August 2013

Shoji Horikoshi – 1927 -- 2013 

On July 15, 2013, retired SFPD Criminologist Shoji Horikoshi lost a valiant fight with cancer and died at a residential care facility in San Francisco. He was 86.

Mr. Horikoshi was a 38-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department, and retired as head Criminologist in 1995. The San Francisco Police Crime Lab, located at the former Hunters Point Shipyard, was named in his honor.

Welcome back ladies and gentleman to this month’s entry into the fast and furious world of San Francisco law enforcement.  As there is so much to let you know about, lets get right to it.

The following members of our law enforcement family need our help:

Deputy City Attorney Tim Benetti

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.

In my short tenure as the President of the POA, I have learned some hard but valuable lessons. The hardest lesson that I have learned so far was from the sting of defeat. I speak, of course, of the rejection of the first Tentative Agreement by the membership back on June 7th. I admit it; I took that blow right on the chin. I never saw it coming. I wrestled with the reasons why the first TA failed and the one conclusion that I drew was that I had taken the vote  –and therefore the membership -- for granted. I had expected the vote to be a snoozer; an easy ratification.