Education
Police-at-Castro-Street

Critics Applaud S.F. School District Move to End Police Presence

07.09.2020
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Parents applauded the San Francisco school board’s recent move to cut ties with the San Francisco Police Department in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests that have highlighted racial bias in policing. The Board of Education voted on June 23 to overhaul the San Francisco Unified School District’s relationship with police. The decision means that from now on, police can enter San Francisco’s public schools only in emergencies, such as in active shooter cases. Advocates, parents and former teachers say that school resource officers – as police designated to work with schools are known — are often called by staff and parents in situations that don’t warrant police intervention, such as for schoolyard fights or to discipline misbehaving students. This often escalates already tense situations and leads to disproportionate disciplining of Black, Latinx and other minority students, critics say.

Housing

Landlords Threaten to Sue Over S.F. Eviction Ban

06.25.2020
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A landlords’ group plans to sue San Francisco over tenant protections established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the organization’s executive director. The Board of Supervisors this month approved a permanent ban on evictions for rents unpaid from mid-March through July. An earlier local eviction moratorium would have allowed landlords to start pursuing evictions of tenants for any remaining unpaid rents — even those due during the emergency — by the end of December. The end date of the eviction ban is based on an executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who could extend the time period. The switch to a permanent ban galvanized the San Francisco Apartment Association, a property owners group with thousands of members, to threaten legal action.

Law & Justice
Lydia Chavez

Appointees to Police Oversight Body Lack Reform Chops, Legislators Find

06.08.2020
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Last Monday, for seven hours, the Rules Committee of the Board of Supervisors met to grill two of Mayor London Breed’s nominees for the city’s Police Commission, Nancy Tung and Geoffrey Gordon-Creed. The commission acts as an oversight body for the police department. Lydia Chávez, executive editor of Mission Local, covered the meeting and noted that in the current climate of protests against police brutality and advocacy for reform, the supervisors found the candidates inadequately prepared to answer questions about local topics in police reform. The supervisors on this committee voted a motion to their colleagues on the full board, which is slated to vote on whether or not to reject the appointees Tuesday, June 9. The meeting begins at 2 p.m. and this is item 13.

Public Safety
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Police Chief Urges Continued S.F. Curfew Until Looting, Violence End

06.01.2020
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San Francisco remains under an 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew in the wake of a nationwide civil uprising over the death of George Floyd, an African-American man killed at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis. During a Monday morning press conference, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said he is cautioning Mayor London Breed not to end the curfew too soon.

Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data
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CPUC Proposes Repealing Secrecy of Uber, Lyft Accident Data

02.11.2020
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In a dramatic reversal, the agency that regulates the state’s massive ride-hailing industry has proposed that annual safety reports filed by Uber and Lyft should be presumed public. A San Francisco Public Press investigation published Jan. 7 found that the California Public Utilities Commission, the primary regulator of the state’s ride-hailing industry, has permitted the firms to file the reports confidentially on the basis of a single sentence inserted into the regulations as footnote 42, without prior public notice amid heavy industry lobbying.