Evening. Hi im gonna stand here. Okay good evening. Id like to thank the Police Commission. The chief of police and the public for taking the time to recognize the outstanding work that the San FranciscoPolice Department investigated do. And im especially glad to be here this evening to recognize as one of my very own investigators, Sergeant Nick joel, for his exceptional job. He does day in and day out. But more specifically, on a recent case that i will highlight this evening. First, let me introduce myself. My name is alexa obrien. Im the captain for the Investigation Bureau special victims unit. And were honoring Sergeant Joel this week with a little bit about Sergeant Joel. Hes originally from london, england, but has been living in the us since 2001. Before joining our Police Department in 2012, he worked for the los angeles Police Department for five years. Like our chief in 2018, he was promoted to sergeant and was put to work as an svu investing for almost six years. Later, here we are. Sergeant joel still works for svu as one of our more senior investigators. When Sergeant Joel is not at work or busy working his cases or on call, he likes to enjoy time with his wife and two kids, a boy and a girl who are sitting in the back. With us tonight. Right. I think the image many people have of Domestic Violence is a woman who has been physically beaten by her partner. But Domestic Violence in the work that goes into the special victims unit and encompasses a wide variety of crimes, it includes rape, Sexual Assault, robbery at dated assault, simple assaults are committed by intimate partners or immediate family members, even strangers and victims can be men, women, children, people with disabilities or the elderly that is why this recent case that Sergeant Joel worked at and was involved with struck such a chord with our entire unit in the Early Morning hours of september 13th, 2023, Sergeant Joel and his partner were told that there was a home invasion, Sexual Assault of an elderly victim who was 95 years old. It occurred in the ingleside district on naples street. Sergeant joel hall and his partner responded to the scene where the officers advised Sergeant Joel that the suspect possibly gained entry from the rear of the home into the victims unit by forcibly prying their way in on Sergeant Joel learned that the victim was sleeping when she heard a noise that woke her up. The victim stated that an unknown male entered her unit, pulled, placed something over her head and sexually assaulted her. The victim was severely injured and had significant trauma because of this assault, the victim was transported to sf where she received medical treatment and met with the person who is the Sexual AssaultResponse Team member. And a Sexual Assault kit was collected and submitted to the crime lab Sergeant Joel spent hours writing search warrants for the property and the entire crime scene, which was processed for biological and latent prints. Sarge joel also had the wherewithal to have the crime lab expedite this Sexual Assault kit in order to establish foreign dna and a possible and hopefully a possible codis hit. Were happy to say that less than two weeks later, our amazing sfpd crime lab notified us that there was a full foreign dna profile obtained and they were going to run it through the codis system. A short time later, the crime Lab Confirmed there was a codis hit. Sergeant joel and his team obtained the suspect s identity, who results in being a neighbor to the victim. Um. Sergeant joel organized surveillance in order to take that suspect into custody and shortly thereafter, they spotted him coming out of his home and took him into custody without any further incident. So Sergeant Joel and his team members conducted an interview of the suspect under miranda where he confessed to the assault and even admitted that he stole items from this victims home. Thankfully, no one else was harmed by this assailant, and he remains in custody. Sergeant joel, your hard work and dedication is an example to everyone on our team. Thank you for being the very best at everything you do. You personally. Its a great relief for any leader to have a team member who manages manages himself the way Sergeant Joel does. Your efforts are deeply, deeply appreciated. And id like to also just bring to the attention of the commission that it is Domestic Violence awareness month. So we really do appreciate it highlighting this case for us. But Sergeant Joel, wed like to present you with this award on behalf of the commission and the Police Department for your service. Commission chief, i just want to say a few words real quick. Im honored and i thank you for your time and recognizing not just myself, but also our unit as well. This was a Great Team Effort from patrol that initially responded to the scene, to the crime scene investigators that processed it and to the Crime Lab Techs that produced the evidence that we needed to move this case forward , supported by captain our lieutenants. We had the resources that we needed and im proud that it was actually our svu team members, my peers that were able to take the suspect into custody and along with the assistance of my partner and my mentor, we were able to get that confession as well. So no. 24 over seven, 365 days a year. We are always on