SF Panel Reports on 'Policing the Police'

City residents must push for new laws to independently monitor the San Francisco Police Department, a retired judge told a standing-room-only audience of over 800 people during a panel on "Policing the Police" held at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church August 1.

The panel, co-hosted by the Commonwealth Club, was held in the wake of a blistering report on the SFPD and police accountability issued last month.

The Blue Ribbon Panel on Transparency, Accountability, and Fairness in Law Enforcement issued that report. It was established by San Francisco District Attorney George Gasc�n as an advisory body in May 2015, following revelations that 14 police officers had exchanged racist and homophobic text messages. The panel, made up of three retired judges, issued its recommendations and described their investigation into the Police Department's use of force, stops, searches and arrests, personnel practices, culture, internal discipline, and external oversight.

Judge LaDoris Cordell, a blue ribbon panel member, retired Santa Clara County Superior Court judge, and former independent police auditor in San Jose, said Monday that public discourse is important but "we need more than a change in hearts and minds. We need a change in the law."

Cordell, a lesbian, suggested that San Francisco consider establishing an independent inspector general office to oversee complaints related to the Police Department. She warned against adopting volunteer review boards, which "often are ineffective" because the members have to serve on their own free time, making it difficult to get a quorum.

The great majority of the nation's 18,000 police departments do not have independent oversight to review complaints, she added.

"We now understand it is unacceptable to have the police police themselves," she said.

Cordell also criticized the California Peace Officers Bill of Rights, which she said results in "very little sunshine" in the investigation of police misconduct. Under the bill of rights, citizens are unable to see, for example, if an officer has had prior complaints or what discipline an officer was given in misconduct cases. Citizens are also not given access to footage recorded by body cameras, she said.

"Juries tend to believe police officers" testimony in court, she added. "The system is stacked against defendants."

Gasc�n, also a panelist Monday night, described the issues he encountered during his career with the Los Angeles Police Department. He also served as San Francisco's police chief before being appointed DA.

Gasc�n said he "learned early" in his career that many citizens "just don't trust the police," he said. While Gasc-n believes most police officers are honest, the misconduct of a few "has a large impression" on the public, he noted.

Recently publicized problems of police using excessive force and targeting minorities "aren't new," he said, "but now we have cameras," which have given visibility to the issue.

Still, said Gasc�n, when the racist and homophobic messages were discovered, "I was completely taken by surprise," he said.

Gasc�n said he realized the problem must have been more widespread than it appeared initially.

"It couldn't have been limited to just 14 officers" initially identified, he said. "And when we tried to investigate, we ran into a lot of walls." In addition to the problem of racism within the department, the texts brought into question the district attorney's reliance on police officers providing testimony for cases they were prosecuting.

Adoption of the blue ribbon panel's recommendations, said Gasc�n, could prevent similar situations from happening in the future.

Panelist Van Jones, a political activist, said he realized as a Yale law student that police were targeting minorities. "I'd never seen so much felonious activity" on the Yale campus, he said.

"But police would drive past us to the housing projects to arrest those kids, who were doing fewer drugs," he said.

Jones, who comes from a family with a number of police officers, said there must be "consequences" for officers who violate rules on the job. Frequently, he said, those who do violate rules are not fired or demoted because of the "culture of corruption" in police departments across the nation.

Organizers had invited a representative from the SFPD but it declined. About halfway through the evening, a cop in the audience identified himself. He was invited to join the panelists on stage and did, but didn't say much.

To read the blue ribbon panel's report, go to http://sfdistrictattorney.org/sites/default/files/Document/BRP_report.pdf