Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20180215

SFGTV Government Access Programming February 15, 2018

First, mayor, thank you very much for bringing us together to chief scott, thank you for so early on reaching out as well to see if this could be a possible course of action and i have to tip my hat and give a shoutout to mayor ed lee. Because from the very beginning of my tenure as attorney general, mayor lee reached out to me and said the city of San Francisco wants to be your partner, we want to continue to make improvements and any way we can work together, i want to do that. So when we found the u. S. Cops program and you the u. S. Department of justice abandoned its work with the city of San Francisco, right away mayor lee and i were in conversation. And i just got to say to ed lee, we miss you, but were here doing your work. This is a product of what ed lee wanted to see happen and i think its important for us as leaders here from the city and county of San Francisco, the leader of the Police Department here and certainly the city mayor to say on behalf of all us, we all owe ed lee a great deal of gratitude for always putting the people of San Francisco first. [applause] he said something very important when he began this, to help families in San Francisco, our men and women in uniform, believe there could be confidence and trust to do the best job. He said, fair and just policing that treats everyone the same and places the sanctity of life above all else was important. I think today, thats our mission. Those of you who reached out and have been reaching out to help all of us come together so that families throughout the state, certain here in San Francisco, can feel confident about the work that is being done to provide them with the Public Safety should look at todays announcement as a sign that in San Francisco theyre serious about getting the job done. We need that kind of focus. And we need this memorandum of understanding between the city and county of San Francisco, the Police Department in San Francisco, and the state of california through the department of justice, to make live those reforms that were proposed by the city more than 270 of them, and make sure they get implemented. That is how you gain the confidence of the people of your city and county. I think its important to note that simply because the federal government decides to abandon ship, did not mean we were going to let the ball drop. There is fumbles that can cost you a whole lot and we saw a fascinating game yesterday at the super bowl, but i will tell you this, at the end of the day, the people in the city and county of San Francisco are going to be the big winners, because we picked up the ball and were going to run with it and do this for the people of california and San Francisco. [applause] my team at the department of justice stands ready to be with you as a partner. I cant tell you how important it is to have independent eyes overseeing these reforms. Accountability, transparency, confidence and trust all come from giving people a sense there will be independent review of the work that is being done. I believe the people of the city and county of San Francisco should be heartened that it was the leaders of the city and county of San Francisco and their Police Department who asked for the independent eyes to come forward. So its all about working together. And i got to tell you, Public Safety is as much a team sport as anything youve seen on tv in the last 24 hours. We have to do this together. Nothing is more important than Public Safety. Nothing is more important than public trust. We hope to build that public trust by working through this memorandum of understanding. And if i can send one last message to the people of this great city and county in San Francisco, this is the work that we must do. We hope that what is done here will become a model for what other communities can do. I will tell you that the work at the department of justice wont end with this. In the next few months, the men and women in uniform here in San Francisco will start to employ the work that they must do now to make sure that identity profiling is not something that is a reality anywhere. Well begin to see the ripa regulations take effect where all the contacts there are made of people on the streets, in our communities, will be documented. And well be working closely with the men and women in uniform to make sure that happens. Well look forward to working with the city and county of San Francisco and the Law Enforcement agencies to make sure as we go about documenting who is in a gang and who is not, we get correct information into the cal gang system and not Incorrect Information that could harm the lives of people moving forward. So were going to be doing a lot of work to get people that confidence. And that trust. That we in Law Enforcement are doing this to provide Public Safety. So i am pleased to say that todays announcement is just the beginning of a process that the city and county of San Francisco began and i hope that what we can say, it wont end with the city and county of San Francisco. That many communities will see what you do here can be replicated elsewhere and there begins the trust and confidence that people need, that our leaders are working in our best interests. With that, id like to now turn it over to your leader when it comes to Law Enforcement, chief bill scott. [applause] thank you, attorney general, and mayor farrell. I would start my comments off with thanks as well and then touch on things that are important for you all to know. Let me thank the members of the community that are here and those that couldnt be with us, because really this is about policing the community with the community. The people you see in this room, many of them, we sit down have indepth discussions about Public Safety, keeping our city safe, when there are things, whether Violent Crime or car breakins, these are the people we partner but, but at the same time, theyre demanding a Police Department that is fair and just. Its that commitment that is a win that pushes aura needs to change, where we need to change and reform our department and the way that makes us better. Let me start with my thanks to the members of the community who are there with us, hold us accountable and again, theyre here with us this morning, so thank you. [applause] also, the people standing with me at the podium. Attorney general, who has been willing to work with us, mayor farrell who is continuing the work started by mayor lee and got continued by acting mayor london breed. And today, is the beginning of the rest of the journey in terms of making this department a better department. Also to my left, i cant i would be remiss without mentioning supervisor cohen. Who has always been a champion for reform. When i stepped in the door, i think one of the first things i did, before i started and got sworn in, i sat down with supervisor cohen around saw her passion for having a Police Department that not only does its job and protects the community, but is a fair and just Police Department. She has always been a champion for Police Reform, so thank you for that as well. The people along the wall, the teams of the attorney general, the California Department of justice and on my right, captains and in the back, our president of our Police Officers association. I cant say it any better than attorney general did, this is a team effort, this is a total team effort. Without everybody in the room working together, all oars in the same direction, we cannot get this done. Its the ultimate team effort. Its not a sport because were talking life and death, but its the ultimate team adventure. So without the people in this room, none of this work can get done. My last thing goes to our Police Commission. President turman couldnt be here this morning, but his guidance is vital to our success. They oversee the Police Department and they take that responsibility very seriously and we definitely