Tony Montoya - SFPOA President

Whether it’s how we do our job or take care of our own families, it’s hard to think about anything but the COVID-19 virus. Quite literally, life as we know it changed, at least for the time being. Where you once would’ve seen some of the world’s most bustling streets, packed with cars, pedestrians, bicycles and, yes, even the electric scooters, we now see a scene you’d expect to find on the set of a post-apocalypse Hollywood movie. It’s eerie. It’s sad. It’s not our city, but it is definitely not our future either.

I want to start by thanking the SFPOA membership for your support and trust to continue to lead this association. I’m most proud of the level of engagement and participation our members showed during the election process. It was inspiring to see, and it is what we need given the challenges we face in policing in America and the conditions in San Francisco specifically.

In short, showing up matters.

There’s the old saying, “a leopard never changes its spots.” Like most old sayings, there’s a lot of truth to them. This is certainly the case for our newly elected District Attorney, Chesa Boudin.

In just a few weeks, Mr. Boudin has shown that he is approaching his job as the top prosecutor like the criminal defense attorney he truly is. Nothing exemplifies this better than his decision to drop the charges against Jamaica Hampton for his violent, unprovoked attack on our officers.

We’re in the midst of a police-staffing crisis. You wouldn’t know it, because policy makers are not talking about it. Police unions and chiefs alike have been sounding the alarm bell, but no one is really listening.

Transparency. Trust. Integrity. Fairness. These are the words you will see in “reform” reports such as the SFPD 2016 Collaborative Reform Initiative (CRI) and the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Words that are meant to be cornerstones of a foundation to build change. Would you believe that those same words are also supposed to be applied to how rank-and-file officers are treated by their command staffs and oversight bodies?

There’s a certain bond between first responders that makes their relationship to one another special. That bond was celebrated on the last day of Father John Greene’s long service to the Catholic Church held at St. Monica’s during the annual Police/Firefighter Mass.
But as ‘Father John’ moves on with his future interests maybe we should re-evaluate some of ours.
Why not have a non-denominational service next year to include the women and men in the Sheriff’s Department as well as our Dispatchers

George Gascón. Good riddance. Unfortunately, it may not be a complete goodbye for our former District Attorney. No, consistent with his past practice, he quit on San Francisco early in order to continue to propel his political career. Now he wants the District Attorney’s job in Los Angeles. His goal: be the top-ranking law enforcement officer in California’s most populous county, in the country’s second largest media market.

The cornerstone of any good decision-making process is having a system in place to evaluate whether the decisions you made are actually working out as planned. This applies in the business world and should definitely apply in the world of public policy—but it doesn’t. When it comes to so called “criminal justice reform,” there’s been a distinct absence of analytics. California’s leaders suffer from the worst case of Confirmation Bias ever imagined.

Under Director Paul Henderson’s leadership, The Department of Police Accountability has not changed course after the upheaval that led to former Director Joyce Hicks’ resignation in 2017.  Former Director Hicks’ tenure came to an end shortly after DPA began a practice of direct filing of frivolous complaints to the Police Commission and seeking hefty suspensions.  The Police Commission summarily dismissed complaints, concluding minor misconduct was better handled by smaller penalties imposed by the Police Department.  Hicks’ loss of credibility at the Police Commissio

Law enforcement has dramatically changed over the last ten years. From the impact of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, to the growing demands on police departments to be the first responder to nearly every social challenge a community faces—police work is fundamentally different and evolving constantly. Through these rapid changes, street cops keep doing their job and they adapt as best they can to meet the ever-moving expectations placed on them.