We called this meeting, and it was postponed. It was not on the spur of the moment. We knew it was coming. I also think its unfair for the city to put you because i know in your unit, you have this certain purview in your unit. But i also think if we so we would like to also know, like, what are the kind of data could we suggest that the Police Actually collect and share with us that really gives us a snapshot of what wis happening on the ground . So this is just a hate crime, but also how many lgbt folks are victims of violence, and those type of things, i think, are really important. And then, we should also get data from the office of citizen complaints to find out what kind of complaints are we also hearing about the police force, too, just in the light of trying to protect this community at this critical time, especially when we know nationwide that deaths of transgender folks have been increasing, the incidents of antilgbt organizations getting boulder and stronger. All of these things feed in a culture that is anti what San Francisco desires, and what the Lgbt Community of San Francisco deserves. Its not fair to put it on you, but i guess its sort of to the messenger, but i think that a deeper comprehensive look with the Police Department. We are not going to actually get a handle on this until we actually work collaboratively with the Police Department because i actually feel like we really depend on your services, actually, to help keep this population safe, too. And are we all working together at the same goal . I think also that we should continue this hearing, and we should also request certain data so were prepared to actually get a true snapshot of whats really happening on the streets of San Francisco for this community that has, as we know, has also been under attack, not just by our federal government, but by organizations and individuals of organizations that believe in a hateful ideology. So thank you very much. Supervisor sheehy thank you, and i agree with your suggestions. Because if someone waits outside bars in the castro for people to go home and then robs them, thats not necessarily a hate crime. But its a crime of opportunity. You know, so the violence against the community, it can be or people who prey on trans sex workers, knowing that theyre very unlikely to report violence for a whole host of reasons. You know, i think the level of detail we need to have on violence, and it should be violence against the community in all of its aspects. The narrow focus on hate crimes and again, i agree with my colleagues. Its not fair to hold you up here or lieutenant ocone or to hold you up. I feel that the castro is less safe than it has been, and i dont feel im getting very much responsiveness from my interactions from the department in terms of safety in the castro. So im just reaching a level of frustration. Im on my Fourth Police captain in the castro, so we actually havent been able to create any kind of coherent, meaningful, you know, progress moving forward or strategy. I mean, my you know, it just seems like like i said and its not to you guys, but it doesnt seem like theres the adequate level of respect from my Community Within the department at this time. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor sheehy and then next, id like to introduce christine dubarry from the District Attorneys office, d. A. s office. Im technically challenged, so ill do my best here. Thank you, supervisor ronen, supervisor sheehy, supervisor fewer. Im here on behalf of d. D. A. Gascon. In our office, we have an individual within our general felonies unit thats dedicated to hate crimes cases, and that person, unfortunately, rotates at our rotations through the office rotate. I invited brook jenkins to be here with me today, but shes actually picking a jury on a hate crime case, so she was unable to join us. But the d. A. , this is an issue hes taking very seriously, as his predecessors, and we have taken the time to try to amplify it in the office to make sure that all the communities in San Francisco know that our office is here to protect them when they are a victim of any crime, particularly when they are a victim of social location. There is a question earlier how we define a hate crime, and in our presentation we have the penal code 422. 55, which describes to you what are the parameters in deciding whether something is a hate crime. It can be anything from a misdemeanor theft or a vandalism all the way up to very serious felony conduct. And then, below that, you can see the different associations an individual can have or characters an individual can have, such as as a vulneraby that can make them a target. We have seen a lot of targeting of communities in our country in particular the last year, year and a half, and unfortunately, San Francisco doesnt have a wall to keep that type of activity out. These are some of the groups that we see being victimized frequently in our own city. Its not unique to San Francisco. Unfortunately happens around the country. Some of the earlier presentations indicated from the Southern Poverty Law Center indicated increases in hate crimes across the country, and weve seen that here in San Francisco, as well. Supervisor ronen what does it mean that victims are an example of a group targeted by hate crimes. So weve seen an increase of people being targeted, like muslims and people in the arab community. Supervisor ronen right, but. I think the descriptor might have fallen off of that. We do every time we speak on this issue, want to emphasize the hotline that we have. There was a discussion by director davis the difficulty of getting people to come forward. We experience