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.
Category: Law & Justice
Posted inCoronavirus, Law & Justice
S.F.’s Jailed Children Barred From In-Person Visits
As efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19 ramp up, incarcerated youth are now restricted to visiting with loved ones via video conference.
Posted inCoronavirus, Law & Justice, Public Safety
S.F. Police Should Curb Enforcement as Coronavirus Spreads, Public Defender Argues
San Francisco’s public defender is calling on police to scale back enforcement of low-level crimes. With the city in a state of emergency due to the coronavirus, risk mitigation is paramount, the agency said.
Posted inCalifornia, Economy & Business, Law & Justice, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Transportation, Utilities
Uber, Lyft Lose Shield on Safety Reports as California Regulator Rescinds Secrecy Rule
Uber and Lyft can no longer keep their safety reports quite so secret. Their California regulator reversed a rule shielding that data from public view.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Housing, Law & Justice
Right to Counsel Helps Tenants Stay in Place, But Effort Is Short on Attorneys
Voters approved a measure in 2018 that guaranteed legal counsel to every tenant facing eviction in San Francisco. But six months after Proposition F was supposed to have been fully implemented, a third of tenants facing eviction have had access to only partial representation.
Posted inLaw & Justice, Public Safety, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Transportation, Utilities
CPUC Proposes Repealing Secrecy of Uber, Lyft Accident Data
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.
Posted inLaw & Justice, Public Safety, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Transportation, Utilities
Commission Says Ride-Hailing Secrecy Footnote to Be Addressed Soon
The California Public Utilities Commission says it expects to decide by the end of March whether to revise or throw out an obscure footnote that it has used to justify keeping data about thousands of ride-hailing accidents across the state under wraps. “We anticipate issuing a decision on the matter in the first quarter of 2020,” commission President Marybel Batjer said in a letter dated Jan. 27 to Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez. The agency also “has established a team dedicated to investigating potential TNC misconduct.”
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Law & Justice
Open Door Legal Expands, Envisioning a Future With Universal Access to Legal Aid
In the United States, you have the right to an attorney to defend you if a criminal charge is brought against you. In some other countries, you also have that right in civil cases. Not so in the U.S.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Law & Justice, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Transportation, Utilities
Officials Urge Change Following Report That Ride-Hailing Data Is Kept Hidden
Seth Rosenfeld, the reporter who broke the story that ride-hailing safety data has been kept hidden from the public with the help of the industry’s chief regulator, offers an update.
Posted inLaw & Justice, Public Safety, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Transportation, Utilities
Officials Demand Disclosure of Ride-Hail Accident Data
Two state legislators and the chairman of San Francisco’s transportation board say the California Public Utilities Commission should release secret safety records on thousands of ride-hailing accidents. Their comments came in response to a San Francisco Public Press investigation that found the agency has been keeping confidential reports on accidents involving Uber, Lyft and other app-based transportation firms for more than six years.