call to respond out to some of the most horrific , violent incidences in the city , proud that were able to get justice for this victim and her family. And San Francisco is a whole lot more safer for it. So thank you. I think, sergeant, i just want to thank you so much for your service to the city. The facts of this particular case are obviously harrowing and your actions were nothing short of heroic. So thank you so much for that. Were very lucky to have people like you who react under these distressing circumstances and handle things with such professionalism, both for the victims and the community. I will i will note that the Police Commission very recently updated its policy on evidence collection practices and it hadnt been updated, i think, in well over a decade. So were hoping that that which now takes account for new Dna Technology and other technology logical advancements. Were hoping that that will continue to give you and your team members the tools that you need Going Forward. Chief scott, thank. Thank you. Vice president oversewn Sergeant Joel. Thank you. I dont want to repeat everything thats been said, but i just want to sincerely thank you and thank you to your family. You mentioned something about the rigors of working svu being on call all the time, and i know how difficult that can be. Its also difficult on your family and your kids. So i know your familys here. I want to say to them, thank you all for allowing him to do what he does. And you also very eloquently talked about teamwork and that really speaks highly of you because none of us do this job alone. But for you to really give, give, give thanks and praise to the team that works around you is very commendable as well. So thank you very much for everything that you do. Thank you, chief. Commissioner walker. I would like to also congratulate you, sergeant. The work you do is so important to so many and the work of you, you, your your team work with the unit, the help of the crime lab. This is how we solve these issues. And its really important. So thank you so much for your dedication, for being here, and thank you to the family because we all know how its a sacrifice and we all are aware of that. So this award is for you, too. Thank you. Uh, commissioner benedicto. Thank you. Ill add my congratulations. And also to the family. Thank you for the tremendous work that this unit does. Commissioner walker and i were. We attended the denim day event earlier this year where we got to meet a lot of the of the special victims unit and its a tremendous group of professionals that are doing great work. So thank you. And thank you very much, captain. Sir. Sergeant, could you please take us to Public Comment for any members of the public would like to make Public Comment regarding line item one, please approach the podium. And there is no Public Comment. Line item two general Public Comment at this time. The public is now welcome to address the commission for up to two minutes on items that do not appear on tonights agenda, but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Police Commission under Police Commission. Rules of order during Public Comment. Neither police or epa personnel nor commissioners are required to respond to questions by the public, but may provide a brief response. Alternatively, you may submit Public Comment in either of the following ways. Email the Police Commission at sapd commission at icgov. Org or written comments may be sent via Us Postal Service to the Public Safety building located at 1245 third street, San Francisco, california. 94158. If you would like to make Public Comment, please approach the podium. Go ahead. Go ahead. Good evening. My name is michelle azania and im a 26 year civilian Police Department employee who works for a neighboring agency. Im here tonight to talk to you about missing persons. I had two posters to help, but they were confiscated by the deputies at the front. I had a poster with six children that have autism and were reported missing in 2023. And other states. Five were nonverbal. All of them received media attention. All had an immediate, extensive area search done by police and volunteers. Yet all of them, tragically, were found dead within hours of disappearing. The other poster i had was a young man by the name of knowledge shepherd. Hes only 13 and is a child of San Francisco. His mother reports he has severe autism and is nonverbal. He was reported missing to sfpd on september 15th. Sfpd categorized him as at risk, but did not immediately share any advisory on their multiple social media platforms as they didnt publish a press release until three days later. The news reported that he was safely located on september 18th in an Alameda County medical facility. We since knowledge is nonverbal, he wasnt capable of calling his mother or telling anyone that he was missing and needed help to get back home. We will never really know whether anything bad happened to him during those three days. He was missing, and this is unacceptable. Sfpd has no public alerts policy. A public alerts policy provides guidelines for alerting the public to Important Information and soliciting public aid when appropriate. It includes social media posts, chp alerts and press releases. Sfpd has posted public advisories, including multiple missing persons