that as well. One of the things that we setup after a lot of the targeting of immigrants and then in the Muslim Community by then candidate trump was to emphasize the hotline, so we do have that hotline available to all victims. We do offer language services. As you can see here, we take calls in english, spanish, cantonese, mandarin, russian, arabic, and tagalog. Anyone who would like to report a crime can do so on that line. If they speak another language, well obviously get assistance to help them with that. There are no immigration consequences for calling this number and reporting a crime. The d. A. Has done a lot of outreach to different communities to reassure them that our office was here to be supportive of them if there was actual crimes, if there was information they wanted us to look into, along with the Police Department, that were available to do that. And were always available to speak to other communities about this work or other parts of our office. And then, we also have Community Advisory boards that come in to meet with the District Attorney and attorneys in our office. So as it relates to this hearing, we do have an lgbt group, and we have serl other groups based on racial and other identities, and we find in those a lot of intersectionality. Well find one board is interesting in partnering with one of the other community boards, and so well being the liaison that fosters the relation between those communities. In addition to that, we have had a big campaign of reaching out to the consul generals in our city and signing memorandums of understanding within those communities to assist both victims of hate crimes, Domestic Violence and human trafficking, crimes that we feel particularly people that may be immigrants or visiting this country may have even less comfort inn talking to us or the Police Department, so we work with the consul generals to sign those memorandums with their home country and really making sure that theyre aware the laufrt supports but maybe more importantly the Victim Services supports that we can offer people in those situations, so we do a lot of work in that community in speaking at events to make sure were reaching more deeply into the community. And then, i want to spend some time talking about our local statistics. I did, just before i came, get some 2014 numbers as well, so ill report those to you. We have certainly seen an increase in both the cases presented to us by the Police Department as well as the cases we have filed in our office. In 2017, we had many cases that are booked on charges that didnt include a hate crime, but after we reviewed the facts and looked at them more carefully, weve been able to determine that a hate crime does exist, and we were able to add those charges. Thats why youll see in 2017, four more hate crimes than cases that were brought to us, because we felt, the strain of the conversation earlier, mau not have appeared to be a hate crime, but with a little more time in our office, where we were able to consider the facts, we felt that a hate crime is appropriate. Whats not represented on here is the 2014 numbers. As i said, i just got those before i came. In 2014, sfpd brought 12 cases to us as hate crimes, and we filed only four of those, so we had a quite low filing rate at that point, and weve had a steady increase over the last four years in both the cases brought to us and the cases weve been able to file. In fact from 2014 to 2017, weve had a 575 increase in the cases that were charging as hate crimes. And just in the last year from 2016 to 2017, were had a 93 increase in our caseload in hate crimes, and i think thats consistent, unfortunately, with the trends were seeing in the country of just a lot more language of hate and targeting, and it is resulting in crimes in our city that require us to prosecute them as such. Of the cases that we have this year for 2017, the 276 were lgbt victims, and at this moment, i can tell you that three were trans. Its where a lot of our outreach is, and im happy to answer any questions you may have. Supervisor sheehy well, first, do you still have a Victim Advocate dedicated to the Lgbtq Community . So i just want textis texti our chief of Victim Services if we have a dedicated worker, and we dont, but particularly within hate crimes, we dont have a dedicated advocate or a dedicated lgbt advocate. Supervisor sheehy so my role, when i was there, was a combined role of hate crimes and for Domestic Violence because Domestic Violence is a particular challenge. The common assumption that i found at the time, which is borne out by statistics is when you have a heterosexual Domestic Violence, you know, 95 of the time, i think its a statistic, the man is the aggressor. But in 99 of the same sex situations, thats not always the case. I dont know how well known this is, but if youve done Domestic Violence work, you know if theres an injury, someone has to be arrested, and its automatic. Thats state law, and it also includes same sex Domestic Violence. And so a lot of the training that i was doing was actually trying to talk to officers about being very mindful about doing a complete investigation, looking at the types of wounds people had, defensive or offensive wounds, canvassing neighbors so that you could correctly identify the aggressor in Domestic Violence. So i think its disappointing that this office has lost its focus in the last 20 years in that particular area. So thats one. I do think it is useful to actually have people dedicated to that work, and you know, to the degree that people are victims of crime, the awareness that they may have been targeting because of their Sexual Orientation or gender