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San Francisco Police Department
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The San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California. The department's motto is the same as that of the city and county: Oro en paz, fierro en guerra, archaic Spanish for Gold in peace, iron in war.
The SFPD should not be confused with the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, which is another law enforcement agency within San Francisco.
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The San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California. The department's motto is the same as that of the city and county: Oro en paz, fierro en guerra, archaic Spanish for Gold in peace, iron in war.
The SFPD should not be confused with the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, which is another law enforcement agency within San Francisco. The SFPD (along with the San Francisco Fire Department and the San Francisco Sheriff's Department) serves an estimated population of 1.2 million people (which includes the approximately 740,000 citizens residing in the 47.5 square miles (123 km2) of San Francisco, the daytime-commuter population, and the thousands of other visitors, tourists, and others present in the City every day)
History
The SFPD began operations on August 13, 1849, during the Gold Rush, under the command of Captain Malachi Fallon. At the time, Chief Fallon had a force of one deputy captain, three sergeants and thirty officers.
In 1851, Albert Bernard de Russailh wrote about the nascent San Francisco police force:
As for the police, I have only one thing to say. The police force is largely made up of ex-bandits, and naturally the members are interested above all in saving their old friends from punishment. Policemen here are quite as much to be feared as the robbers; if they know you have money, they will be the first to knock you on the head. You pay them well to watch over your house, and they set it on fire. In short, I think that all the people concerned with justice or the police are in league with the criminals. The city is in a hopeless chaos, and many years must pass before order can be established. In a country where so many races are mingled, a severe and inflexible justice is desirable, which would govern with an iron hand.
On October 28, 1853, the Board of Aldermen passed Ordinance No. 466, which provided for the reorganization of the police department.
Sections one and two provided as follows: "The People of the City of San Francisco do ordain as follows:"
Sec. 1. The Police Department of the City of San Francisco, shall be composed of a day and night police, consisting of 56 men (including a Captain and assistant Captain), each to be recommended by at least ten tax-paying citizens.
Sec. 2. There shall be one Captain and one assistant Captain of Police, who shall be elected in joint convention of the Board of Aldermen and assistant Aldermen. The remainder of the force, viz., 54 men, shall be appointed as follows: By the Mayor, 2; by the City Marshal, 2; by the City
Recorder, 2; and by the Aldermen and assistant Aldermen,3 each.
In July, 1856, the "Consolidation Act" went into effect. This act abolished the office of City Marshal and created in
its stead the office of Chief of Police.
In 1997, the San Francisco Airport Police merged with SFPD, becoming the SFPD Airport Bureau.
The SFPD currently has over 2000 sworn officers.
The SFPD have been known to be some of the toughest on crime cops on the West Coast, but lenient for small offenses. They also have adapted and are known for their protest and riot control history, dating back to the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike, segregation protests in the 1950s, assault on protesters of the HUAC hearings at City Hall, Hunter's Point riots in the 60s and sweeps of the Haight-Ashbury district in the late 1960s. There have been regular use-of-force cases against the department, exacerbating tensions between the Police Department, city government, and general public of San Francisco.
The SFPD is known for being one of the pioneering forces for modern Law Enforcement in the early 1900s.
As of early 2009, the SFPD is beginning a sort of resurgence, with a new headquarters being built by 2010 which is to encompass an area twice the size of the current operational headquarters, the Hall Of Justice. It also may have a SFFD station adjacent to the building as well. There are also talks about current police chief Heather Fong being replaced within the year as well.
Organization
The head of the SFPD is the Chief of Police. The current Chief is Heather Fong, who works with six deputy chiefs directing the four bureaus: Administration, Airport, Field Operations, and Investigations, as well as the Municipal Transportation Authority, and the Public Utilities Commission. With the exception of the bureau of Investigations, three commanders are assigned to each bureau to assist the deputy chiefs.?
Administration Bureau
The Administration Bureau is responsible for providing support to other bureaus of SFPD, as well as other city agencies. The bureau is split into seven units or divisions:
- Behavioral Science Unit comprises the Employee Assistance program, the Peer Support Program, the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT), the Stress Unit, Catastrophic Illness Program, and the Chaplain’s program. Its function is to provide support to members of SFPD who struggle with personal issues.
- Fiscal Division consists of the Accounting Section, the Grant Unit, the Fleet Unit, and Property Control. Its function is to oversee the entire SFPD budget and to respond to audits from federal or state agencies.