announcements on nextdoor facebook and instagram for a 33 year old tourist, a 69 year old and 83 year old at risk adult. So why was there nothing for a 13 year old severely autistic nonverbal child . Sfpd has a Media Relations unit with eight employees, including a director of strategic communications, a social marketing and Public Relations representative, and five Public Information officers. But. All right, just two minutes. I waste my time. Im sorry. No, its just two minutes per person. Well, ill be sending you all an email because our policy is very, very old from 1999. It needs to be immediately updated to save childrens and other missing peoples lives. Thank you. I can go. I dont know if youll be able to. Uh good evening, commissioners. I was just going to give my support for sfpd, so im going to do this instead. Um, marketing and Public Relations representative and five Public Information officers. But absolutely nothing was shared with the public or media for three days to help bring knowledge. Shepherd home safely adopting a public alerts policy will ensure that every missing person receives the exposure and attention they deserve. Sfpd missing persons policy department. General order 6. 10 hasnt been updated since 1999 and is only three pages long. The only updated policy that i located, she located is a two page departmental bulletin. 17 086 signed by the current chief , william scott, dated five 519. The commission on peace officer standards and training updated their missing persons guidelines may 2021, pursuant to the penal code. 13519. 07. This manual includes the best standard practices and includes initial investigative steps. The oakland Police Department had a similar situation in 2019. Their missing persons policy was 20 years old. I was she was a volunteer on the Police Commissions missing persons ad hoc committee. And they drafted and approved a new policy in 2021. Their new policy is 12 pages long. If you check you will see that they post every missing person bulletin on their social media platforms and most are quickly located and updating these policies with the current best standard practices is critical. Needs to be a priority and will save lives. And i concur with this statement. Thank you. Youre welcome. Well, thank you. Good evening. Im not here to talk about my son right now, but i will. But i just wanted to make i would still like to use the overhead. I was just talking about the sojourner trip. I took last time. You know, we were talking about Police Violence and Community Violence. And were just looking back on that trip where when we tried to go to school and we couldnt go to schools, we were being beaten at. And i just wanted to bring up to watched. And i was telling you last time about the children being hurt and im pretty sure some of you went on this trip to and then what i saw about was whites only, only two toilets. This is in the history books. And it doesnt make a difference whether its commercial Community Violence or Police Violence. Its all the same. Its still going on to this day. And i still say that we got to look back in order to move forward. If we dont look back at our history, we cannot move forward about whats going on in our lives now with these with these homicides and with the police killings, with the community, violence. If we dont look back. So i think that i would love to go back on this trip again to learn more. This is not in our history books. And we all need most of you. And im pretty sure of you, some of you been here that been to the trip you need to go back. There were Police Officers crying that day. We all came together and comfort each other. Thats what community, violence, community and the Law Enforcement coming together. That needs to happen. If we if we dont see what happened back then, how can we move forward . How can we move forward . It changed me. It changed me. What i can bring back to my healing circle. And two mothers that are losing children. Its not just police community, police, all the same. Thank you. If any members of the public have any information regarding the murder of aubrey abacus, you can call the anonymous 24 7 tip line. At 415 a5754444. Commissioners my name is Janelle Harris and i am a former oakland Police Commissioner. I am here to support taught michelle in regards to the missing persons policy. I also was a member of that ad hoc that helped write that and we are very proud of that. So i would i would ask that you just take a look at it. We did a really good job at working with many stakeholder orders in that here is a picture of noah. That we just wanted you to see to give you a visual. Thank you. To give you a visual. And here is the poster that we want. We were going to bring in, but it was too big. So we just want you to look and its you know, theres no its not by coincidence that all of these children are african american. So you know, i just want to encourage you to just please look at the policies, look at all of your policy years, especially the ones when it comes to safety. Its really, really important. And it does make a difference. We have some things in place in oakland that have really, really made a difference. We find people very quickly and its all over on social media. So the public has been really helpful in finding some of the peopl