WHEN: 2:00 p.m., Tuesday July 15, 2003, 2:00 p.m.

WHERE: City Hall, Legislative Chamber, City Hall
             1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place 
             room 263, San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO - In the wake of the recent San Francisco Police Department scandals, the Board of Supervisors will be voting today on a ballot measure aimed at placing much needed police accountability measures into the City Charter. The Charter Amendment would restructure the San Francisco Police Commission and grant additional powers to the civilian-run Office of Citizen Complaints (OCC). Supervisors Ammiano, McGoldrick, and Gonzalez are sponsoring the measure that, if approved today by the Supervisors, will go to the voters this November.

"The Police Commission has shown itself unwilling or unable to properly oversee the Police Department or require full departmental cooperation with the OCC in conducting investigations of citizen complaints,” said Mark Schlosberg, Police Practices Policy Director of the ACLU-NC. “The Supervisors should approve the measure and give San Francisco voters the opportunity to put into place mechanisms that will ensure police accountability.”

The proposed initiative will:

• Make the Police Commission more independent and responsive by expanding the number of commissioners to seven and granting the Supervisors the power to appoint three of its members;

• Provide that Commissioners may only be removed with consent of the Board of Supervisors;

• Give the OCC the power to file disciplinary charges before the Police Commission;

• Require the Department to turn over all documents related to cases the OCC is investigating, except where expressly prohibited by law.

This proposed charter change comes as the result of a breakdown in accountability mechanisms that have been documented in separate reports by the ACLU-NC, the OCC, and the SF Controller’s Office. It incorporates recommendations made in all three reports.