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Chief's Corner

August 1, 2013
Greg Suhr

On Christmas Day, 2007, a Bengal Tiger escaped from her open-air enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo and attacked three visitors, killing one, shortly after closing time. Members of the San Francisco Police Department responded, engaged the tiger, and no one else was injured. An unbelievable situation that no one could have ever conceived would have taken place when they joined the SFPD. When asked about their courage, the officers responded: “We were just doing our job”!

That was about as crazy a call as I had ever heard….until this past month.

On Saturday July 6th at 11:35am, a 777 airplane crashed onto the airfield at SFO and officers from the San Francisco Police Department were among the first to arrive at the plane. Seeing smoke and flames inside the downed aircraft, and amidst the sounds of cracking and popping, the officers provided knives to the crew to cut helpless passengers free. The officers then, without any protective gear and smelling the distinct almost overpowering odor of some kind of fuel all around them, entered the back of the plane; and assisted until every person was off.  Later, when the assembled media asked the officer who entered the burning fuselage in a short sleeve shirt, if he was a hero he responded: “I was just doing my job.”

On Friday afternoon July 12th at approximately 2:00 pm, a homicidal gunman entered the Jewelry center at 888 Brannan Street and attacked three people in a business there, seriously injuring the male victim and senselessly murdering two women. He then fled the scene eastbound on Brannan Street. Three San Francisco police officers, just returning to the Hall of Justice and responding to the call of “shots fired, engaged the desperate suspect. The officers observed the suspect covered in blood and not knowing the reason why, asked if he needed assistance. He answered in the affirmative before drawing his weapon and firing upon the officers. Undaunted, the officers stood their ground and the suspect retreated into a nearby restaurant. Cornered, the suspect fired additional shots at officers and others that had also responded, before deciding to surrender. Other officers responding to the “406” (Officer Call for Emergency Assistance) poured into the Jewelry Center believing there would be more suspect(s) to engage and/or lives to be saved. Fortunately, there were no more suspects but, sadly, only one of the three victims could be saved. When asked how everyone got there so quickly and went where they went without a moment’s hesitation…all I could think of was what everyone else seems to always say, “We were all just doing our job(s).”

Folks often complain about public service compensation and pensions. Thankfully, we don’t have incidents like the above all that often. For those that respond when they do occur, and they happen all too often enough for us, they do so as if every event is “that” event.  Police officers enjoy a good salary and good benefits for which we are grateful….and we do our best to earn what we receive every day. No, not every day involves tigers, plane crashes, and “active shooters” but “any” day can be “that day”. I often tell folks, “cops don’t get paid for what we do every day, we get paid for what we might have to do every day.” Evidenced by the SFPD’s performance in July…we do “it” as well as anybody.  

I looked for a quote to close this month’s column that I thought would do justice to the actions of the officers involved in the events described above and of all the unsung work done day to day by the rest of SF’s Finest (Sworn and non-sworn) in keeping this City safe. In my search, I found someone’s description of “a hero”. The description goes something like this: “A hero is someone who is selfless, who is generous in spirit, who just tries to give back as much as possible however they can to help people.” – the “help people” is what struck me! That’s what I’m always talking about when I say: “that’s what we signed up to do”! We signed up to help people. When you look at what all the hero cops were talking about when they answered, “I was just doing my job”; they were simply saying that they did what they could to help. God Bless each and every one of you for always being willing to do whatever it takes to help people, and last month – more than once - it took almost more than you had to give.  

 

Be Safe Out There

 

Greg Suhr

Chief Of Police

San Francisco Police Department