Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout09.19.2022 Equity and Public Safety Commission Meeting MinutesCity of South San Francisco Minutes of the Commission on Equity and Public Safety Monday, September 19, 2022 Zoom Teleconference Meeting 6:00 pm Committee Members: Present: Krystle Cansino, PaulaClaudine Hobson-Coard, Arnel Junio, Alan Perez, Carol Sanders Absent: None Staff Members: Present: Amy Ferguson, Management Fellow Maryjo Nuñez, Management Fellow Guests: Leah Lockheart, Assistant City Manager Sharon Ranals, Detective Juan Perez, Sgt. Amy Sariotti, Claire Lai, Chief Magallanes CALL TO ORDER This meeting was called to order at 6:01pm. AGENDA REVIEW There were no changes to the Agenda. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The Minutes from the August 15, 2022, minutes were approved. LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Commissioner Hobson-Coard presented the Land Acknowledgement to the Commission. PUBLIC COMMENTS No public comments were made. MATTERS OF CONSIDERATIONS 1. Approval of Minutes Vice Chair Junio motioned to approve the minutes, seconded by Commissioner Hobson-Coard. All Commissioners voted 5-0 to approve the minutes. 2. Presentation on Police Officer Crisis Intervention Team Training by Detective Juan Perez The Commission listed to the presentation and engaged in the following discussion: CIT training Vice Chair Junio shared that he is a veteran, and asked are these veterans with specialized education or training or just volunteers? Detective Perez answered that those volunteers who want to share experience whether good or bad so we can learn are welcome too. Vice Chair Junio also asked are the numbers of transients/homeless increasing? Detective Perez answered that the numbers are pretty constant, we have our regulars, but we do have an influx of those who are living in their vehicles, not sure if they are considered transients. Chair Cansino thinks that there is a piece missing and askes “when officers see a behavior, but it may look like mental illness, but it could be medical like delirium, so this is an emergency medical conditions… are our south city officers trained in this and on how to tell the difference?” Detective Perez added that additional training is based on what SSFPD has seen. What they use information on is to tailor their approach. Once the situation is deemed safe, then ok to proceed, and SSFPF does have a medical response team that can come in and jump in once deemed safe. Chair Cansino wanted to clarify that medics are always close to which Detective Perez stated that let’s say we already seen someone getting injury, then we want medics close by, but this is for anyone in case they get injured, so just a matter of trying to project. Chair Cansino “what if they are catatonic? Do we have this kind of partnership so that officers aren’t wasting time in the effect that it is a medical emergency.” Sgt. Sariotti shared that they are trained in looking at delirium and 1150 symptoms, so since officers are trained across the board and will be there; they will automatically dispatch SSFFD so that they are ready to come in. Chair Cansino appreciates what SSFPD is doing and appreciates what Detective Perez has shared with us. Chair Cansino shared that the contact for the CIT division in SF, Lt. Molina is a South City resident, so if want to use him as a resource, she is happy to share the contact. Detective Perez is glad to see the City putting these commissions and committees together so that the community can mingle. 3. Presentation on Trauma-Informed Policing by Sergeant Amy Sariotti The Commission heard the presentation and engaged in the following discussion: Trauma Informed Policing Vice Chair Junio shared that he is overwhelmed at the resources available for the community; he is a veteran, so he asked what SSFPD is doing for their own officers when they experience something traumatic. Sgt. Sariotti shared that SSFPD does debriefs, will call the officer, and do a debrief in partnership with HR/follow-up and peer support in the following weeks and months. Chair Cansino mentioned that their crisis starts once they are told about the situation and asked if SSFPD has a team that actually is with them for time. Sgt. Sariotti stated that officers already do this already; we go through it with the family, some even help families. Chair Cansino asked about grief counsellors specifically; even asking like “what can I do to help?” Sgt. Sariotti mentioned that not all crisis negotiators are trained in the same way, everyone has different parts they experience, but some would have grief training; they keep records of what officers have trainings and of what, so if they know that we need someone trained with grief, then SSFPD can call them. Chair Cansino asked if do SSFPD has a child crisis specific team? Sgt. Sariotti stated that they would work closely with the Keller Center for medications, departmental health, etc. If a child is having a crisis, they