Captain Liza Johansen is taking over the helm at Mission police station, and replaced Captain Thomas Harvey earlier this month to oversee the Mission District, Castro, and parts of Noe Valley, she announced at a community meeting on Tuesday night.
“I’m coming in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. But I’m not delusional,” said Johansen, who led her first such meeting at Mission Station after taking over the police district on August 17.
The Mission is one of the city’s most well-staffed police districts, but Johansen is inheriting a bevy of ongoing issues that recent captains have struggled to address, such as illegal vending at the BART plazas, sideshows and prostitution.
Police resources have been funneled towards all those problems, with intermittent success.
And as Johansen wrapped up her first week, hundreds of dirt bikers roamed the streets of the city and landed in the Mission on Sunday evening, where they blocked the intersection of 23rd and Valencia streets for hours, and police appeared unable to disperse them effectively.
It was the dirt bikers that were top of mind for some attendees of Tuesday’s meeting. When one resident asked about using cameras to observe bikers who often congregate near his home, Johansen said she is on the job.
“I’m a big fan of surveillance and undercover operations,” Johansen said. “I have someone assigned to getting intel.”
The new captain said she has assigned someone to compile the violent crime related to the weekend’s incident, so she can approach the issue more effectively. Police told Mission Local yesterday that drones were used to observe the bikers over the weekend, and that such footage can be used to later make arrests.
In response to another question about foot patrols, Johansen also said that she recently got overtime approved for officers to patrol the Mission Street corridor and plazas between 16th and 24th streets, where vending activities have proliferated between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Johansen is the second woman atop Mission Station in recent history, after Rachel Moran held the spot from February to November of 2021; Moran, now a police commander, was believed to be the first woman to lead the police district.
The station has seen captains come and go over the course of the pandemic, with Moran remaining only some nine months, and the longest term being now-Commander Gaetano Caltagirone, who oversaw the station for three and a half years before leaving in February 2021.
Johansen told attendees of Tuesday’s meeting that she grew up in the Mission at 25th and San Bruno streets. She said she worked in the Special Victims Unit and as captain of the Airport Bureau, and was an officer at Mission Station and lieutenant there from 2019 to 2022.
“I really, really care,” Johansen said, promising to meet with people and take a month or two to get a sense of the district. “I thank you for your patience, and I feel your frustration.”
Johansen promised to come up with a “project list” of issues to address, to keep herself accountable and to provide context to the next captain.
On hearing this, Manny Yekutiel, the head of the Valencia Merchants’ Association and owner of Manny’s, asked Johansen to “make a commitment” to stay longer than her predecessors.
“It’s hard on the community; it’s hard to develop trust,” Yekutiel said. “We need a captain who’s gonna stick around.”
Johansen, for her part, said she doesn’t have control over her assignment; this is her third assignment as captain, and she told Mission Local that she found out about her transfer to Mission Station just two days before it happened.
“I couldn’t tell you if I’m going to be a cop a year from now,” Johansen said, noting she just sent her children to college. “I might be in a different country in six months from now. I don’t know.”
But, she said, “the Mission District has my heart and soul.”
Harvey, the outgoing captain, stayed just 16 months. His tenure was, in part, marked by the mass arrest of teenagers during the 2023 Dolores Park hill bomb, for which he and other police brass are being sued in a civil rights case.
Mission Street itself is a feast of traffic calming measures. Bus only lane. Forced right turns at Cesar Chavez and 20th. No left turn signs all over the place.
Tell me when you see anyone obeying any of those.
Maybe the officers of Mission Station could be assigned to protect the pedestrians of the Mission with the tiniest amount of traffic enforcement.
Okay that was kind of wild: “I might be in a different country in six months from now. I don’t know.” Who can say? Aliens might invade and institute a world police force ala “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and the robot Gort. It doesn’t really inspire much confidence.
How does the rollover rate of Mission station captains compare to other precincts? 5 in 4 years seems rather high.
Not so long ago it seemed that Captains were appointed to a district station for an approximate two year rotation period. Even then the complaints were that two years just wasn’t long enough for a community and Captain to get to know each other well. I would recommend appointments of at least three years (still dependent on department needs, promotions and retirements). Three years seems appropriate.
I’d heard that SFPD was aiming for a 3 yr rotation of ascending brass as captains of district stations. This serves the institutional interests of the SFPD and SFPOA at the expense of SF neighborhoods.
These city staffers, SFPD, SFDPW, DHSH, MOEWD come and go in the blink of an eye to the long term residents. Yet they get all high and mighty while doing public engagement on how simple and ignorant we are, tone policing our outrage at being told to repeatedly “kick the football” by these municipal Lucys while nothing changes.
How do you keep retain officers? Any rank higher than a LT, cut their pension to a normal 2.3 percent because their salaries are double that of an officer. No one will want to promote.
i’ve lived in the Mission for 37 years and this is the worse time so far.Travel to Europe and you would never see the type of behavior which seems tolerated here: people stealing in stores, re-selling across the street, bikers on motorcycles taking over streets and bike lanes, trash on the street, people using sidewalks for mechanics, addicts at each corner,etc ,etc..if people are ok with this, well let’s just say the city did a good job on their brains, making them believed that mediocrity is some kind of quality here.
SFPD continues to amaze. Two days notice of your new (effing MAJOR) new assignment: “Oh, hey – your new gig at Mission Station starts day-after-tomorrow. ‘Nother cuppa coffee?”
🙄 😆
Well, at least she’s “not delusional,” plus she knows the area and seems to have some kind of…plan.
I don’t know this gal, but here’s wishing her all the best of luck. Her predecessor did need to go.