April 2012

There were 7 guns taken off the street from the few episodes cited in this column this month. There were a lot more recovered but we just didn’t have time to report all of them. Many of the guns recovered were done so by one-officer units. With the anticipation of losing over 300 officers within the next 2 years, officer-safety will become paramount. We can only hope that the Department will be given the green light very soon to move on future academy classes.

Several law enforcement officers within San Francisco are participating in the 2012 Police Unity Tour. The PUT is a four day, 300 mile bicycle ride from northern New Jersey to the National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial in Washington, DC. The PUT’s primary goal is to raise awareness regarding officers killed in the line of duty and to raise funds for the Memorial. All of the 1500 riders are active or retired law enforcement officers from across the United States or surviving family members. The arrival of the PUT at the Memorial marks the opening of National Police Week.

During the last POA general election, I was dismayed by a numerical realization. In the initial round of voting, when running against two other candidates, there were more members whose votes indicated that I should be ejected from office than those whose votes indicated that I should remain in their service. After so many years working on behalf of the members, that was not easy to stomach, and it was also more than a little disappointing.

“America has a debt crisis, but no debt is higher than what America owes its veterans, who already sacrificed years of service, lost family time, physical injury and the comforts of home so that the other 90 percent of Americans can continue to live in freedom. Throughout our nation’s history, every time we cut defense we paid for it with American blood.”

American Legion National Commander Fang Wong

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”.

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. Thoreau

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

Benjamin Franklin – Poor Richard Almanac

With the Dow Jones industrial average at 13,000 are Baby Boomer investors seeking to re-enter the stock market in an attempt to recapture monetary gains that they may have lost during the Great Recession of 2007?

As April is National Child Abuse Prevention month, this book is extremely timely. It is also a very personal and emotional declaration of the need for all Americans, everywhere, to learn more about what should be done for children who exhibit suspicious physical injuries.

In 1997 Lou Cannon, a journalist, non-fiction author, and biographer (he has authored five different works about President Reagan), wrote a book regarding the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. The title was Official Negligence, and Mr. Cannon made a very strong argument that the true cause of that horrible break down of civil and peaceful life was exactly that: negligence on the part of numerous city officials. It is a book that should be read by all big city officials as a primer on how to avoid crucial mistakes. Killing the Messenger is a similar book.

To say that our Department of Emergency Management/Department of Emergency Communications personnel do an outstanding job day in and day out without fanfare would be a gross understatement. I have often proudly referred to the men and women serving our department in this capacity as our “Lifeline.”

Quite often, these men and women supporting our units in the field are the real unsung heroes of our profession. Dispatchers are just as much our partners as is the guy or gal sitting next to us in a police car or walking the beat on the tough streets of San Francisco.