i identity, that interaction should be i just feel i guess my census, i guess the criminal Justice System is buckety. So if someone yells fag as a hate crime, or if youre transgender, and somebody beats you up because youre coming out of a bar in the castro and robs you, thats not a hate crime, but actually, those were targets that were specifically chosen because of that persons identity, and i dont know where the intersection is taking place within our criminal Justice System. And then, i also am curious just to how you can work with trans sex workers who on one hand youre arresting, however, on the other hand, youre asking them to report true reports of violence against them, and when theres so much i mean, lets say theres so much economic discrimination against trans folks, and unfortunately, folks do a disproportionate amount of sex work is a way to survive in this city. And yet, and the Violence Associated with sex work is so high, and that is a form of hate crime. And im just not getting a perception of some of the intersections of or the vulnerablity, i guess, of my community. And when i say my community, i shouldnt be so parochial, because all of us are here together. Of my community, because it doesnt seem even after all this time, it doesnt seem to have permeated into the criminal Justice System in a really valid w really meaningful way. I think those are valid comments. It does leave one feeling as if its not a whole holistic approach to a community or an issue, even, and i think thats valid and warranted. We welcome the feedback on how to make improvements in that. It ourns out that all of many of our supervisors within victim it turns out that all of our many i do feel that its an area that we need to improve upon, and i was preparing for this hearing, which i always appreciate that opportunity. It gives us a chance to pause on our work, is i do feel we need a dedicated Victim Advocate. We had a trans victim who was very dissatisfied with the way her case was handled, and she met with her attorney. I think we were able to resolve that, but having had somebody dedicated in that role, i think we may have avoided having to get to that place with her, and so i do think a dedicated advocate would be a plus to us. I think a dedicated attorney would be a plus to us. We do have a turnover in that office because we have to fill holes in other parts in the office. [ inaudible ] our resources dont allow for that, so you know, we try to pick the smartest and most capable people in that unit to do the work, people that have a real passion for that work. I think it takes a special drive of somebody willing to peel back the layers of a Police Report and understand whats motivating somebody to commit this crime. How might this victim have perceived that, and that takes a unique perspective on those cases. But i agree we should have more, and having more dedicated resources always gets a better result. Supervisor sheehy thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor ronen if we want to open up this item to Public Comment, is there any member of the public who would like to speak on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Supervisor sheehy, do you want to add any Closing Remarks . Supervisor sheehy you know, i think that theres just this assumption, because i just and its not just the Lgbt Community, but theres this assumption that because San Francisco is so progressive that we made so much progress on on these social cultural issues as a community, that these things dont exist anymore. And as we saw this summer with the white supremacists, they know theres parts they can act in their communities. There are specific communities that are easy to target in San Francisco, because theyre here, they have freedom, but that also means they have increased vulnerablity, the people who specifically want to target them. And i really was hoepgs there was more awareness of the special vulnerablity in these times where people feel particularly particularly emboldened in being able to target groups that have been marginalized. I think its been a collaborative effort. We all have worked in coalition with each other and collaboration with each other to get to a place that San Francisco exists as it is, but the awareness of our time now with what we have happening in our country, i guess if i have one takeaway, is i hope that the public elements of our City Government will reexamine what their posture is and recognize that were feeling more vulnerable, not less. And we need to feel safe, and we rely on our Public Safety agencies to help us feel safe. And so being attentive to that and taking that as a priority and again, its not just the Lgbtq Community, but its really our immigrant community, our Muslim Community, i mean women you could go down the list people of color, were being targeted in washington. We dont live in a we feel like we live in a bubble, but we dont. Theres bridges, theres highways. People come here, and i think that maybe another another order of attention a higher order of attention and thoughtfulness about the vulnerablity of our communities is necessary at this time. Supervisor ronen thank you thank you for that. That was appreciate that you called this hearing and would love to follow up on the issues that we didnt feel were meaningfully addressed. Supervisor fewer, no comments . Supervisor fewer no. Supervisor ronen okay. With that, can i entertain a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair . Okay. Great. So this item is continued to the call of the chair. Thank you, everyone, for the presentations and for coming out today. Mr. Clerk, is there any further items . Clerk the