San Francisco police commissioners continued a delicate dance of policy adjustments on Wednesday night, voting on two measures regarding pat searches during police detentions and data on car chases.
The two policies were being brought into compliance with Proposition E, Mayor London Breed’s measure that passed in March, which called for a number of changes viewed by advocates of police reform as diminishing the power of the Police Commission.
A new revision proposed by the police chief to the Investigative Detentions policy, which passed in a 6-1 vote Wednesday, will no longer require police officers to write an incident report after a pat search, raising concerns among some commissioners.
Now, officers can speak into their body-worn cameras to detail the detentions and pat searches. If the officer determines that turning on their camera would compromise safety, they can leave the camera off and simply document their reasoning for doing so.
Police Commission President Cindy Elias said that, while she disagreed with the change when it came to pat searches, it wasn’t “the hill to die on.”
“To be clear, I think pat searches are very intrusive. It’s a violation of your civil rights. It’s an intrusion on your constitutional rights,” Elias said. “And I think that it’s extremely serious, I think we have a problem with pat searches in this department.”
She noted that SFPD data shows people of color are more frequently searched and officers do not often discover contraband during those searches.
What’s more, both Elias and Commissioner Kevin Benedicto were concerned that relying on body-worn camera footage that may later require revision could possibly add to the reporting burden that Proposition E is meant to relieve.
Investigative Detentions policy: PASSED
For (6): Cindy Elias, Larry Yee, Jesús Gabriel Yáñez, Kevin Benedicto, Debra Walker, C. Don Clay
Against (1): Max Carter-Oberstone
“According to the body-worn camera footage unit, they get four to five requests a day … and I anticipate that that will increase once we move towards making everything on body-worn camera,” Elias said. She said she was told it takes three to five minutes to redact one minute of footage, and that redacting one 21-minute video took the unit eight hours.
Proposition E authorizes officers to use body-worn cameras as a means of record-keeping and complying with reporting requirements, so as to “maximize the time that officers can spend performing their core law enforcement and crime prevention functions, as opposed to administrative tasks.”
Max Carter-Oberstone, the sole dissenting vote on this issue, said he did not believe Proposition E outright required the change regarding pat searches, but all of his fellow commissioners voted to approve the change.
Commissioner C. Don Clay, Breed’s newest appointment to the board, compared his fellow commissioners’ arguments to those made by southern states when the Voting Rights Act was passed to ensure access to the ballot for racial minorities.
“They went about every way to try to say, ‘this is not right.’ And it got contested,” Clay said of the South fighting suffrage rights. “We’ve been given a mandate. We’ll do it; if it doesn’t work, we’re going to come back. But we’ve got to move on.”
The police commission also debated whether arrest data should be included in the annual report on police vehicle chases required by Proposition E.
While Proposition E requires annual reporting to the commission of various data collected on car chases, it leaves out arrest data. It calls, however, for the commission and the police “to streamline reporting and record-keeping procedures,” and the police already send chase data, including arrest data, to the state under Senate Bill 719.
The addition of arrest data to the yearly report, proposed last week by Carter-Oberstone and supported by Elias and Benedicto, raised concerns among mayoral appointees Clay, Debra Walker and Larry Yee.
For now, where the commission’s authority to set policy stands has yet to be determined. Among other new requirements, it must follow Proposition E, and the commissioners must obtain community input before making any policy changes.
Walker, who opposed the addition of arrest data, asked deputy city attorney Alicia Cabrera before the vote for advice on whether the change should be made.
She punted: “That, I leave up to the commission,” Cabrera said.
Pursuit Driving policy: PASSED
For (5): Cindy Elias, Max Carter-Oberstone, Jesús Gabriel Yáñez, Kevin Benedicto, C. Don Clay
Against (2): Larry Yee, Debra Walker
Glad to hear this. The police commission was out of control in its support for criminals and was making San Francisco less safe. We voted for Prop E in large part to take away the commission’s power over our lives. Glad to see it’s working.
“If the officer determines that turning on their camera would compromise safety, they can leave the camera off and simply document their reasoning.”
So much for ANY police accountability on the street.
Wonderful progress! All of us who volunteered for and voted for Prop E are seeing how we can make a difference for all San Franciscans. No member should be allowed on the Police Commission if he has ever favored criminals over victims, peace officers, and other San Franciscans. We MUST remove any bureaucracy that limits the ability of the SFPD, our most important public servants, to protect us from criminals, especially vagrants and other drug tourists or those who block sidewalks in our City.
Campers,
This was the Commission’s last meeting til September so we won’t have this kind of an organized Forum meeting weekly as a window into SFPD for 10 weeks and will have to get our news through gossip and rumor kinda like in everything in life.
Lenin said:
“I read the Capitalist media and try to find some truth by comparing the lies.”
Harari said:
“You are not the voice of the mind.
You are the one who hears it.”
h.
Crazy that this allegedly important commission can take that much time off. If I am correct they just had several weeks recently where they did not meet. Maybe they are not important as they think they are
Krupke,
It’s not the commissioners it’s the Mayor engineering things like 3 of her commissioners calling in sick at the same time denying a quorum of 4 if one of the new Progressive majority bails.
The cops have often said that they want NO Civilian Oversight and London is accommodating them as this is an election year.