We need you urgently as the San Francisco Police Commission weighs a revision to traffic stops policy in order to end biased stops, i.e. racial profiling.
A comment at the Police Commission meeting takes just 2 minutes (at this week's Wednesday evening meeting at 5:30pm) . See below a script for comment.
The SFPD has continuously shown that it can not and will not equitably police Black San Franciscans. According to SFPD's own reporting, a Black San Franciscan is over 5 times as likely to be subject to a traffic stop as a white San Franciscan (racial profiling); over 10 times as likely to be arrested, and 15 times as likely to be arrested. See pages 63-65 here: https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/SFPDQADR-Quarter12022-20220610.pdf
Make a PUBLIC COMMENT at the January 11th Police Commission meeting are below, Wednesday at 5:30pm Pacific. Please call in using the instructions below, or attend the meeting in person at Police Commission, SF City Hall, 1 Dr Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 400, San Francisco, CA 94102, to make comment.
Public Comment Call-In: 415-655-0001, Access code: 2489 158 9096. Call in at 5:30pm and wait for the meeting to begin. When the clerk begins to introduce General Public Comment, follow the instructions, press *3 to raise your hand to wait to speak.
If you are unable to comment in person or via phone, you may email your comment. Please copy mwjusticenow@gmail.com on your email to sfpd.commission@sfgov.org. If emailing, in the subject line, put "Public Comment - End Biased Stops"
PUBLIC COMMENT TALKING POINTS :
I am commenting in support of Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community. At the last Commission meeting, you shut down commenters on ending biased traffic stops, saying those speakers could speak later in the meeting. But then immediately afterward, Commission President Elias announced that the agenda item had been removed altogether. If this wasn’t a violation of official rules, it was still a calculated manipulation of your own policies which suppressed public comment.You owe it to the public tonight to hear every comment which was not allowed at the last meeting.
I support Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community’s effort to end racial profiling via traffic stops by SFPD.
Other cities and states throughout the country are doing this – in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, and in Berkeley, California, to name a few. They are eliminating routine stops by police (for things like a malfunctioning turn signal or brake light) due to racial profiling of Black drivers.
In San Francisco, a Black driver is more than 5 times as likely to be stopped by police as is a white driver – and more searches of Black drivers occur, even though less criminal evidence is found. All of this was in the 2016 federal D.O.J. COPS report, and the anti-Black disparity remains as high as ever today.
The process around development of a policy to end pretext stops by SFPD has become fraught. Police have had an outsized influence and have trumpeted inaccurate information at meetings – including talk of criminal activity having nothing to do with traffic stops. You have removed language about the very REASON this change is necessary - racial profiling.
Please shut down the disinformation and confusion and don’t lose track of the goal. Something like a broken tail light should not be a reason for Black San Franciscans to be stopped, searched, and worse. Make this change as others across the country are doing, in the name of racial equity. Thank you.