City AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY, George Gaseén District Attorney September 28, 2017 Board of Alderman’s Public Safety Committee St. Louis, Missouri Dear Aldermen, I write to urge you to support Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's motion for resources to improve the quality and independence of police officer shootings and use of force investigations. In 2016, my office requested and was granted funds from our Board of Supervisors to establish a Unit similar to what the Cireuit Attorney is proposing. ilar to St. Louis, we had several officer involved shootings in San Francisco in 2013 and 2016 that raised great concerns for the community and our local government. We all know how challenging these case are for everyone, but until recently, it was not clear what step should be taken to improve the pursuit of justice. After an examination of our work investigating and reviewing these cases for charging, we found many areas in need of improvement. Our primary concer was that the San Francisco Police Department was in charge of leading the criminal investigation into the conduct of its own employees, This created many challenges for the department, my office and the community. It goes without saying that it is not best practices to have a criminal investigation conducted by the subject of the investigation. The conflict of interest creates very real distrust of the outcomes. In addition to this concern, we also identified inadequacies in our own response. We were not adequately staffed to respond appropriately to officer involved shootings and did not have staff dedicated to this purpose. As a result, the eases dragged on longer than was appropriate Because the duty to bring charges falls to the local prosecuting attorney, he/she must be assured that a complete, independent and fair investigation was conducted, State and Federal authorities only respond in rare exceptional circumstances and eannot be relied upon as our local control, Therefore, local government has an important role in supporting the agencies that investigate and prosecute these cases to assure they meet the highest standards. To ameliorate these challenges in San Francisco, we created the Independent Investigations Bureau (IIB). A new unit within our office dedicated solely to investigated and charging cases of police use of force, officer involved shootings and in custody deaths. The unit {850 BRYANT STREET, THIRD FLOOR: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94103 Rece#TioN: (415) 553-1752 + FAcsiMis: (415) 553-9054,City AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY is staffed with six attorneys, six investigators and two paralegals. We are in the process of negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding with the police department to make us the lead investigator on the criminal investigation. The unit and the agreement will allow us to conduct more thorough, independent, and timely investigations into these critical incidents. It has eased many of the community tensions and has allowed us to build an improved local response by all agenci I would strongly encourage you to consider a similar approach. If my office can be of any further assistance as you review this important measure, please contact my Chief of StalT, Cristine DeBerry at (415) 553-1747. Sincerely. oe - Goond ate Distriet“Astorney