- Planning Division provides functional support to the Department. It performs functions such as facilities maintenance, equipment repair, written directives, informational system management, and informational technology and telecommunication support.
- Risk Management consists of the Legal Section, Management Control Section, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Section. Its function is to provide oversight and review of policies, procedure development, and compliance.
- Staff Services Division is responsible for processing personnel files, performing background checks of employees, human resources, and hiring and promotion.
- Support Services Division consists of the Taxi Detail, the Permit Unit, and the Report Management Section. Its functions include regulation of commercial vehicles, issuance of permits, and data storage.
- Training and Education Division is responsible for training new recruits and current officers.
Airport Bureau
The Airport Bureau of the San Francisco Police Department was established on July 1, 1997, as the successor to the San Francisco International Airport Police.The Airport Bureau is responsible for the security and safety of San Francisco International Airport. Besides providing basic police services, this bureau also oversees the airport's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security plans and plays a critical role in the airport's emergency response capabilities.
Field Operations Bureau
The Field Operations Bureau (FOB) is responsible for the reduction of crime around the city. The bureau is split into several different units:
- The Patrol Unit is split between two divisions: Metro and Golden Gate, both of which provide patrol around the city. Both divisions have five stations supported by FOB staff members. Besides patrol, this unit also assists the district station event coordinators with large scale city events, and provides security at those events.
- The Fugitive Recovery Enforcement Team (FRET) is responsible for apprehending fugitives. It works closely with federal and state agencies in tracking down criminals at large.
- The Homeland Security Unit—which previously operated as a separate bureau, and is now incorporated into the FOB—responds to the need for heightened security in the United States. It works closely with other agencies to enhance the overall security of the city.
- The Traffic Company is responsible for traffic law enforcement throughout the city. Its function includes the investigation of accidents and handling of traffic at special events.
- The Youth Services Unit is a program established to provide youths with an alternative to gang life.
Investigations Bureau
The Investigations Bureau is split into five divisions:
- The Forensic Services Division consists of Computer Forensics Unit, Criminalistics Laboratory, Crime Scene Investigation, ID/Records Section, Photographic Unit, and Polygraph Unit. Its main function is to recover and process evidence.
- The Property Crimes Division consists of Auto Detail, Burglary, Fencing, Lost and Found, Financial Elder Abuse, Fraud, Hit and Run, and Neighborhood Investigation. Its main function is to investigate crimes such as auto theft, burglary, hit and run, DUI, fraud, and arson. The division is also responsible for recovering stolen property and investigating animal attacks.
- The Personal Crimes Division consists of General Works, Homicide, Sexual Assault, Robbery, and Special Investigation Section. Its main function is to investigate serious crimes such as homicide, rape, and robbery, track down illegal firearms, and handle extradition of criminals. The Special Investigation Section is a special division that is responsible for investigating bomb threats, hate crimes, gang violence, and providing security detail to the Mayor.
- The Juvenile and Family Services Division's main function is to investigate domestic violence, Internet crimes, and missing persons cases.
- The Narcotic/Vice Division's main function is to investigate trafficking of narcotics and other illicit vices around the city.
Ranking Structure
The SFPD does not have supplemental rankings, like the LAPD (which consist of Corporal, Police Officer II, Senior Lead Officer, etc.) which were added later in the 1960's. The department is also among the few departments in the nation (among NYPD and a few others) to call their detectives "Inspectors" rather than the traditional title. Tenured officers will have blue gold hash-marks on the lower left sleeve of their long-sleeved shirts. Each mark represents five years of service.
Patrol Specials
San Francisco Police also has a unique off-shoot known as the San Francisco Patrol Special police. These are privately funded, armed security guards who work the beat as paid for by local businesses. They are not part of, or regulated by the Police Department. Formed in 1847, a full two years before the official Police Department by Official City Charter, and are the only community policing force allowed in the City and County of San Francisco. San Francisco is known for these patrol specials, as they are one of the only security guards of the like in the nation.
They are affectionately known as "door-shakers" for it was a common practice for them to walk up and down a beat making sure the doors and windows of local business were locked and closed shut. They wear the six-pointed Star of David badge, rather than the traditional seven-pointed badge, which symbolizes the seven commandments of Law Enforcement.
