed to SFPD’s Specialist Basic Training and had completed week 1 of training. While inside their garage, the officer was practicing dry-firing with their department issued handgun (Sig Sauer P226), holstering/unholstering with their new department issued holster, and loading magazines. The officer stopped practicing and prepped their equipment for range week, loading their magazines with bullets. The officer went to continue practicing dry-firing/un-holstering with their department issued handgun, forgetting to render their firearm safe for dry-firing. The officer pressed the trigger which discharged one round. The officer observed a bullet shot through the mirror they were standing directly in front of, and the garage wall behind the mirror. The bullet followed a trajectory in an unknown direction after hitting the garage wall.
That one was “not proper conduct,” but we don’t know what disciplinary action, if any, the Department took.
Presumably the commissioners still have the authority to ask questions about all of this. The meeting starts at 5pm.
The mayor appears for Question Time at the Board of Supes Tuesday/9, and none of the board members have signed up to ask a question. That leaves Breed with the opportunity to make a statement on any matter she wants, so expect to see her repeat her campaign themes, that everything is getting much better in the city and it’s all because of her.
The supes will vote on a policy that would allow the cops to use drones—also known as Unassisted Aircraft Systems—in a variety of situations:
The sUAS will be used for: training and simulations, critical incidents, exigent circumstances, search & rescue, missing persons, Crime Scene Investigation (CSI/TCIU), during suspicious device assessments, planned operations, disaster response and community outreach related to vehicle pursuits and active criminal investigations.
Would a large-scale demonstration be a “critical incident,” in which the cops could record the faces of people in the crowd on the drone’s camera?
That meeting starts at 2pm.
The Planning Commission is back in business after a summer break—maybe.
On the agenda: The future of the Candlestick Point development project, which has been delayed for years. The developer now has a new vision, which, as Laura Waxman notes in the Chron, is designed “potentially to someday lure tech companies into the area.”
(1) allow the transfer of 2,050,000 square feet of office / research and development (R&D) entitlement from Hunters Point Shipyard (HPS) to Candlestick Point (CP); (2) allow visitor and entertainment uses throughout most of CP; (3) confirm certain commercial uses, such as “maker space”, permitted at HPS, are also permitted at CP; (4) adjust Redevelopment Plan time limits; and (5) adjust certain Redevelopment Plan financing provisions and time limits. The amendments would enable the continued implementation of the Candlestick Point Development Project, including a re-envisioned Candlestick Center (one of four planned neighborhoods at Candlestick Point) as an “Innovation District” that would include approximately 2,800,000 square feet of office, R&D, and other similar and supporting uses. Candlestick Point is within the Candlestick Point Activity Node Special Use District.
This is a huge deal, changes in the original redevelopment plan that could have profound impacts on the neighborhood.
But maybe the commission can’t have that meeting.
Land-use lawyer Sue Hestor, who has followed the commission closely for at least half a century, told me that the agency failed to send out the required meeting notice in advance. She’s sent an email warning that the meeting might be illegal:
Since Planning failed to send email notice of hearing and agenda for 9/12/24 Planning Commission hearing before 5pm Friday, 9/6/24 to persons
who had subscribed to receive emailed notice and agenda at least 6 days before hearing, OR
were required by San Francisco or California law to be given such notice,
the Planning Department is not able to conduct a9/12/24 Planning Commission hearing.
We will keep you posted.
The CBS News/SF Examiner mayoral debate is set for Wednesday/11, the day after the critical Harris/Trump debate—and the big question is whether Mayor London Breed will show up.
It’s hard to imagine the mayor snubbing two major news outlets—but that this point, I’m sure her advisors are looking at the polls and telling her that a debate can’t help her and could hurt her.
It will be broadcast live.
