SF police chief quits amid growing scandals, racial bias claims against department
ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr speaks during a news conference on April 29 in San Francisco.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr makes his way to a podium before the start of a news conference on April 29 in San Francisco.
San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr has stepped down at the request of the city’s mayor after a fatal officer-involved shooting today and a series of scandals that have rocked the department over the last year.
In a surprise announcement this afternoon, Mayor Ed Lee said that after the latest fatal shooting, of an unarmed woman in a suspected stolen car in the city’s Bayview neighborhood, he had lost faith that Suhr could mend the department’s relationship with the community.
“My goal has been real reform and trust has to be our priority. I have previously expressed confidence in Chief Suhr because I know he agrees with and understands the need for reform,” Lee said. “But following this morning’s shooting and my meeting with Chief Suhr this afternoon, today I have arrived at a different conclusion at how best to move forward.”
Lee continued: “The progress we’ve made has been meaningful but it hasn’t been fast enough. Not for me and not for Greg.”
The new acting chief is Toney Chaplin, a 26-year department veteran who was a deputy chief and former head of the department’s homicide division.
“The men and women of SFPD put themselves in harm’s way literally every day. We owe it to them to restore the community’s trust in their work,” Lee said.
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For more than a year, San Francisco police have been under a microscope amid a series of scandals that saw officers accused of violating citizens’ civil rights, impeding criminal investigations, and exchanging racist text messages.
The racist text messages found on officers’ cellphones embroiled more than a dozen officers and put more than 3,000 criminal cases in jeopardy, including several homicides.
In January, civil rights activists demanded a federal investigation into the shooting of Mario Woods, a black man who was struck by more than 20 bullets during an encounter with police.
Following the discovery of the text messages, Suhr and city leaders had pledged to implement a host of reforms to add officer training against implicit bias and increase accountability for officers who don’t report misconduct by their colleagues.
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©2016 Los Angeles Times
2 responses to “SF police chief quits amid growing scandals, racial bias claims against department”
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And this from the city that wants to tell everyone else how to live.
Frisco is like any other big city. Your personal safety and the chance that your civil rights will be violated by the police really depend on where you live or habitually find yourself. Chicago is the example many people point to, but Frisco is equally replete with streets and neighborhoods you just don’t loiter in – especially after dark. Looking like a tourist from Hawaii might earn you safe passage in some of the rougher neighborhoods most of the time, but certainly not everytime.