would like to utilize something like SMART, but for each situation, they would determine who and what is needed in order to minimize traumatic interactions. If they need someone who speaks another language, will reach out to other agencies for support, but Language Line is last resort. Chair Cansino added that if the video is updated, she would like to see more diversity. Commissioner Sanders stated that this was enlightening and that she had no idea the range of services in SSF and in San Mateo. She doesn’t see the level of homelessness in SSF compared to SF and so was wondering if mental health patients were being dropped here and how do we handle it? Sgt. Sariotti stated that this is not common, but because South City has a BART station and St. Vincent de Paul, this is often how the City comes into contact with them, but no agency has specifically dropped them off to our jurisdiction. Cansino shared that officers can feel free to reach out if folks want a connection to SFPD. 4. Recess The Commission took a brief recess and returned at 7:38pm. 5. Training on Laws and Processes Regarding Complaint Referral Process from HR Director Leah Lockhart and Assistant City Attorney Claire Lai The Commission heard the presentation and engaged in the following discussion: HR Director, Leah Lockheart (LL) shared that the City has an MOU with each labor group Chair Cansino asked if this board is elected or appointed, to which LL responded that it is appointed by city council: they would interview and then City Council would make the appointment. Chair Cansino also asked if the City has a whistleblower program, and LL stated that the City has as part of the antidiscrimination policy is anti-retaliation, so employees can’t be disciplined for bringing up a situation. Chair Cansino asked if HR could give the Commission of an example of something that is politically driven. LL responded that it could be that have a Councilmember that is pressuring an employee to support them but then they get in trouble, and the Councilmember decides to get rid of them. Also in the hiring process, this is a standard protocol for openings, the City has a test whether write-in or oral and then those who pass are collected in a list. Chair Cansino asked what the vetting process for the 3rd party investigations is. LL shared that work with legal team in terms of investigators that are recommended. The City does get proposals from a variety of investigators that are recommended but try not to use the same investigator for every case to prevent prejudice. Chair Cansino asked if is there any way for the public to support investigators that could be chosen or could be vetted for that process? LL responded that the City would still need an internal vetting system but doesn’t see how that could be a problem. Assistant City Attorney Claire Lai (CL) presented 2 types of filing complaints: Outside of Commission Meetings: -Individuals may choose to fill out the complaint form online or by paper and submit to the Commission Staff Liaison -Complaints will be referred to the City’s Human Resources Department to determine the appropriate form/process of investigation At Commission Meetings: -Individuals may elect to state complaints in person during public meetings -Commission may ask complaint to provide additional details and clarification -Commission may not discuss or ask investigatory questions of the complaint -Complaints will be documented and referred to the City’s Human Resources Department to determine the appropriate form/process of investigation Vice Chair Junio asked if someone were to come to commission meetings and more or less make a verbal complaint, can we as commissioners take notes and then instruct them to take this form and come back? CL answered to have them fill out the form, and if meeting is reported, that information can be documented and passed onto to HR. AF shared that any person could fill out form themselves or staff can fill out the form. Chair Cansino asked if personnel records can only be revealed once investigation is complete? CL stated that in the example if the record is considered public by state law, it can be revealed but if not considered public by law, then the City still keeps that information private. Chair Cansino followed with a clarifying question, asking if with sexual assault or dishonesty, can it be revealed once completed? CL answered yes. Chair Cansino asked how would the Commission know that? What if someone from the public says, “I want to make a complaint about this person and got the complaint directly, but it wasn’t made public,” can the Commission share? CL shared that when someone comes to public meeting, the investigatory records would not be disclosed while the investigation is ongoing. Chair Cansino wanted to know if all the complaints would come to the Commission first. If the Commission is the one to look at complaints, maybe it should be the Commissioners that is the first to hear the complaint, then