appreciate all that they do to keep us going in the right direction. And also with former president , who was the commission when i got hired, but never had the opportunity to work with her. Thank you for all that youve done to get us to this point as well. So we know that collaborative reform, the initiative that we started with, the cops office is positive results for the San Francisco Police Department and the communities that we serve. The mayor mentioned it, the 18 reduction in use of force, we have reductions in complaints. I think those are all indicators were going in the right direction. Were committed to focus on improving our department and the California Department of justice assessment will provide independent assessment of the work were doing. Unfortunately, when we concluded or the u. S. Department of justice concluded the work, they were in the process of writing the first assessment report that never got released and wont be. Its really important that the public see from an independent review, independent eye, that were doing. I mean its one thing for us to report what were doing, its another for someone totally independent to come in and assess what were doing and report to the public. Thats one of the benefits of this collaboration with the California Department of justice. There are other benefits. Technical assistance. Part of the last agreement we had with the u. S. Department of justice, there was Technical Assistance provided. There are many areas where we need to go outside of the city and outside of the department to call on experts, many of who have done the work before, many who have ideas that maybe we didnt think about and that Technical Assistance is a major part of a collaborative reform agreement. With the California Department of justice, with the partners we have in place, we believe that Technical Assistance will continue, we believe that it will help us with the improvements we know we need to make. And ultimately, our commitment is about becoming the best Police Department we can be. Working with our community partners, weve already accomplished a lot. Many people in the room are part of the groups put together to have the public input we need to get better. We cant do this youll hear me say this over and over again we cannot do that without the public. Our use of force dropped 18 , we hope that trend continues. We expect it to continue. We saw 9 increase in citizen complaints in 2017. There are several components of this initiative that will continue. One is addressing bias. And how we deal with some of the disparities and disproportionate we see in the city of San Francisco, not only here in San Francisco, but across the country. Although we can only focus on our city, we believe we can be a model for good policing across country. Were addressing bias. One of the things weve done is our automated electronic audit of all Electronic Devices owned by the department. That is in effort to root out bias, deal with it if in fact we see instances where bias is afoot. Weve also integrated procedural Justice Training into the Continual Development curriculum, which officers must attend and procedural justice is an important recommendation because it goes not only externally, its about fairness. Its internal. And with the people standing on the wall, the command staff, the Police Officers association, i think what were all looking for is fairness. Fair innocence the way we police, in the way we run the department and the procedural training will help us get there. Weve dedicated new units, that really their job is to listen to the community. We instituted a Community Engagement division. Our captains of our districts do a great job in doing that very thing, listening to the community, but one of the recommendations was that the department needed a more robust structure. So this process is institutionize and weve seen good results. Were also focused on accountability and were demonstrating that through the use of a body cameras. Body cameras is a whole new dimension that opens up a world that we didnt have in terms of accountability and transparency. Im very proud with the work that has been done on body cameras, because for a department this size to implement that policy and equipment as quickly as it did, thats astounding. Although there are things to improve, it helps our department be a better department. Were recruiting a diverse force. Very important. Diversity brings perspectives that we need. Perspectives from different cultures and different religions, countries, educational background, Different Levels of experience, diversity brings perspective, perspective brings better policing. So very proud that we are moving forward in our efforts to be a diverse department. Instituting and sustaining these changes wont be easy. We know that. And we accept that challenge. The people along the wall on both sides, along with the community we understand it will be a challenge. Change is hard. Most people dont like change. Change is a very difficult thing, but were committed to doing the changes that we know we need to. And it wont be an easy task, but were committed, focused and well get it done. Out of the 16 Law Enforcement agencies that were once a part of the u. S. Department of Justice Collaborative review process, were proud to step forward today to continue this work and i think were really the First Department that has taken this on in this form. So again, San Francisco leads the way. Were proud to do that. And we really think this is going to be valueadded to get us where we need to go. The California Department of justice will provide us with the technical experience and assistance to help us stay on the right track and achieve the goals that we committed to. This agreement gives our work validation, the attorney general mentioned it, gives us credibility. It gives us transparency. And more importantly, this is about maintaining and Building Trust with the community we serve. We believe this is a means to get there. Ultimately, all we want to see is the best department that we can, we want to see less use of force, we want to see answers to some of the questions about disproportionateality i believe that San Francisco will lead the and i dont say that bragging, i say that because were proud to get to that leadership position in Law Enforcement. This is another challenge, a big one, but its just another challenge im confident and the people along the wall are confident well get there. Thank you all for being here and thank you to the folks standing with me at the podium for your leadership on this matter. Without further adieu, id like to present president of the board of supervisors, london breed. I want to thank our attorney general and our mayor ed lee for working with supervisor cohen and i on the request to partner with the city to implement the 272 recommendations proposed by the department of justice. Issues of Police Reform are very personal for me. Ive seen firsthand the consequences that stem from the lack of trust between communities of color and Law Enforcement agencies. I grew up in a community where the police were not always called when violence occurred, but that is not the future that i want for San Francisco. In the ten years i spent as the executive director of the africanamerican art and culture complex, working with young people and my five years as supervisor, ive worked with the flifrs our community Police Officers in our community, from Northern Police station and i know some of the former captains are here today. As well as our fearless leader during the time she served as Police Commission president , to work with the community on a better model for community policing. And i am so proud of the work that we did together, working with the community, working with the department, working with a lot of the folks who are here today, like sean richard from brothers against guns, and the healing circle with mattie

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