A six-month investigation of the San Francisco Police Department by the U.S. Justice Department, prompted by the killing of Mario Woods and other fatal police shootings, concludes that the department does a poor job of tracking and investigating officers' use of force, has ineffective antibias training and shields its disciplinary process from public view.
"We found a department with concerning deficiencies in every operational area assessed: use of force; bias; community policing practices; accountability measures; and recruitment, hiring and promotion practices," Ronald Davis, director of the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, wrote in the report's executive summary.
The department released its report Wednesday, along with 272 recommended changes for a police force racked over the past year by racist and homophobic text message scandals and fatal shootings that have frayed relationships between the department and minority communities.
The report found no proof of "racial bias by officers of the SFPD or by the agency as a whole," and said race and ethnicity were not "significantly associated with the severity of force" that officers use. But it did conclude that police stop African American drivers in disproportionate numbers and that black and Hispanic drivers are more likely to be searched than whites.
Mayor Ed Lee, who asked for the Justice Department's investigation, said he was "directing the leadership of the San Francisco Police Department and the Police Commission to implement these reforms as soon as possible with one specific goal in mind: fair and just policing that treats everyone the same and places the sanctity of life above all else."
The report comes as the Police Commission is considering candidates to replace former Chief Greg Suhr, who resigned in May after an officer shot an unarmed African American woman driving a stolen car. Among the candidates is acting Chief Toney Chaplin, who formerly headed the agency's community policing bureau.
The commission is expected soon to suggest three finalists to Lee, who will pick the next chief.
At a news conference Wednesday, Davis called for the report to be a "guiding document" in the search for a chief.
Davis said the report "validates that which many people knew, that which many people have experienced. ... The next great challenge is, can we implement 272 recommendations? That is going to require leadership."
Among the report's findings and recommendations:
--The department needs to improve its tracking of officers' use of force. Its current system is outdated -- some records are kept on paper, making it difficult to identify troubling trends.
--The city should "strongly consider" giving officers electronic stun guns as an alternative to using lethal force, which the Police Department has suggested several times, without success.
--Although the Police Department disciplined officers who swapped racist and homophobic text messages, it failed to "take action to ensure this was not an institutionalized problem." Among other recommendations, the report urged that the department regularly check officers' "electronic communication devices to determine whether they are being used to communicate bias."
--The department should report "data regarding complaints against department members, their outcome, and trends in complaints and misconduct." The reason: Justice Department-led interviews of residents found "a consistently stated belief, especially in the African American and Hispanic communities, that officers are not held accountable for misconduct."
Overall, the report found the Police Department to be "an organization of good intentions ... that sometimes failed in execution with respect to accountability and ensuring appropriate cultural standards."
The report spanned more than 400 pages, going into detail on the assessment team's 94 findings. In general, it said the Police Department doesn't formalize policing standards meant to improve community relations or communicate well to its officers what is expected of them.
Some of the department's policies are outdated, the report found, and there is no simple or streamlined system in place to update them. Data collection and analysis, a longtime issue for the department, continues to be lacking, especially when it comes to use-of-force incidents.
The Justice Department team also found the quality of use-of-force investigations to be deficient. Many "were not truly investigations," the report said. "Witnesses were not often interviewed in depth. There was not a sense of using factual support or the absence of facts to make an investigative summary. Inconsistencies in statements were often not pressed."
Following the fatal shooting of Woods on Dec. 2, the Police Commission reopened the department's use-of-force general orders, approving a policy in June that put more of an emphasis on using minimal force.
The Justice Department backed most of the proposed revisions, which are now in negotiations between the Police Officers Association and the city. The main points that the union objected to -- a ban on carotid restraints and a more restrictive policy for firing into moving vehicles -- had the support of the Justice Department.
Davis called the union "a valid stakeholder," but said it was drawing out negotiations unnecessarily.
"It's too long," he said. "We're now starting to debate about things that are just bad practices. The Department of Justice will not waver on its position about carotid restraints; it should be prohibited. We will not waver about shooting at moving vehicles; it should not occur."
Union President Martin Halloran said in a statement that although the union doesn't back all of the Justice Department's recommendations, it is "committed to improving the relationship between the police and the community we serve."
The report was critical of several other Police Department practices, particularly its handling of two cases in which police officers were implicated in exchanging bigoted text messages.
