2018–07–31 Mission Police Station Community Meeting

League of Women Voters of San Francisco Observer Corps Report

Observer name(s): A. Marseille

Location: Mission Police Station

What meeting did you attend (name of the body, whether it was a regular or special meeting, etc)?

Mission Police District, Regularly Scheduled Community Meeting

Did you attend the whole meeting?

No.

Tell us about public input: Did it happen? How was it conducted? Did it seem adequate?

This meeting was dominated by public input that lasted for nearly the entire evening. It was conducted using a somewhat informal, question/answer and comment/response style.

Tell us about the government: who was there? Were they attentive? Were they prepared? Were they courteous with each other and the public?

Captain Caltagirone led the meeting and was supported at times by two other officers: Chris Canning, an investigator, and Sgt. Cole, who works with the Homeless Outreach Division. All of the officers were professional and respectful as they answered questions from residents. Because these officers have various areas of expertise, they were able to, collectively, answer all the questions that came up in the meeting.

Want to tell us anything else (about the process used, the content of the meeting, decisions made, adherence to laws and regulations, etc)?

This meeting in particular was dominated by public comment/questions. The officers in this meeting spent nearly all their time (respectfully) responding to Mission residents’ concerns about issues like prostitution, homelessness, and other crimes. These are clearly the concerns of the neighborhood, and I think this meeting is a reasonably good place to discuss them. However, I have yet to hear anything in my neighborhood meeting about how the Mission Police are addressing the DOJ recommendations related to bias, use of force, community policing, etc. It would be valuable for residents to hear about the way the police are handling those issues as well.