Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Govt Audits And Oversight Committe

SFGTV BOS Govt Audits And Oversight Committee 12116 January 24, 2016

Apartment. Officers need direction to tell them what theyre going to do. And when they should do it, who should be doing what. Who should be protecting the scene. Those are all things we expect of our sergeants. We also expect this from the officers to maintain that scene prior to the supervisor ryan arriving on scene. Another tactic is deescalation and communication. The negotiations, questions versus commands. When officers arrived to the scene the first question with a first command should not be, talked the night. One of the question should be why you have a knife. What is your name . What can i do to help you . We dont want to hurt you. So, changing the training from commands to questions, especially when youre engaging someone with a Mental Health crisis, many times the protecting themselves with a knife because theyre fearful of someone attacking them. Not the police, but for protecting themselves. So when officers asked the question what you have a knife in they see because im protecting myself because of whatever is going on in the mind, that gives the officer perspective, okay, that person is not here to hurt me. Theres Something Else going on. So those are changes that were going to. In our realistic scenariobased training is asked questions. The last thing is the Critical National decisionmaking model that they use in the uk. We do most of that already were we gather information to assess the situation and assess the risk and assess the front. What policies him a what tools do we have. What we need to emphasize is sanctity of life in that decisionmaking model. Should that life had been taken . What else could we have done . How else have we can be escalated the situation to resolve this window force has to be used and that everybody gets to go home and the person in crisis, the person who is the focus of our attention gets the help that they need. That is a shift where we focus on the sanctity of life. So, the holistic approach the policy, training, and development of the officers so that they have the heart and mind to do the right thing going back to valuebased policing. We dont need 500 pages of something to tell person was the right thing to do and thats the message we tell the recruits. We know you know the right thing to do. You dont need books to tell you the right thing to do because human nature and ethics in your moral compass will tell you what the right thing to do is. Thank you very much thank you. Well have to move this a little bit along. Lieut. Melia what you have to add . [inaudible] we will hear from the community. [inaudible] you have an opportunity. In a twominute interval. The molina would you be brief i appreciate it. On the officer in charge of behavioral otto. Also accorded her for the office otto. A brief history of it, we have a program modeled after the program the Police Commission [inaudible] we have been implementing training everson. We trained about 300 new officers as of today. As of tomorrow night wouldve had 39 more officers. Thats a class that graduated last friday. Would have 342 officers on the streets of San Francisco that have received the training. The training is very comprehensive. [inaudible]. To talk about the neighborhood culture and officers about fences between the Police Department and the community. So, we have a conference of program. We have a communitybased program. We have people fromwith experts in the brain. The first day is devoted to how the brain works. Developing. We talked about diagnoses. We talked about behavior. This is very important to address the behavior of the person. I dont expect our officers to go in diagnoses the bonuses, but i expect them to recognize behavior attached to a persons. So thats the first day. The second day we concentrate on the juvenile brain development. Various trauma. This again areas. How about a fact that young person as he becomes an adult. [inaudible] please officers can take under consideration when doing with that person. We also have scenarios. Specific to that type of behavior. We do a Suicide Prevention. A twohour block. Thats conducted by San Francisco Suicide Prevention organization. It talks about how to identify key triggers in a person thats thinking about suicide. We have speakers fromcoming members [inaudible] we also solve. Panel speakers that speak about issues with the Police Department. [inaudible]. Provided to the training to the officers but i think the most important thing they can take away from the cfd is it communitybased. I attended the first meeting in washington dc and what i washington dc and what itook abouwith that San Francisco is unique about how is carried up your we have a working group. We be San Francisco we have occ. We have an array of services and advocates and consumers that take part of that. So, its not just one persons decision. Its not the Police Departments decision. But whats being taught to our officers but in fact, its a community model. , true believer ought not. In order for a program to work we have to be done by the community and Police Department. So, we have classes coming up as the captain said before, where training our recruits. Right now we have a class going on. We emphasize the training to be a way [inaudible] and the reason behind because i dont want my officers to be distracted by radio cars, by silences or anything going on. So i want to take them away from the Police Environment and put them in a quiet place and learn about mental wellness. I think what we have is to coach it. You have the lawenforcement culture and you have the Mental Illness culture and we have to marry the