Arthur Persyko of the Bay Area Civil Liberties Coalition and I both (independently) attended and spoke during public comment at the hearing at the Salvation Army building, 240 Turk Street. Body cameras were the only item on the agenda. Art got in a mention of the BACLC, which I sadly forgot to do when I spoke before him. (We only got 2 minutes each, and there were actually a number of things I'd wanted to say that I didn't manage to get in.) Also some folks I knew there from the SFDebate Meetup group (Alan Frame, Bruce Glassner) and Sex Workers Outreach Project (Jae).
First there was an overview presentation by a police commander (forget his name) who chaired the working group that came up with the draft body camera policy now before the Commission, explaining what the process had been so far.
Then a speech by Marty Halloran, head of the Police Officers Association (the cops' union) and one of the most infamous cops in San Francisco (see e.g. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=28790), who naturally asserted that SFPD officers should be able to view the video footage captured by the body cameras before writing their reports.
The question of whether they should be allowed to do this or not, or to what extent, has been a major point of contention, and that was even more the case at this hearing than the last one I attended. Notwithstanding the fact that I neither I nor the acquaintance who gave me the heads-up about it at the last minute (Alan) had received email notification of the meeting despite having signed up to be sent such email notices, this one drew significantly more attendees than the last such hearing I attended -- maybe 50 or so folks present, perhaps 1/4 law enforcement.
Following Halloran, the head of SF's Office of Citizen Complaints (the toothless police oversight committee that's supposed to handle complaints of officer misbehavior), Joyce Hicks, spoke. Although not as forceful an advocate for the civil liberties P.O.V. as Halloran was for the authoritarian perspective, she at least came down on the right side of the issue.
More encouragingly, in the subsequent public comments of probably at least half the audience, I don't think a single person who wasn't a cop or a former cop came down on the side of the POA on the main issue (while, predictably, every single cop or former cop did!), and many people made excellent points. Among the notable speakers were Nadia Khayalli(sp?) from EFF, a guy Matt whose last name I forget from the ACLU, and a couple representatives from the heroic SF Public Defenders Office.
After the public testimony, two members of the Police Commission made brief comments. The first, Petra deJesus, I think is one of the more liberal members, and I suspect from her comments largely gets it, although it's always hard to tell for sure. The other guy, Victor Hwang(?), was more vague, spending half of his brief remarks unnecessarily thanking various people. I spoke briefly afterward with the Commission president, Suzy Loftus, and although I don't know for sure how she feels, she was quite friendly and approachable, and seemed sympathetic to my concerns about process and such (e.g. the working group being stacked in favor of law enforcement, not receiving notice of the hearing, the presence of numerous uniformed officers at these hearings being potentially intimidating to people who might want to say things critical of the police, etc.).
Anyway, SFGOV.TV was there filming, and said the footage may be online as soon as tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. The next hearing will be November 4 at San Francisco City Hall (I think Room 400 at 6pm, but don't quote me on that), so put it on your calendar if you can attend, and tell a friend -- the more the merrier!
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))