Recently the SFPD Patrol Specials have been under fire for abuse of force and activities "amounting to the job of a peace officer but not fully authorized to do such". In January 2009 they were ordered to change their uniforms to look more like security or civilian patrol officers, and less like actual San Francisco Police officers. Because of this, the SFPD recently created a web page that deals with what exactly the Patrol Specials do. The webpage also makes the prime distinctions between the Patrol Special and Police Officer, as it says:
A Patrol Special Officer’s uniform is not the same as a San Francisco Police Officer’s uniform. The Patrol Special Officers are required to wear light blue shirts with navy blue pants. The pants must have a light blue ¼” stripe along the outer most pant leg seam. Patrol Special Officers are NOT allowed to wear dark navy blue shirts. This uniform is purchased privately by the Patrol Special Officer and is not paid for by any public funds.
Patrol Special Officers are required to wear a silver-toned 6-point star with the words “San Francisco Patrol Special Police” stamped on the facing. No other style or shaped badge is authorized. All San Francisco Police Officers are issued a 7-point star as their official badge.
Reserve Officers
SFPD Reserve officers are completely authorized Peace officers which volunteer their time to patroling the streets of San Francisco. They need to devote at least 16 hours each month to the department to maintain their "Reserve Officer" status. They are occasionally called upon for regular patrol, aid during demonstrations and other public events where police presence is integral. They work in many other roles, such as security details for diplomats, juvenile dealings, Muni Bus details, and posts at sporting events, such at AT&T Park and at Candlestick Park.
SWAT
San Francisco has been known for their elite SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team, composed of volunteer and selected officers from the entire agency. Most training is done in-house, with occasional and required training by FBI instructors, other Federal Agencies and private Military instruction. The SWAT division participates in planned and coordinated raids with agencies such as the FBI, DEA, and the ATF. As of recently (2007) it is mandatory that SWAT team members are together, sometimes during routine patrol, and can be seen among the streets of San Francisco in BDU and traveling in a marked SUV, to ensure a quick and timely response to calls. They were under political fire in the highly publicized 1998 Western Addition Raid, in which more than 90 SFPD SWAT and Federal Agents raided a Western Addition housing project. The SWAT also execute high-risk warrants in the City and County of San Francisco. They are also among one of the oldest serving agencies doing city crime suppression (the act of saturating high-crime areas with large amounts of officers and police presence-a more proactive approach) along with LAPD SWAT and NYPD Emergency Service Units.
C.R.U.S.H.
The SFPD C.R.U.S.H. (CRime Unit to Stop Homicides) squadron was created in at the same time as the LAPD unit C.R.A.S.H. (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) to combat the high amount of gang-related activity in inner-cities during the late 1970s and 1980's (culminating in 1988 with the release of the film Colors, which led to shoot-outs, stabbings, and drive-by shootings outside of movie theaters). Often riding in unmarked sedans and cruisers with the letters "C.R.U.S.H.", the unit was tasked solely with fighting the "gang problem" within the South-Eastern area of San Francisco.The head of the unit was the legendary Paul Lozada (whose story and character is portrayed in the film Training Day, he also served as technical adviser) who often went above and beyond the line of duty to "get the job done". The unit would later be faced with criticism, much like C.R.A.S.H., and was disbanded in the late 1990s along with it's counterparts in other agencies as the crime wave of the 1980s came to a close.
Motor Division
The SFPD was one of the founding departments in the field of utilizing Police motorcycles, (along with their counterparts across the bay in Berkeley). The unit was founded in 1909, and has grown ever since. The are officially under the command of the SFPD Traffic Division. They participate in many duties such as traffic-enforcement, patrol, riot control, and special events. The entire 250 man unit is based at Southern Station, the Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant Street. Unlike most cities (which are tentatively smaller), they patrol in mainly two-man teams of two bikes each. They can frequently be seen throughout the city.The bulk of the unit is composed of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and a sub-division exists that is composed of Honda dirt bikes, for city patrol and patrol in and around the area of Golden Gate Park. Otherwise, every one of the 10 main police stations in the city have 2-3 motorcycles under their command, used for patrol around their districts exclusively. The unit was immortalized in the the 1973 Dirty Harry film Magnum Force, a fictional tale of a group of rookie Motorcycle Officers taking vigilante missions and killing known criminals in and around the city. They are later stopped by SFPD Inspector Harry Callahan.
