415-241-7711

San Francisco, CA 94102

NEW PROTOCOL FOR MEASURING SUSTAINED CASES _____________ 8

SUSTAINED CASE DISPOSITION: 18-MONTH STUDY ________________ 9

Reporting on Sustained Case Outcomes _____________________________________ 10

Analysis of Sustained Case Dispositions ______________________________________ 10

CONFIDENTIALITY ____________________________________________ 12

POLICY ______________________________________________________ 13

Executive Sponsor Working Groups _________________________________________ 13

Serious Incident Review Board _____________________________________________ 13

Body-Worn Camera Policy _________________________________________________ 14

AUDIT UNIT __________________________________________________ 17

MEDIATION __________________________________________________ 18

OPERATIONS ________________________________________________ 20

Civic Bridge Partnership __________________________________________________ 20

Data-Driven Capabilities __________________________________________________ 21

TRAINING ____________________________________________________ 22

OUTREACH AND STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT __________________ 23

Francisco. In 2018, our investigative teams worked

diligently to address a backlog of cases from

previous years while opening 31% more cases than

in 2017. While the issues we have confronted are

numerous and complex, I believe the DPA is on

track to better serve its core missions of

investigation, mediation, policy reform, outreach,

and auditing over the next year.

Internal Reforms

improvement on completing sustained case

investigations within the DPA’s nine-month goal. We

have continued our work on the U.S. Department of

Justice Community Oriented Policing Services Collaborative Reform process and have made

progress in reshaping both our policy and auditing functions. Our legal division prepared for

changes to state public records request law under Senate Bill 1421 and Assembly Bill 748,

which will enhance transparency. A highlight of the year was partnering with consulting firm

Slalom through the Civic Bridge program, which inspired comprehensive efforts to modernize

operations using technology and strategic planning.

One particularly successful accomplishment was the

creation of the digital Henderson Report, which greatly

simplified the internal process for notifying SFPD

commanding officers of new misconduct allegations.

the DPA eliminated thousands of pages of paper

waste per year and sped up the process for notifying

commanding officers of potential misconduct within

their ranks.

vacant investigator positions, and to

restructure our personnel and workflow. In

February 2018, we were finally able to hire

five new investigators, which greatly

contributed to a reduction in caseloads. To

fulfill our new audit responsibilities, we worked

with the Office of the Controller to build an

Audit Team. Additionally, I hired a senior

business analyst to manage a major overhaul

of our IT infrastructure. We also increased the

In the coming year, the DPA plans to build on

the success achieved in 2018 by

implementing a new Case Management

System, modernizing the web portal for

making online complaints, publishing real-time

data on our website, finalizing our Strategic

Plan, fulfilling record requests under new state

law (Senate Bill 1421 and Assembly Bill 748),

with the agency’s mission and develop a

framework for measuring success year over

year.

We have a great many projects under way. I

am very excited about this new direction and

look forward to continuing to work with the

San Francisco Police Commission to make

the DPA as successful as possible.

Paul Henderson

Executive Director

Even when investigations do not reveal misconduct, the DPA fulfills an important role for the

City by focusing attention on making community experiences transparent and by developing

policies. Contact with the DPA gives community members an opportunity to be heard and to

In addition to having a significant impact

on individual lives, the DPA is in a

the SFPD by enabling stakeholders to

make data-driven decisions. The DPA is

the steward of a vast amount of data,

including investigative outcomes and

audit findings. With the proper technical

oversight of the San Francisco Police

Keane Report

2018 and had closed 389 cases, or

59%, of its 2018 cases, leaving

270, or 41%, of 2018 cases

pending. The full Keane Report is

available online.

Investigation

Findings

Of the 1524 allegations resolved,

116 were Sustained; 488 were

deemed Proper Conduct; 396

were deemed Unfounded; 174

complainant does not provide

required evidence, the officer is

not reasonably identifiable, or the

officer retires or resigns before the

investigation concludes, which

precludes discipline.

