I get stopped on the street during my daily travels around this great City of ours, by folks who can’t wait to tell me stories about the job the SFPD is doing or how “cool” this officer was, or that officer was, and I enjoy each story more than the one before. That said, every once in a while someone tells me a story that ends with, then the officer told me “there’s nothing I(we) can do” and my heart sinks. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, “there is always something we can do”. I say that because there is always something we can do; if we simply choose to do something. It’s that simple! Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “whether you think you can or think you can’t – you’ll be right.” Please know that you can always do something. If you can’t think of how you might be able to help someone, “phone a friend (another cop that you think knows everything)” and see if the two of you can come up with something.
Let me give an example of what I’m talking about. A citizen had her son’s backpack stolen with his cell phone in it. The phone had GPS and the woman was tracking the phone. She called the SFPD and the responding officers – when asked to track the phone and get the bad guy - told her, “I don’t know that we can do that”. The reportee, reasonably couldn’t believe this could be accurate, so she made one more call. Her next call was to someone within the SFPD that knew someone who knows how to do that and the phone was tracked, the bad guy was arrested, and all the other stolen property from the crook’s day(s) of thievery was recovered. A great caper and a very happy lady! No one did anything wrong operating within what they knew but the responding officers could have made that one additional call (which would have been doing something). Everyone enjoys feeling “smarter than the average bear’ (that was a Yogi Bear
reference for younger officers who might have missed the show) and every cop enjoys catching the bad guy. The moral of the story is, “You can always do something and if you can’t think of anything just don’t do any less than you would do for your Mom” you’ll have done all you could.
I bring all this up in March, because on the morning of March 23rd, when Ingleside officers discovered 5 dead bodies at 16 Howth Street we showed why the SFPD is the best Police Department in the country. The crime scene on Howth Street was horrific and as complicated a crime scene (actually 4 crime scenes within one residence) as I have ever seen in 30+ years of being at crime scenes. What took place over the next few days was testament to what the SFPD and our partners in and outside the Department are capable of when we decide there’s nothing, we can’t do. Less than 48 hours after the discovery of the Howth Street homicides, the suspect believed responsible for this horrific crime had been identified, arrested, and search warrants had been executed recovering evidence critical to the case. The citizens of San Francisco predictably began contacting the media and my office extolling praise on the SFPD for being so tireless in our pursuit of this murderer, so a neighborhood could begin to recover. Our City knows what they have in us. They expect us to do just what we did in this case. They expect us to be the best!
The people of San Francisco have high expectations of their cops which is why they are so tremendously disappointed when they hear, “there is nothing we can do”. They call us with every confidence that we can and will help them. They call because we are the cops that solve crimes that seem unsolvable, and catch bad guys that seem uncatchable. We are “that” Police Department! We are their Police Department. Please promise
yourself to never tell a person that asks you for help, “that there is nothing we can do”. Decide right now that you will always do “something”. I assure you that anything you do will be appreciated…by the person assisted for certain and your Chief, by proxy.
Couldn’t close my March column without a mention of Saint Patrick’s Day - Saint Patrick’s Day Parade was amazing! Despite the drizzly weather, San Francisco’s finest showed up in numbers with as many “little ones” as I can remember seeing at one of the City’s parades. The Parade celebrated its’ 161st year with several thousand spectators and participants. It was good fun! As for the festivities that followed in the evening, my deepest appreciation goes out to the officers in Patrol, TAC, VRT, and everyone else that contributed to the effort in keeping the evening festivities safe for residents and visitors to our great city.
I have been your Chief for almost a year now. Over the course of the last 11 months, you have navigated some of the most difficult situations/incidents I’ve encountered in my career with courage, intelligence, class, and professionalism. Next month I’ll go into some of those situations in detail.
Until then, Oro en Paz, Fierro en Guerra!
Take Care and Be Safe out there,
Greg Suhr
Chief of Police, San Francisco Police Department