Areo Division
The SFPD "Areo" Squadron was at its peak in the mid-1970s, with helicopter and small plane flights rivaling the amount of frequency of the Los Angeles Police Department. After several accidents (one of which a helicopter crashed in Lake Merced, killing Officer Charles Logasa in 1971) and complaints about the "Eye In The Sky" program, the unit was disbanded. The helicopter unit was featured prominently in the first Dirty Harry film, identifying a sniper on a roof top before committing a murder. The unit was reactivated in the late-1990s, but after another fatal crash (which killed two SFPD officers, Kirk Bradley Doughtry and James Francis Doughtry) the Areo unit was put into an "inactive" status indefinitely. In times where it needs air support, the SFPD contacts the California Highway Patrol who has a downtown San Francisco air base.
Police Academy
The original San Francisco Police Academy was built in 1895 and was located on the West End adjacent to Golden Gate Park. The building, no longer in use, had the facilities to accommodate 25 trainees. In the 1960s, the San Francisco Police Academy Complex was built in the virtual center of the city in between the scenic hill range surrounding Twin Peaks, San Francisco, California and Glen Canyon Park. It is surrounded by a heavily wooded forest area and is near a shopping mall and apartment complex. As of recently (2008), there are three academy classes in session annually, with applicants beginning in January and the Academy taking place for 31 to 32 weeks, year round. The Presidio of San Francisco at the Northern tip of the peninsula, (located underneath the Golden Gate Bridge is the location of the "proving grounds," where recruits toward the end of the academy spend time doing an entire 10-hour shift answering calls and dealing with mock situations in and around the massive former military complex. Candlestick Park is also used for vehicle training exercises and mock police car chases. The Academy has been the subject of debates within San Francisco City Government, and as of December 2008, due to funding cuts by Mayor Gavin Newsom, two of the three academy classes have been effectively canceled.
Hall of Justice
The San Francisco Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant St. serves as the head court and all court and county jail facilities for the city and county, as well as "Southern Station" and operational headquarters of the SFPD, Headquarters of the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, and as of 2003 the San Francisco Headquarters of the California Highway Patrol. The motorcycle division is quartered here, as well as the rest of the traffic division (Parking enforcement officers and the such) and the garage for the dozens of unused police vehicles (various vans, trucks, and cars that are not used on a daily basis, also housed here is the San Francisco Police Mobile command center).
Uniform
The standard San Francisco Police Uniform as mandated by the city consists of LAPD Blue shirts and pants, the shirts of which have decorative gold buttons on the lapel and pockets which have the city seal and lettering "SF POLICE" stamped onto them. The LAPD Blue pants have a solid black blood stripe going down the sides of them. Horse mounted officers wear uniforms similar to Motor Division officers, but they retain a gold stripe along their pants instead of the black one. The uniform has undergone a few changes through the years, with a gold stripe for all officers being worn along the side of the pants in the early 1900's, being removed and later replaced with the black one. The officers cap is of the "8-Point" design, rather than the LAPD "smooth" hat design. The front of the hat is adorned with a metal piece of the San Francisco city seal. The uniform of originally had no patch, as with officers of the LAPD. It was not until 1969 that the patch, incorporating the design of a phoenix and city motto was added the uniform. In the 1900s through 1940s, the police uniform had a standard gold stripe running down the sides of the pants as well.
Stations
The SFPD currently has 10 main police stations throughout the city in addition to a number of police substations.
Metro Division:
- 1) Central Station: 766 Vallejo St. San Francisco, CA 94133 (415) 315-2400
- 2) Mission Station: 630 Valencia St. San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 558-5400
- 3) Northern Station: 1125 Fillmore St. San Francisco, CA 94115 (415) 614-3400
- 4) Southern Station, Hall Of Justice: 850 Bryant St San Francisco, CA 94103(415) 553-1373
- 5) Tenderloin Station: 301 Eddy St. San Francisco, CA 94102(415) 345-7300
Golden Gate Division:
- 6) Bayview Station: 201 Williams St. San Francisco, CA 94124 (415) 671-2300
- 7) Ingleside Station: 1 Sgt. John V. Young Ln. San Francisco, CA 94112-2408 (415) 404-4000
- 8) Park Station: 1899 Waller Street San Francisco, CA 94117 (415) 242-3000
- 9) Richmond Station: 461 6th Ave San Francisco, CA 94118 (415) 666-8000
- 10) Taraval Station: 2345 24th Ave. San Francisco, CA 94116 (415) 759-3100
Sub Station and Special Division
- 11) San Francisco Police Academy: 350 Amber Dr San Francisco, CA 94131 (415) 401-4600
- 12) San Francisco International Airport Police: International Terminal, 5th floor, (650) 821-7111 from outside of the airport; 6-2424 from an Airport Whtie Courtesy Phone
Line of duty deaths
From June 12, 1878 to December 23, 2006, the SFPD had lost 100 officers in the line of duty.
