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The Mission Police Station has joined the blogging world. The new police captain, Bob Moser, wrote his first blog post today to remind residents about the upcoming meeting Tuesday. Greetings, We at Mission Station look forward to hosting our monthly community meeting on Tuesday, January 31 at 6:00 p.m. at Mission Station. We value your…
Mission Loc@l

There are plenty to go around ​Some criminals are easy to catch — like the ones who allegedly forget to turn off the surveillance cameras while robbing their own store.. But then there are the more e
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Jim HerdBad start to a Monday ​Update (5 p.m.): Police said that the suspect who they shot and killed earlier this morning had stabbed his 78-year-old parents this morning, killing his mother. The 44-
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Skating right on down to juvenile hall ​Skateboarding might not be a crime, but hitting your bus driver with a skateboard is. Police booked three teenagers today on suspicion of assaulting a Muni driv
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by Lina Abascal

By Lina Abascal

From the looks of it, San Francisco City Hall’s community safety meeting on Wednesday evening could have easily been confused with a high school assembly.

Dozens of San Francisco teens and preteens lined the seats among adults, police and committee members, waiting to share their feelings about community policing and safety.

Lead by District Five Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, members of the community safety committee discussed on Wednesday (March 9) the San Francisco Police Department’s progress toward looking for a new police chief, without divulging any possible candidates.

“We don’t want a cop’s cop,” said Thomas Mazzucco, president of the Police Commission. “It’s so tough to pick who to interview, we have such a talented policed department, I compare our workers to federal agents all of the time, everyone is so capable.”

Not everyone agreed.  Dozens of people voiced their complaints about the police force and the changes they hope to see in a new chief.

Buck Bagot, of the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, offered attendees a makeshift poster to hold during the event, each saying “we need a community policing police chief.” Bagot, along with other volunteers at the center, chaperoned nearly a dozen youth members to allow them to voice their opinions about the upcoming choice for a new police chief.

“These are my kids, this is my community. Bernal Heights, San Francisco in general. The next guy they put out there in charge needs to have the same priorities as us,” said Bagot, a strong advocate for community policing.

Alongside the Bernal Heights Community Center was center for troubled girls, Mission Girls/ Young Queens. Ana Maria Corral, the director of Mission Girls, urged police and the future chief to keep girls out of juvenile hall, and instead send them to programs such as Mission Girls or Young Queens so they can learn from their behavior rather than become a part of the repetitive judicial cycle.

“We need the police, but the police also need us,” said Aylia, of the Bernal Heights Community Center’s after school program for children.

Aylia listed several qualities she was looking for her in ideal police chief including a proactive approach emphasis on serving rather than fighting, and specific training in neighborhood problem solving with a focus on various races and demographics.

“It is essential that any elected official is to provide some level of expectation and accountability of community policing… it is important that we find a way for citizens to know what community policing is,” said Mirkarimi. The 50 plus attendees of the meeting all seemed to be aware of what the term meant and had developed their own examples of it, showing Mirkarimi and other officials that community policing is more of a household name than they might think.

A few San Franciscans were so passionate about explaining their definition and needs for community policing that they were actually forced to stop talking and had the microphone turned off during their speech to make time for other speakers. Leah White, a volunteer from Lowell High struck a chord, resulting in audience applause when she mentioned the stigma around police officers.

“There is a stigma around police officers imposing fear, to break that stigma we need more interaction between the officers and civilians, especially kids. The stigma begins to set in children’s brains, where they see the police as being against them,” said White.

As more and more audience members volunteered their input at the podium, Mazzucco invited the youth participants to sign up for a program specifically geared at students to help them become more involved and acquainted with the police. No comments were made by the committee after each volunteer made a speech, with the exception of a few thank yous.

The search for San Francisco’s new police chief continues with a promised emphasis on a passion for community policing, something both officials and citizens agree on.

SF News Hub

​There has been a series of officer-involved shootings in the Bay Area since late Tuesday night, when a San Jose Police officer’s shoot-out with an alleged robber set off a spate of four ar…
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Police arrested two men Tuesday who allegedly robbed three victims Monday using a box cutter as their weapon. Police also recovered the property stolen.

The first victim, a 43-year-old man, was robbed shortly after 10 p.m. at 15th and Dolores when one of the suspects allegedly threatened him with a box cutter, according to the police report.

After a short struggle, the first suspect succeeded in wrestling a cell phone, backpack and iPod from the victim and then got into a red 4-door Cadillac driven by the second suspect.

The man had a minor cut on his neck but refused transport to a local hospital, the police said.

A half hour later at the corner of 19th and Noe, the first suspect approached a man, 54, from behind and held the box cutter to his throat.

After taking the man’s backpack the first suspect fled on foot, leaving his victim with a minor laceration to the right ear, the police said.

Six minutes later, the men robbed a 36-year-old female at 20th and Dolores.

The victim was walking when one of the suspects grabbed her by the throat and began choking her while he wrestled the purse from her hands and then ran toward the same red Cadillac driven by his partner.

After the third robbery, police from the Mission Station located the vehicle a few blocks from the scene and, after a short pursuit, arrested the two men, 23 and 21, responsible for the robberies and recovered the stolen property.

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Mission Loc@l

Two New Orleans police officers have been charged with lying under oath about the shooting death of a man outside the city’s convention center after Hurricane Katrina.
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