dept. head, then City Manager, and HR. CL explained that the ability to go to department is staying, but the Commission’s part is when people do not elect to go to department. It’s not changing the way that people have flexibility of channeling complaints, just providing another option. Assistant City Manager Ranals explained that HR is sort of the central clearing house for complaints and are in a position to know what kind of discipline should be imposed depending on situation as they have seen these situations before and to prevent false claims too. There is just too much of a variety of complaints depending on department. LL added that not all complaints go to HR Director, but when we are going to levels of discrimination, assault, illegal actions, those would certainly go to the HR office. Also, we need to protect the identity of the complaining party, could go both ways, maybe they just want to work with HR or just the dept. and would like to have options for people to decide who they are comfortable with. Chair Cansino asked what if a community problem came about but has to do with the private sector, i.e.: complain about the private schools in South City, would that be complaining against the city or just the school? CL stated that the complaints could be against city personnel but could go towards a recommendation that the commission has but the City would not take action to process that. AF shared that this is an interesting and cool function of the commission: to offer safe space the community as they will be better at understanding race, etc. especially if seeing a pattern and to find out if there is something that the city needs to improve on, so this could be really impactful. 6. Future Agenda Suggestions Chair Cansino shared that she would like to see a topic on Policy and Crisis Training Chair Cansino shared the following regarding this topic: a. For Sariotti to be the only child forensics trauma officer, that’s a lot of pressure for SSFPD to be both therapists and officers b. Maybe SSFPD can add another clinician that is child-focused c. Medication portion of crisis can too often be ignored, and this can be fatal Officer Carlino responded that there could be a medication emergency, but SSFPD can’t ignore that there might be a criminal component as well since PD was called in as well as that SSFPD Officers don’t know exactly what they are dealing with until arriving at the scene. Chair Cansino asked Officer Carlino if the dispatchers trained for the different services in the city, like criminal and medical emergencies too. i. Carlino: they do to an extent but base it on the information from the call and sometimes those who make the call are also limited in their scope ii. Most services are available but also depend on the time… if it’s 3AM maybe not Amy Ferguson shared that it sounds like police already has resources and services in place and recommended that the Chair and Vice Chair agendize this topic for a future meeting. Commissioner Sanders asked Officer Carlino if there is just one person who answers like Sgt. Sariotti, and so wonders about what kind of relief she gets. Officer Carlino responded that not all police departments have one liaison like Sgt. Sariotti, would SSFPD be better served to have more? Absolutely, SSFPD would like to spread throughout the department and share logistics, trainings, and our “subject matter expert” to spread knowledge to other departments. Chair Cansino shared that she would like to introduce a time to have discussions after each topic and as a Commissioner would like to talk to other Commissioners in the movement instead of having to have to wait, especially for the next meeting. Commissioner Sanders agrees. Chair Cansino asked Staff Liaison Ferguson if the data is supposed to come next month to which Amy Ferguson responded that when she spoke to the chief, he said data would be ready in October. Chair Cansino also asked if CIT data is already available. Officer Carolino, followed up, asking “what do you mean for CIT calls?” and shared that the thing about CIT is that what people don’t understand is that the skills that the officers receive are used all day long… much higher than just 20% of calls are mental health calls so to capture how accurately how CIT calls are used is almost impossible. Chair Cansino asked about 5150 calls/data, to which Officer Carlino shared that SSFPD can definitely do this, but it’s not going to be accurate indicator of all mental health calls/data. Items from the Commission There were no items from the Commission. Items from Staff Assistant City Manager Ranals invited Commissioners to Concert in the Park. Amy Ferguson shared that the Tuesday, 9/19/22 is the date for interviews for the 2 open spots; once we have the appointees, we can get started on subcommittees, and asked Commissioner to please fill out the doodle for tour of PD station. Police Citizens Academy is ongoing. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 9:06pm.