Things she does in order to ensure our mediations are successful. The other is the central core of our mediations and those are the skilled and trained mediators and as a matter of fact we have a couple or several of them in the audience tonight. Without the mediators, we could not function. And it was very surprising to me when i came on board a year and a half ago to learn that all of our mediators are volunteers and they come from as far away as sacramento. And a person who comes to the 6 00 a. M. Is usually the person coming from sacramento. They are very dedicated. They are experienced in california. All the mediators have to be trained 40hour Training Course is required. But they are also skilled and very experienced. And when she and i first came on board a year and a half ago we were very new to the mediation process and Mediation Program. I was recruited from the department of justice by Paul Henderson who was my boss when i was a prosecutor at the das office so this is the second round of his supervising my work, i must say. So neither of us really understood how the Mediation Program worked. But what paul told us very directly is i dont want a gap. I want this to be a highly professionalized program. I want you to hit the ground running. Because the director had resigned, actually retired a year and a half before we arrived. Now, we were very fortunate, because the program was wellestablished and it was well regarded. So just like anybody else, you know you stand on the shoulders of people who have gone before you. We were very fortunate in that sense. The liability we had as i said, we did not really understand the mediation process the program what to expect and most importantly, we really did not know the mediators. So we took the opportunity to hold a forum. And we were very fortunate, because we sent out emails and got over 100 people to come to this particular forum so we could describe Paul Henderson was there, we had somebody from the ninth circuit who runs the federal program in mediators. We had several other people who were professionals in the area, to describe what it is we want to achieve and how we were going to go about it. So that was our first introductions to mediators and showily but surely we began to realize that we could identify a core group of solid mediators who were always available to us. And as you can imagine, schedules mediation is very difficult. You have officers who have schedules, and you have the complaints who have their own schedules. And so putting this together often means that we are scrambling at the last minute to find mediators. So we have to pay them a great deal of gratitude for what they achieve for us. So basically ive really described what the mediation process is and what the program is about. But what i found is most people wanted to know why do people mediate. What are the circumstances that bring people to mediation. And i struggled trying to explain the factual issues and so forth. And i was lucky enough to encounter i think an illustrative story. Its very large ocean line is crossing the atlantic almost at the port, smooth sailing. When the lookout tells the captain there is a light ahead and we are on a collision course. The captain says signal the other that he must change course 20 degrees. The lookout does so. The reply is no i suggest you change course 20 degrees. The captain is very annoyed by this and again i am a captain of a very large ship change course. The reply is no better. It says i am a seaman second class, you change course. Well now the light is getting closer. The captain is more agitated and he again says this is a very large vessel. Catastrophe is about to happen. I am a large ship. The reply comes back i am a lighthouse. I suggest you reconsider. Thats exactly what goes on with the mediations that we handle. There are misunderstandings miscommunications, there are assumptions that are made that are really groundless and there are time periods, urgencies limited times where people are interacting, officers and complaints, in a situation thats highly charged. Now, i dont want to give you the impression that we mediate things that are the size of large ships. Not in size but certainly importance. It may not have the catastrophic consequences but it certainly does have the import for all the people who come to present their complaint to d. B. A. One of the things that we have learned is it has as much meaning for the complaint has it does for the officers. And when the officers come in, they want to have the opportunity to explain the actions that they took. And they want the opportunity to be heard. The complaint wants an opportunity to explain their perspective and thats where the mediators are facilitating the conversation. Im going in the wrong direction. So the process is quite straightforward. During the intake process the investigators do initial screening for the eligibility and suitability of cases that can be referred. The decision is then made by senior investigators in consultation with dpa attorneys. And we have taken it upon ourselves in the Mediation Program to ensure that we take a case and look at the eligibility. But even more importantly, the suitability meaning are these cases that can actually be resolved . Are these parties who are willing to negotiate or to mediate in good faith . Most typically they are. And we have set up a goal of turning cases around 30 days to avoid having something to go back to to investigation and then run into the time limits that investigators have to meet. The category of eligibility are discourteous, neglect of duty unwarranted action, conduct reflecting discredit. And it typically in the discourteousness we will find that complaints feel its not what the officer did but how he or she did it. Its the abruptness perhaps the interpretation that the encounter was rude, the failure of an officer to give enough time to explain the situation. In terms of neglect of duty, there are issues where officers have been called to a robbery scene a home thats been burglarized, actually and it may take several hours. And in those particular cases, a complaint may not understand that if there is no active offender