SF Police Officers Association Mobilizes Against Reform

Civil Rights Organizations Slam Police Officers Association’s Campaign to Confuse San Francisco Voters

SAN FRANCISCO – With the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rules Committee set to vote on a significant police accountability measure, civil rights and community organizations including the ACLU of Northern California, La Raza Centro Legal, the Green Party, National Organization of Women, the National Lawyers Guild, and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights are slamming a misleading hit piece sent by the San Francisco Police Officers Association (POA) to 70,000 San Francisco households.

Representatives of civil rights organizations and community members will be at the hearing tomorrow urging the Rules Committee to approve the Charter Amendment.

“Over the past several months, reports from the Office of Citizen Complaints, the Controller, and the Civil Grand Jury have all confirmed a breakdown in police accountability mechanisms. The Charter Amendment will make the Police Commission more accountable and strengthen the Office of Citizen Complaints,” said Mark Schlosberg, Police Practices Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California. “It’s too bad the POA has decided to launch a mis-information campaign to confuse San Francisco voters about this very important initiative.”

The POA hit piece contains a number of false and misleading statements about the proposed Charter Amendment pending before the Board of Supervisors including:

• That the Board of Supervisors wants to take power away from the Police Chief and give it to the Police Commission. (The Charter Amendment does not give additional powers to the Police Commission, but merely changes the appointment process.)
• That the Supervisors want to “seize day-to-day management of the San Francisco Police Department.” (Nothing in the Charter Amendment takes day-to-day management of the SFPD away from the Police Chief.)
• That the Charter Amendment would create a Commission of seven “political appointees” to “directly manage our city’s 2,200 police officers.” (Police Commission is already made up of political appointees who oversee the Police Department. The Charter Amendment would make the process less political by preventing the Mayor from removing Commissioners without consent of the Supervisors).
• That San Francisco already has a “powerful Office of Citizen Complaints.” (In fact, the OCC’s lack of power – and the failure of the Department to cooperate with its investigations – has been documented in reports issued by the OCC, the Controller, and the Civil Grand Jury.)

“Statements made by the POA in their hit piece are misleading at best and, in fact, contain statements that are simply untrue,” said Marc Solomon of the Green Party. “Rather than spending thousands of dollars trying to mislead San Francisco voters, the POA should embrace the proposed charter amendment and look towards strengthening police accountability mechanisms.”

The initiative, which will come before San Francisco voters in November 2003 if approved by the Board of Supervisors, proposes to restructure the City’s Police Commission and enhance the power of the OCC. Supervisor Tom Ammiano introduced the amendment on Tuesday, May 13.