The cause of death break-down is as follows:
- Aircraft accident: 3
- Assault: 1
- Automobile accident: 6
- Bomb: 1 (Brian V. McDonnell)
- Drowned: 1
- Earthquake(1906): 1
- Fall: 1
- Gunfire: 59
- Gunfire (Accidental): 2
- Heart attack: 3
- Motorcycle accident: 6
- Stabbed: 2
- Struck by streetcar: 2
- Struck by vehicle: 4
- Vehicle pursuit: 5
- Vehicular assault: 2
- Weather/Natural disaster: 1
Demographics
- Male: 85%
- Female: 15%
- White: 60%
- Hispanic: 13%
- Asian: 13%
- African-American/Black: 10%
- Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 4%
- Native American:1%
The diversity of the department has increased significantly since 1972, when only 150 of the department's 2000 officers were of a non-white background.
SFPD chiefs of police
Source:
| Name | Term |
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| Malachi Fallon | 1849–1850 | | Brandt Sequine | 1851–? | | John W. McKenzie | ?–1856 | | James F. Curtis | 1856–1858 | | Martin J. Burke | 1858–1866 | | Patrick Crowley | 1866–1873 | | Theodore G. Cockrill | 1873–1875 | | Henry H. Ellis | 1875–1877 | | John Kirkpatrick | 1877–1879 | | Patrick Crowley | 1879–1897 | | Isaiah W. Lees | 1897–1900 | | William P. Sullivan | 1900–1901 | | George Wittman | 1901–1905 | | Jeremiah F. Dinan | 1905–1907 | | William J. Biggy | 1907–1908 | | Jesse B. Cook | 1908–1910 | | John B. Martin | 1910 | | John Seymour | 1910–1911 | | David A. White | 1911–1920 | | Daniel J. O'Brien | 1920–1928 |
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The SFPD in popular media
The SFPD has been portrayed in films such as Metro (1997 film), A View to a Kill and the Dirty Harry (film series), as well as the NBC series Ironside, CBS series Nash Bridges, and the currently running Monk (TV series).
The "Dirty Harry" film series is known for shaping the popular view of the department, with a hard nose stance on crime and often using "cowboy" tactics (shoot first, stakeouts, and preemptive raids).
Controversies
The SFPD has been frequently met with criticism, unavoidable due to the mainly liberal attitude of the city and the problems of accountability and alleged corruption that have plagued the department. Past events include dozens of protests in the 1960s (with the massive influx of people from all over the world into the Haight-Ashbury district of the city), the Golden Dragon massacre (of the 1970s, a time when San Francisco's Chinatown was riddled with gang violence and organized crime), and the gang-wave of crimes that swept the U.S. in the 1980s. Events of recent include the San Franciscan response to the Rodney King riots, the annual protests in the Financial District protesting the Iraq War and U.S. foreign policy, the San Francisco Zoo tiger attacks and the California Proposition 8 (2008) protests in October-November of 2008.
Trivia
- The SFPD, under direction of Chief Martin J. Burke, was the first department in the United States to use photography for police work in the early 1860s.
- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visiting San Francisco in 1938 said, "The force had done the finest policing job I had ever seen outside of the city of New York. Tell the boys they had done a good job."
- The emblem of the San Francisco Police Department was designed and has been in use since the late 1930s.
- During the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, mayor Eugene E. Schmitz issued a proclamation, declaring "The Federal Troops, the members of the Regular Police Force, and all Special Police Officers have been authorized by me to KILL any and all persons engaged in Looting of the commission of Any Other Crime." In the end, only a few people were killed by this order.
- Until the 1960s, it was a common practice for SFPD officers to dump large quantities of confiscated weapons into the San Francisco Bay.
- The SFPD was one of the first police departments in the United States to hire Chinese-American and African-American full-time officers.
- The SFPD was one of the first law enforcement agencies in the world to use fingerprinting identification, and to compile a massive database of crimes and criminals, all of which were to be handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation during its inception. J. Edgar Hoover would later praise the SFPD for their massive contributions, saying once on a visit, "San Francisco is a bright spot on our map. Your Police Department has pushed drive against organized crime to the point where criminal rackets, as other cities know them, haven't a chance here. Other cities have drives against crime, but not much push."
See also
External links
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