onsite, that this call may be reprioritized. So those would fall into a neglect of duty category. When we look at unwarranted action, we have had complaints where bystanders have been asked to move, even though they have every right to stay in a particular place. Either its a demonstration or theres some other activity taking place or theres a vehicle that was been towed without notification, or there was failure to notify the owner that something has been towewd. We had someone report that someone reported their car had been stolen but the information was not put into the system so she was subjected to a a felony stop, which was quite an ordeal, i would say. So there are a variety of different cases. Obviously we do not mediate anything involving injuries, racial slurs or sexual slurs, although i would like to note that throughout the nation, there are agencies that do actually mediate those particular issues. Obviously use of force allegations and questions of law and constitutionality. As i mentioned the real benefit to both is the opportunity to be under and heard. One of the things we want to do in the policeman and this may sound lofty what we want to do in the system is an attitude and behavioral change. And even though it may be incremental to do it in terms of one mediation at a time, we really take a look at those pieces that can help the parties understand one another. One is Restorative Justice. Now, we are certainly not able to give something tangible to something or repair something that has been broken, but Restorative Justice has as much to do with dignity and self respect and the feeling that a complaint really matters to the officer that they come in contact with. In terms of procedural justice, we want to ensure that the mediation is fair, its impartial its conducted by people who understand the issues, and we also want to support a complaints ability to feel empowered. And thats an emotional response where they have the confidence and assurance that they can sit across the table from an officer in uniform and discuss candidly the impact that that action had upon them. And in terms of self determination, that is the ability to make the decision yourself. Nobody is going to impose a decision either upon the officer or upon the complaint. This is a moment when they make the decision, they decide whether or not the meeting has been satisfactory. Obviously theres no specific agreement thats required. Theres no apology thats required theres nothing tangible that exchanges. But what we have found in observation is that as long as people get to express themselves in a very respectful manner if they feel the other party has heard them, there is a high degree of satisfaction. And i have to say that this is one of the things that surprised me is that the officers want the same thing that the complaint does. They want to feel that they are respected. They want to have a sense of dignity about the work that they do. And they want to connect with the complaint and the community as much as the community really does want to connect with the officers. This is very surprising to see toward the end even with the most aggrieved person, someone who comes in who is very, very upset and maybe has a lot of emotion around it they typically will end up saying to the officer i know youve got a big job to do, i know that we need you we need your services, we need your protection we respect you, you can see the need for connection on both parties. And we find that is a kind of transformative moment for them. When we came on board, as i said, in 2008, we were really given direction to improve the process and the procedures of mediation. We wanted to capture more mediations. We wanted there were a certain number of referrals. We wanted to improve the referral process. So weve done that by staying in close contact with the investigators in the sense that we communicate to them our successes, we talk to them about the capacity that we have and we encourage them to review their cases on a weekly basis, especially at intake, to see if there is something that can be referred to us after its gone through the initial determination process. In terms of the personalization and the effectiveness, this is where our coordinate is really extraordinary. We call her the mediator whisperer because she has an ability to talk to a complaint and to uncover not only the obvious complaint but what it is their expectations are what they hope to achieve if they are realistic, and also to help encourage people who may be resistant to mediation. And you can imagine that there are a number of people who are fearful. They are fearful of police retaliation. They are fearful of coming in and that there may be an imbalance of power between an officer and a citizen. They are fearful they wont be able to express themselves. She has an ability to persuade them and explain to them the process. The environment that we provide the support that we would provide. And also our decision to observe all mediations. We have done that because we found it was going to be the only way that we could ensure quality mediations, that we could ensure that the mediators were meeting the standards, the high standards for Quality Services that we could look at trends, and that we could ensure procedural justice for both parties. And as a result, we have been able to get more people to agree to mediation than we have in the first year that we were doing this. Weve also developed some other efficiencies and what we think is more effective for some people and that is telephone mediations. There are oftentimes people who have come to San Francisco they may live in the east bay maybe they are traveling out of town, and we have been able to arrange several mediations by telephone. And those prove very satisfactory with mediators coming to our Office Officers in our office and conducting mediation through the telephone. We would like to do this through a video at some point. But at this particular time i dont think that we have plans to do that. We need you to wrap this up please. Okay. The last thing i want to talk about is how we are measuring success. We are measuring it in two indices. One is the