"Given the nature of the officers' open and flagrant behavior, the SFPD should have considered that this may be an institutionalized problem and taken steps to address the behavior from an organizational perspective," the report said.
Looking into the possibility of institutionalized bias was the basis behind District Attorney George Gascón's formation of a blue ribbon panel of retired judges following the emergence of the first set of racist text messages in 2015.
The Justice Department cited and upheld many of the panel's recommendations. While police officials have "demonstrated a willingness to advance practices aimed at reducing biased behavior," those efforts "remain in developmental stages and have had little measurable impact," the report said.
Officers "demonstrated implicit bias through their word choice and language use," which had implications when it came to traffic stops and arrests, the report said. It found that African American drivers were stopped in disproportionate numbers and that they and Latino drivers were searched more often than other motorists, suggesting that "race may play a role in the initial stop decisions of SFPD officers."
The findings largely confirm a Chronicle investigation published in April, which found that police searched black and Latino drivers at much higher rates than whites or Asian Americans after traffic stops. Those searches were much less likely to result in officers uncovering evidence of crimes than less frequent searches of white or Asian American drivers.
The Justice Department launched the collaborative review after officers' fatal shooting of Woods in the Bayview neighborhood, which drew public outcry after videos were posted on social media showing five officers firing at the 26-year-old stabbing suspect from all sides.
Police said Woods was still armed with a knife used in the stabbing and was a threat to officers and bystanders. An investigation into the incident is still under way. In response to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Woods' family, the city attorney's office called the shooting lawful and justified.
Woods' family, the mayor and police watchdogs called for a more binding Justice Department investigation into the department following the Woods shooting, similar to the type that the Obama administration opened in cities including Chicago, Cleveland and Ferguson, Mo.
Any findings from those investigations are considered binding, while a collaborative review like the one conducted in San Francisco can be implemented at the city's discretion.
Some critics of police expressed doubts Wednesday about the Justice Department's ability to ensure that the Police Department takes the report seriously.
"How can they come here and claim that SFPD is willing to implement change when they have noted themselves that the use-of-force policy, which was unanimously passed on June 22, has still not yet been rolled out because the SFPOA is impeding the process?" asked Karen Fleshman, a member of the Justice for Mario Woods Coalition.
The collaborative review had the support of acting Chief Chaplin, who headed the bureau in charge of coordinating with the Justice Department and enacting reforms before stepping in as chief when Suhr resigned following the fatal May 19 shooting of Jessica Williams.
"This past year has not been easy for any of us, not for this department or this country," Chaplin said. "The climate has overshadowed many of our accomplishments and achievements. ... But this climate has also made it clear that it's not enough to do the normal."
Police Commission President Suzy Loftus said she planned to have the Police Department present the commission with updates each month about how the report's recommendations are being implemented.
"This is what we asked for," Loftus said. "We asked for an unflinching, honest assessment of where the department is at, where are their weaknesses, where the gaps are, and we got it. There is a lot of work to do."
Some of the 94 findings and 272 recommendations in the U.S. Justice Department's report on the San Francisco Police Department:
Use of force: The Police Department does not adequately investigate officer use of force. The SFPD needs to develop a policy for investigation standards and a protocol for handling officer statements.
Race and force: Community members' race and ethnicity are not "significantly associated with the severity of force" used by officers, although the "majority of deadly use of force incidents by the SFPD involved persons of color."
Stun guns: The city should "strongly consider" equipping officers with electronic stun guns as an alternative to lethal force.
Racist texts: In light of two racist texting scandals, the Police Department should regularly audit officers' electronic communication devices to determine whether they are being used to send biased messages.
Community policing: Some of the Police Department's policies when it comes to community policing and prohibiting bias and discrimination are outdated.
Implicit bias: While the report found no proof of "racial bias by officers of the SFPD or by the agency as a whole," some officers "demonstrated implicit bias through their word choice and language use."
Traffic stops: Police stop African American drivers in disproportionate numbers.
Hiring practices: "Despite a relatively good record in hiring diverse candidates," women and nonwhites are terminated from recruit training at higher rates than white men. Minorities and women are underrepresented among Police Department leaders and supervisors.
Disciplinary process: The Police Department shields its disciplinary process and outcomes from public view, contributing to a perception -- especially among blacks and Hispanics -- that officers avoid punishment for misconduct.
(c)2016 the San Francisco Chronicle