Sustained Cases

Sustained cases have at least one proven allegation of misconduct. The DPA sustained 49

cases out of 546 investigated cases, resulting in a 9% sustained rate. Of the 49 sustained

cases, DPA investigators closed 29 sustained cases (59% of sustained cases) within the 9-

late, causing the loss of critical evidence. Late activation occurred in several

incidents where officers did not anticipate an encounter becoming a detention and in

two critical incidents where officers were responding to reports of a crime in

progress—the officer-involved shootings of Keita O’Neil and Nicholas Flusche.

Officers also did not activate body-worn cameras during the May 11

officer-involved

shooting on the 1500 block of O’Farrell Street.

To minimize mistakes and late activation, the DPA recommends that DGO 10.11 be

revised to require officers to activate their cameras when responding to calls-for-

service. This change would enable officers to record and preserve evidence of

initiated this project because of DPA complaint

investigations involving deaf complainants, in addition

to concerns raised within the Language Access

Working Group about deaf domestic violence

survivors receiving inadequate services.

Meeting monthly, the Working Group researched best

practices, drafted a proposed DGO and created an

officer reference guide for use during traffic stops.

The Working Group also identified different

technologies to assist SFPD officers at the station and

domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, stalking, and elder abuse

obtain their incident reports within five days of their requests as mandated by Family

Code §6228. The DPA recommended that the SFPD implement a system that

provides victims their incident reports within the statutory deadline, provides related

information on SFPD’s website, monitors compliance with the statutory deadline, and

reports to the Police Commission on a quarterly basis. Following April hearings

before the Board of Supervisor’s Public Safety Committee on the treatment of sexual

assault survivors, the DPA attended monthly meetings with community stakeholders

and made recommendations to enhance District Stations’ services for sexual assault

survivors that included the following:

COLLABORATIVE REFORM

The DPA continued efforts to work with the SFPD on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)

Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Collaborative Reform Process. In February

2018, the California Department of Justice assumed responsibility for collaboratively

evaluating and reporting on ongoing reforms and the implementation of the DOJ’s 272

recommendations to the SFPD, over 70 of which involve DPA participation. The DPA

prioritized its focus on reforms related to Officer-Involved Shooting (OIS) investigations, the

AUDIT UNIT

Charter, Section 4.136(k), and requires

the DPA to conduct a performance audit

or review every two years of police

officer use-of-force practices and

two employees in April 2018, including Mediation Director, Sharon Owsley, and Mediation

and Programs Coordinator, Chanty Barranco. The team worked on developing its first-ever

strategic plan with the goals of creating public value, effecting system change, and continuing

to be recognized as a model for the delivery of high-quality and impactful mediation services

for the SFPD and the community.

mediators, and inform those mediators of the new administration and changes in protocol. To

start the summer, the mediation program launched the DPA’s inaugural Mediation Forum to

current and prospective mediators. Over 100 people from across the Bay Area attended. The

event kicked off with a keynote presentation honoring the

achievements of the former Mediation Coordinator and

the Mediation model. Finally, the team introduced a new

training series for DPA mediators and discussed qualifications

and logistics. The DPA began receiving new mediator

applications immediately following the event. Many applicants

were also interested in participating in the DPA’s outreach

opportunities.

After reviewing national mediation best practices, Ms. Owsley instituted several changes to

the mediation program. The DPA mediation team began observing all mediations to ensure

that high-quality services were consistently delivered and that procedural justice principles

were followed. The new practice of observing mediations enhanced the team’s ability to

insightfully pair mediators with complainants and the issues they present, as the team

became more attuned to each mediator’s skills and strengths. Another significant change was

that the mediation coordinators greatly expanded the briefings given to complainants and

officers on the purpose of mediation, the rules of engagement, and the good faith

expectations for both sides.

enable the efficient processing

of an increasing caseload, the

staff and strategic partnerships,

the DPA began a digital

empower team collaboration, enable automated reporting, support data-driven capabilities,

track internal performance, identify patterns to support policy recommendations, and manage

complainant interaction. At the end of 2018, the DPA used the outline to publish a Request for

Quotes for a new case management system.