The Mission District police station has a new acting captain, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Lieutenant Manny Bonilla, a department veteran of 30 years, took the helm earlier this week.
Bonilla’s appointment came days after Mission Local reported that Liza Johansen’s tenure as Mission Station’s captain had come to a sudden end last week.
Bonilla now becomes the sixth captain at Mission Station in the last five years.
Before becoming a police officer, Bonilla served for five years in the U.S. Marine Corps as a landing support specialist from 1989 to 1994. He then joined the force in 1995 and worked as a patrol officer for 12 years. He served as a sergeant in the department’s Metro Division for two years, a sergeant K-9 specialist for nearly 12 years, and a lieutenant for nearly four years.
It is unclear if Bonilla is permanent or interim captain. The department responded to a request for comment with a one-line answer: “At this time the Mission Station Captain is Acting Captain Lt. Manny Bonilla.”
Johansen left the top spot after just 10 months on the job. She spearheaded the installation of a police mobile command unit at the 16th Street BART Plaza after Mayor Daniel Lurie visited the area, demanding change to street conditions. The ramped-up police presence has been middlingly successful, clearing out the immediate area of drug users and street vendors, but having a marginal impact on the nearby alleyways.
District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder and community members bemoaned Johansen’s departure, saying she was making inroads into the Mission community and had fostered a lot of trust.
“This is a huge loss for us in the Mission,” Fielder wrote earlier this week.
The department, for its part, said it will “continue to work with the community to make sure the public is safe in the Mission Police District and other districts.”
Is it possible to publish some analysis or background information or something relating to the extremely frequent turnover in this position? It seems weird and fishy but I’m completely lost as to possible reasons (or, attempting to be fair, why it’s not weird). Thanks in advance for any helpful reporting and writing.
Oscar,
This guy (Bonnilla) is on the Brady List which is reserved for cops with a history that would make them a poor risk as a trial witness.
Don’t know how he got there but cops like this are generally fired or put on some kind of duty that would keep them out of range of citizen complaints.
For last decade or so he’s worked with K-9 unit and in Public Relations within the department and did Dignitary Protection on occasion.
So, the department refused to talk to what is arguably, the Mission District’s news source of record ?
Whose idea was it to give him this job ?
“I got a bad feeling about this one, Vern.”
go Niners !!
h.
No mention of where or why Johansen was transferred. Where did the department place her? An unwritten old rule of thumb seemingly was that a Captain lasted for about 2 years at the assignment. That certainly isn’t the case at Mission Station
Replacing a home girl with a Marine shows exactly what they think about The Mission.
The Northern is still without a Captain?
Tenderloin and others flip Captains like pancakes ?
It appears many take the role just before they retire?
Maybe something to do with pension pay?
Jpq, h brown, & marcos
Amazing how people who have never done the job are all experts. All these keyboard warriors are clearly more qualified to be the captain at Mission station- obviously.