two cultures so we can work together. When we talk about Law Enforcement, we told officers to show command presently we train officers to be commanders. Predominate, put down the weapon. If that person, for whatever reason does not respond to that, we are allowed to escalate the use of force. Verbal persuasion, physical constraint and so forth. It doesnt have to [inaudible]. We have to assess every time. When you talk about , if the officer does not get a response, from a particular person, he will assume the person is not complying with this office so the use of force is escalated. When you talk about the Mental Health culture, its a little bit different. Were trained to go up there, assess the environment. What is causing this person to act this way date because one of the triggers that causing the person to do what theyre doing . And address the environment. Historically, it shows Police Officers will get involved in shootings with the first minute they arrive we need to please wrap up. Just a few more minutes. Please, hurry so the idea that window of opportunity. I want my officers to slow down, create distance, and that will give them time. So thats the message i have. We are doingi was glad to hear the attorney was talkative and things that the department is recommending. We are doing that. Last week, i was able to meet with the director of the department of justice about how we can assist us in getting money. Thank you so much thank you very much. In the essence of time, i want to recognize supervisors become post is that some compost. Supervisor campos. Im still not sure why that she does not here and i appreciate the captain and the tenant resenting but i think this kind of discussion really acquires the head of the department to engage with the elected body and the community. You know, i have a question for the chief and since he is not here we have the ranking captain. Theres a lot of talk coming out of the Police Department and i have to ask you this question because i really feel that nothing will happen in terms of changing the relationship between community and this Police Department unless you actually address and handle some of these incidents properly. For all the talk about training, one of the thingswhat i found the most disturbing about the mariel woods case is the fact that the Police Officers are still on the payroll of the Police Department and so, you talk about the sanctity of life. How does it it advanced the sanctity of life that these officers are still on the payroll of San Francisco pd after what happened and the videos that we saw . [applause] i dont know if you could give me a response but thats what i want to ask the chief. Im sorry i understand your question. I understand where youre coming from but i cant answer that question as the decision thats the problem. You have is the analogy of a ship going down and you have captain of the ship rearranging the furniture. Youre not doing anything to address the underlying problem. With the training on Mental Health, i mean, even if you take what youre saying at face value, 342 officers, that means 80 of the officers in the department are not getting that training. Eight out of the 10 officers interacting with folks out there on not getting that training. Theres a lot of issues here. I just wanted to ask a question because i think that how we handle the case of these officers sends a message and i think the message right now is to is a horrible message that actually negates all the positive things that youre saying and doing. So long as these officers are getting paid i think that youve got to continue to have a problem and i think it is wrong could i would ask, not only the chief to reconsider, but i would ask the mayor, since he is the chief executive of the city to step in and say, i know the Police Commission doesnt have control over that. I know they couldnt wait in on that but the mayor and the chief should not be okay with these officers being on the payroll right now. [applause] i will add, im also concerned that there has been a part or not an official position of sfpd but the Police Officers Association Going around in the way they talk about this case, it almost looks like the police of him and doesnt want to take the kind of action that supervisor campos wants to take because theyre afraid of the poa. These are all nice words about recommendations that they want to do, but until the community has a sense that there are consequences for the use of force, even the use of force that maybe can be justified, unless there are consequences, theres going to be huge sense of impunity that officers face. I understand. As these issues are being discussed it doesnt sway me from continuing the pursuit pursuit under my sphere of influence with trying to build the trust with the community through the recruits and provide them with a Solid Foundation can i understand your concerns. However, at the same time im in my swimming lane and try and do the best i can to get the best Police Officers for the city that they deserve. I think the one that concerns me about the policewoman it seems his reaction. People in crying out and been hurt and killed for years to past. Its only now, this one incident that the Police Department has shown any kind of consideration to make any kind of changes. To me, this seems very retroactive it doesnt seem very genuine or reveal all or a desire to begin to implement these changes. The Mayors Office is a thing, late to the party as well in incrementing changes, ordering what are those things called, shields. We need to be on the proactive side not reacting. We need to be doing more. We been asking for community the african report to be a moment that for years. Its incredibly fresh mint which are seen on