Meet the District 9 candidates: Best and worst elements of Prop. E

Jaime Gutierrez

 Transit supervisor for SFMTA/Muni. Tenant.

“The best element of Proposition E is the attempt to put a stop or reduce crime and improve public safety. The worst element of Proposition E has to do with technological oversight and accountability.  The police using the technology have to be free of bias, and should be regulated to the point where persons are not mistakenly accused without hard evidence and real police work. Judiciary oversight is a cornerstone of American democracy and surveillance capabilities by law enforcement are too easily abused. The officers using the technology must be required to obtain a warrant for use in every case.”

Endorsed by: Transportation Workers Union Local 200. More here.

Roberto Hernandez

CEO, Cultura y Arte Nativa de Las Americas (CANA). Homeowner.

“The passage of Prop. E reflects increased citywide support for improving public safety outcomes. I believe it is a positive step forward to reduce administrative requirements in order to allow police officers to spend more time in the community, building trust with our residents.

However, I am still concerned about the impact of increased surveillance and use of car chases on our civil liberties. I am also worried that a weakened Police Commission will lead to decreased community accountability and stalled progress toward completing necessary police reforms.”

Endorsed by: State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Supervisor Myrna Melgar, Supervisor Shamann Walton, State Senator Scott Wiener, BART Director Bevan Dufty. More Here

Michael Petrelis

AIDS and LGBTQ activist

Petrelis declined to respond.

Endorsed by: Not seeking endorsements, and I see much of the Endorsement Industrial Complex as corrupt, rife with payola and favor-trading, and for gotcha responses.

Stephen Torres

Bartender at Twin Peaks Tavern, Customer Service at Flowercraft Nursery and freelance writer. Tenant.

“Prop. E has a number of fundamental flaws. It’s no surprise it was rejected by D9 residents. The worst (among many) is weakening the existing policy on car chases, a policy SFPD said was fine as it was. This will almost certainly lead to more accidents and more deaths.

Theoretically, the community meetings are good, but in practice, unless outreach is robust, they are little more than checking the box. (We’ve seen with bike lanes, poor outreach leads to policy outcomes as bad as no outreach at all).

Elsewhere, it de-prioritizes effective community policing, including regular foot beats, while giving … Read More

Endorsed by: Mark Leno, Former State Senator, Aaron Peskin, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Hillary Ronen, Supervisor, District 9, More here.

Trevor Chandler

Public School Teacher since 2023. Former director of government and public policy at Citizen, a public safety app. Tenant.

“I’m glad that it prioritizes reducing officer time behind a desk to no more than 20%, we need them out in the community walking beats and responding to 911 calls more quickly. I’m also glad it ensures accountability measures remain in place, such as requiring body-cam footage for any use-of-force incident.

I have serious concerns about facial recognition technology, and will be looking to the City Attorney as to whether the city’s previous ban on it overrides what was included in Proposition E. We can maintain our values while also having safe and clean streets.”

Endorsed by: Latino LGBTQ political organization HONOR PAC, State Senator Scott Wiener, Assembly Member Rick Chavez Zbur, Brownie Mary Democratic Club, Supreme Court Marriage Equality Lead Plaintiff Jim Obergefell. More here.

Julian Bermudez

Works in and directs his family business, Rancho Grande Appliance. Tenant.

“In my opinion, the worst is the use of facial-recognition technology without board approval. Facial-recognition technology has constantly proven to have difficulties identifying between people of color accurately as lighter-skinned people. Studies show that facial recognition technology is biased. The error rate for light-skinned men is 0.8%, compared to 34.7% for darker-skinned women, according to a 2018 study titled ‘Gender Shades’ by Joy Buolamwini and Timnit Gebru, published by MIT Media Lab.

“For the better portion of the proposition, based on my knowledge of military surveillance and tracking, the best element is using drones for…Read More

More Here

h brown

Retired special education teacher. Tenant.

“Voter Passage of Prop E brought San Francisco closer to being a Police State.

SFPD’s power was significantly increased while that of their oversight Police Commission was decreased.

I found the legislation’s formula for tying together civilian cameras with those of LE to be particularly fascinating.

As SFPD now is free to add Facial Recognition Capacity to the system, you can run but you can’t hide.

Personally, I love the system, including the drones, which will only get better, and could free cops for Foot Patrols.

Give us an Elected Police Chief to make that happen.”

Jackie Fielder

Nonprofit co-director at Stop the Money Pipeline. Former educator at San Francisco State University, co-founder of the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition. Democratic Socialist. Tenant.

“One reason the SFPOA put Prop E on the ballot, in their words, was to free up officers from doing administrative paperwork to ‘focus their efforts on law enforcement and crime prevention.’  It’s true, we need officers to be out responding to true emergencies and violent crimes unfolding on our streets. But nine out of 10 District 9 residents I’ve spoken to lament that the police we do see out on the streets just drive around in their cars all day, with elusive results for public safety outcomes. We need more effective use of law enforcement resources, and we need to focus on prevention … Read more

Endorsed by: City College Board President Alan Wong, Former D9 Supervisor David Campos, Former Mayor Art Agnos, City College Trustee Vick Chung, D3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin. More here.