2021–03–30 Tenderloin Station Community Meeting

Are you a general member of the public or an Official League Observer?General member of the public

Date of the meeting
03/30/2021

Location
Zoom

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

Did you attend the whole meeting?
I attended for a little longer than the scheduled hour-long meeting, but had to leave before the Captain closed it.

Tell us about how easy it was for the public to participate: Was it easy to get information about when the meeting is held & how to join? Did you understand the format, agenda, & how to participate? Did this meeting build trust? Did the meeting build relationships between government & the public?

It’s gotten slightly harder to participate in these community meetings. Previously, you only had to email once to get a Zoom link for the recurring meetings. Now you have to email and register for each individual community meeting and only then will SF SAFE email you a Zoom link. This creates a barrier to entry in that you have to remember to email SF SAFE–and they have to actually respond–in time to get the Zoom link before the meeting starts.

The format of this meeting was clear. It ran a bit long. There were a couple presentations during which anyone couple post questions in the chat and then the Captain opened the floor for more questions at the very end (basically right at the end of the meeting). I had to leave about 10 minutes past the official end of the meeting. Several community members had asked questions in the Zoom chat, however no one spoke up. The presentations were nice–it was great to learn about the Community Liaison Unit–but it would have been ideal to have more time before the scheduled end of the meeting for community members to ask questions.

Overall, the meeting seemed to do an ok job at building understanding between SFPD and the community, though a little heavy on the presentation side and not enough time for the public to speak.

Tell us about the government: who was there? Were they attentive? Were they prepared? Were they courteous with each other and the public? Did this increase your trust in them?

SF SAFE

SFPD

• Capt. Chris Canning became station captain just a few weeks ago
• Sergeant Joseph Clark
• Officer Winters — Community Liaison Unit

Captain Canning and Officer Winters were the two SFPD folks who spoke. They were both attentive and prepared.

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

Captain Canning presented Tenderloin crime stats for last month (thru end of Feb)

• Most arrests were related to narcotics sales and possession
• Decrease in violent crime, increase in burglaries
• Attack at UN plaza
• AAPI community member attacks — SFPD made an arrest just this morning. A person threatened to shoot AAPI people at a business Sunday morning. SFPD arrested the suspect when they returned to the scene.

Officer Winters gave a presentation on the new SFPD Community Liaison Unit (CLU) Contact info: SFPDCLU@sfgov.org, (415) 558–5466

• SFPD established the CLU within the Community Engagement Division to build relationships between the department and historically marginalized and Limited English Proficiency (LEP) communities in SF. The CLU is made up of 2 sergeants and 4 officers.
• Coordinating with the Investigations Bureau
  * Bureau notifies CLU of and CLU provides support to investigations relating to
  * hate crimes and violent crimes that result in serious or life-threatening injuries
  * officer-involved shootings
• CLU’s support to investigations may include
  * being a liaison between SFPD, victims, and victims’ families
  * connecting victims with community services
  * educating victims about the investigative process and criminal justice system
• Collaboration with the SFPD Crime Strategy Unit (CSU)
  * tracking and monitoring prejudice-based incidents
  * identifying crime trends that impact communities and developing solution to address them
• There have been at least 4 hate crimes in SF targeting AAPI people since the start of the year
• There is a Mandarin and Cantonese bi-lingual anonymous tip hotline

Community questions

• Does this work pertain to people experiencing mental health challenges? No, that’s more the crisis response team
• When was CLU established? October, but didn’t hit stride until mid-January.

Captain Canning reviewed some material about policies that guide SFPD’s work in the community and resources for the public

• Task Force on 21st Century Policing
  *Pillar One: Building Trust & Legitimacy
  - engaging in trust-building encounters like with the CLU
  - make it easy for the public to file complaints & compliments
  - general orders (GO) 2.04 & 2.05
  - police accountability department
  - quarterly disciplinary review board
  - Policy prohibiting biased policing GO 5.17
  - avoid bias
  - treat all people fairly and with respect
  - Whistle-blower policy
  - Rights for juveniles
  - Reports on officer use of force stats
  - Early intervention — framework for identifying problematic behavior in officers
  - Officer-involved shootings — the district attorney’s office investigates officer-involved shootings

Community Questions

• What is plan for cleaning up the streets–especially WRT drug dealing? Park patrol officers, more officer visibility, basically getting more officers walking the street
• What’s the station’s plan for supporting outdoor dining in the district?
  * Help people feel safe
  * Visible presence of officers, scale resources for more foot traffic to help people feel safer being in the Tenderloin
• What’s the plan for staffing multi-lingual officers?
  * There is a SFPD certification for language proficiency to ensure that they can do things like take statements
  * There are currently 10 certified multi-lingual officers in the Tenderloin
  * 25 total multi-lingual officers, including the 10 that are officially certified. They speak many languages between them: Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Russian, German, Norwegian
  * Every officer has a language translation app on their phone and access to a language line phone number
• What mental health services are available to the community right now?
  * Check out community behavioral health services
• What help is available for those needing ongoing mental health support
  * Street crisis response team
  * 311 is the best place to call for non-emergency issues