process. Is the process fair . The outcome, is the outcome longlasting. Out come is important in terms of satisfaction and we have a 98 percent satisfaction rate. Weve also been able to increase our mediations from 23 from the first year to we will end up the year with about 35 to 36 mediations and a capture rate of about 50 percent. The National Average is 30 percent. Okay. Thank you. I spend my days as an arbitrator and mediator and in a good year i have about a 90 percent success rate. So i need some tips for you folks. Not right now. But when you say a 98 percent success rate, what does that mean . Well, there are two theres a qualitative success rate and quantititive measurement. Because we can observe it, we can determine as we see the process. But we also debrief the officer and the complaint verbally after the mediation. And we also rely upon exit surveys. Exit surveys are a little bit more difficult to gather. People are i think they leave and they just dont come back or dont send them back to us. We dont want them to do it onsite because we dont think thats the appropriate way to get a really good sense of whether somebody has been satisfied. So the 98 percent means both parties were satisfied. Yes. With our exit surveys we have not had any either officer or complaint say they were not satisfied. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner mazzucco. Thank you very much. Ive always been a big proponent and fan of the mediation process with the dpa. Its worked miracles. And i think all the reviews ive heard throughout the years is both parties do walk away with an understanding. Its great for our officers to learn about what people feel about their interactions. The example i always give is that people dont understand that Police Officers first level use of force is their voice. And then they look at hands and all the Different Things to do. When they explain to the individual we do this because of officer safety. I think its great. And i think for the public to understand that and the officers to understand how people feel. Obviously more experienced officers are better at dealing with people because theyve learned how to deal with people and how they impact them. So again Great Program great work really appreciate it. And thank you. This was a great presentation and 98 percent success rate is incredible. In fact im urging the d. B. A. And the parties to one of the cases i have because i think we would solve the matter. Weve had great cooperation with chief scott who made it possible for us to go to all the precincts to deliver our address and to have other outreach efforts to explain to officers what the benefits of mediation are. Okay. Thank you. Director henderson. I want i wanted to thank you again for the presentation and talk about what a big deal it was to transition beyond the coordination of mediation to translate that into bringing all the mediators in making sure beyond just getting them assigned to the cases that they were all getting the same or similar training to understand exactly what we were trying to do to make sure that we were being as vigilant as we could about maintaining objectivity in the mediations to get done what we think is appropriate. And also to articulate just beyond the numbers of what the measurements were of satisfaction it really is the program that people get the most out of from communities, because they get a chance to actually communicate. And its our most transparent process for them to really understand what happened to them and why and to talk about that with a real individual who in their minds is accountable for what happened to them and they are able to talk about that. And to thank the mediators that volume tire their time and the one who came tonight who have been a part of maintaining this process with us. Thank you. Thank you all. Its a tough job. They know what its like to be volunteer. Im going to i would like to take something out of order next. Im going to ask the Youth Commission if they have a presentation to make. Its going to be line item 2d, Youth Commissioners report. Good evening. Hi there. How are you all . Good. How are you . Im fine. Thank you. So some things im supposed to bring up. The pamphlet which i hear he says hes going to come to the Youth Commission to work on. So thats what i was going to come talk about. But since thats going to happen then well see how that goes. Ideally we would want one universal type thing that we can get out there and hopefully incorporate some training in it with young people so they can kind of grasp all the material. The other thing that they wanted me to bring up is sro relationships and what that looks like. From our understanding, the meeting with Yolanda Williams i think shes a lieutenant from the chief is nodding so shes probably a lieutenant. We hear that s. R. O. S havent had specific training regarding being in schools and working with young people. And our request would be that that happens pretty quickly especially because theyre already in schools. And also that theres some sort of Relationship Building built into their rounds at school, because we think that is still very important that young people have a relationship with their neighborhood officers as opposed to just seeing them when something bad happens. Thank you. Do you know about the training the sros go through, if any . Commissioner, there is training. We are in the process also of renegotiating our mou with the School District on that. So some of that also is in discussions about being in mou about what the training requirements are. But there is some training with the sro. They had to go through once they become sros. And does the district have input into what the training should look like . Or is that coming from the department . What are you negotiating . Its not the department training. And the discussions now with the mou negotiations include what that training should look like and how often. So i dont know what the final product will be, but thats on the table right now. Okay. Anything else . No thats it okay. Commissioner elias. Maybe i got this wrong but i wanted to ask you i thought you said that the Youth Commission had seen the pamp