the news on streets certain level of frustration at people when asking for this for a long time and now youre just coming to the table. Why be quick because increased pressure. Because there is a video. Because theres mounting documentation and that was frustrating that people have just reached their level their breaking point, and that is the expression of your scene that are stopping traffic, that are protesting and just same timeout. Enough is enough. Present breed has a few remarks. I think will give her a chance to speak actually, yes. I really want to get to Public Comment. I know theres a lot of information that has been provided and id like to echo the comments of supervisor breed. I think what were experiencing here is, sadly, growing up in my neighborhood, Police Brutality was it happened way too often. With a new Agent Technology and video, all of a sudden, other folks outside of these communities are seen whats happening and we cant continue with business as usual. We have to make changes and we have to be proactive about those changes and we can put our guard up and say, well this is training. This is how its done. This is what were trying to do change it. We just have to do. We have to figure out a better way. The promise weight may not be the best way to do. Because, i think from my perspective, as someone who is isaac grew up in this community i feel theres a real cultural disconnect because often im, i think sometimes you look at, or the department looks at may be specifically the Africanamerican Community, and especially if you grew up in an Africanamerican Community with his poverty, weathers despair, weathers frustration, sometimes the communication and how someone is communicating or how someone feels is not about being violence were attacking the police. Sometimes it something you mentioned in your comment. Sometimes its about their own frustration. We dont have the luxury to have officers who work at the department who are scared of our communities who dont understand our communities, were not going to know who the people are in our community to figure out how they can best serve that community. Just the video and seen like, how it happens in the situation, it just was heartbreaking to me because i felt that apartment should know better and they shouldve had a better response, but instead it was a response that just was not something i think the departmentits not a way i feel that apartment should be responding to a situation like that. Its really frustrating and i think thats what were experienced. All the stuff now, we have video. We have all the stuff that is put out there and it just bringing to light, sadly, something ive seen far too long in my community. I want to make sure that we are going to make some changes and make some significant changes. So, with that thank you supervisor cohen id love to hear some comments from the public will go to Public Comments. Thank you, capt. [calling names]. Please come up to the podium. Remember, your 2 min. Youll hear a soft chime indicating 30 seconds time remain. Thank you, supervise. Thank you supervisor cohen for calling this hearing. A lot of good information and yes it was all implemented it really might make a difference. The idea of being on the scene for 2 min. Before you shoot somebody, what a concept. Maybe even not shoot them. It could happen. Weve got to make these changes. 30 odd People Killed in San Francisco by police. Thats too many people, too many of our brothers and sisters are being killed, too many children are being killed. So, training the recruits is one thing but theres got to be some massive changes among the regular force. I know you have the goal, obviously the Oversight Committee has that goal but it has not happened. How are we going to make it happen now . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for holding this hearing. John avalos spoke at the justice fourthis program la has the calls crisis intervention people not Police Officers to come first. We need to have that. Also, with we want have a sanctity of life. For one month the Police Officers disarm when theyre out on patrol and only call in weapons, backup, when they need it. England did use arms for a long time. Also, in any lopezs gaze in Sonoma County the 13yearold killed carrying a gun, the judges will today that she saw no threat to those officer. That content on a 13yearold kid with a toy gun. Also, we need best for the ptsd test good rehabilitation. And if theres been rebutted that become part of the force not before. They need to earn the name peace officer. We need compassion, metrodome this is not being treated like it did in the past they can say we were defending ourselves and other videos are stopping that policy. 4 5 Police Commissioner told us that were training crisis intervention. That killed marielle. How could that be . Wasnt any discoloration attempt did we want to know who fired the first shot speak of was that the rookie that was not trained . We need to know this information. Parents are calling the police and the children are being called. Im a mother and grandmother. Thank you so much for caring and they do so much for really getting into this this i feel like were finally, finally getting somewhere in making Police Officers not cops and killers. Thank you. [calling names] good afternoon, supervise. Thank you for holding this hearing. Its with great sense of sadness and also the sense of shame that ive come to realize the sfpd is a very typical Police Department. Like baltimore, like los angeles, but chicago, is a devastating Occupying Army in communities of color. Im cautiously, very cautiously optimistic, however the sfpd can and may even will change and lead the way. By cameras, the software

© 2025 Vimarsana