News & Updates

Everybody has an opinion about Tasers. And when the Police Commission once again opens discussion on Wednesday night, we're probably going to hear plenty of them - loudly.

Angela Chan is new to the commission, but she's already tired of the rhetoric.

"This heated, yes-no debate where you have people yelling, 'I want Tasers,' and someone else is yelling, 'I don't want Tasers,' is not helpful," she said. "I'm hoping we can have a more thoughtful, substantive discussion."

Good luck. Things always seem to start out in a reasonable tone and then go off the rails.

An internal city investigation has cleared a San Francisco police commander of wrongdoing following accusations that he helped tutor other officers for a promotional examination he then helped to create and grade.

While Cmdr. David Lazar may have helped colleagues prepare for an exam, if he did so, it apparently occurred before he signed on as a so-called “subject matter expert” who graded and possibly prepared a recent exam for would-be police captains.

The Police Department might finally equip its officers with Tasers, but one major obstacle still exists: The police chief has to prove it is the best option available.

The Police Commission voted 6-1 last week to allow the department to study the use of Tasers. But the commission wants the SFPD to look into other so-called less-lethal alternatives.

San Francisco's next police chief should be someone of often contradictory talents, according to local residents who presented their wish lists to police commissioners at a series of meetings.

The city's next top cop needs to be someone who is tough on crime, but not all crimes; an insider who knows the department and the city while having an outsider's fresh take on local problems; and an administrator who will put more cops on the street, but not have too many of them hanging around the city's nightclubs and street fairs.

Community policing is often thrown around as a political buzzword, but it could soon become a clearly defined city law. 

Amid concerns over this year’s homicide rate, which is higher than in recent years, Supervisor David Campos has said the Police Department needs to improve its community policing. On Tuesday, he introduced legislation that would make the crime-fighting strategy part of city code.

Dozens of people from the LGBT and other communities gathered last week to tell the San Francisco Police Commission what they want to see in the city's next police chief.

The forum was held at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, but a broad range of topics – beyond specifically gay concerns – were raised. Diversity inside the department and respect for the diversity of the city's residents; better collaboration with nightlife officials; and officers developing relationships with people in the neighborhoods they serve, especially youth, were among the issues discussed.

The San Francisco Police Department may not be hiring officers any time soon, but new personnel still will be joining  The City’s 10 district stations.

Though the police union had originally opposed allowing civilians to investigate petty crimes and other cold cases, that opposition has now turned to support as the executive board has asked union representatives to approve the plan.

Police beefed up enforcement in San Francisco's Mission District on Thursday in response to a burst of stabbings and shootings that investigators blame on the long-running rivalry between the Norteños and Sureños street gangs.

The Mission has been relatively peaceful in the past year, police and residents said. But last week, a series of attacks on Sureños turf culminated in the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Aldo "Trigger" Troncoso early Saturday at 17th and Mission streets.

The latest cause for pause in enforcement of The City’s controversial sit-lie ordinance? The print shop.

“The entire department has been trained up on policies and procedures,” involving enforcement of the new ordinance, which prohibits sitting or lying on public sidewalks, police Chief Jeff Godown said Sunday. “We’re just waiting for the cards to come back from the printer.”

The items Godown was referring to are multilingual cards offering homeless and other social services, which officers will present to people they make contact with as part of the enforcement.

Four months after voters approved the sit-lie ordinance, San Franciscans still await police enforcement. So some Haight Street merchants have taken matters into their own hands, which is working but provoking a backlash.

Some shop windows now display signs warning passersby not to sit or lie on the sidewalks in front of their business. But street kids and other opponents of the law are combating these measures with pro-loitering graffiti painted directly on area sidewalks.