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To name two examples among many: In February 2002, I wrote about how the SFPD hid information about the police asphyxiation of a man who'd shoplifted a blender ("Bound and Gagged," 2/20/02). And just last month the department refused to release to me three-year-old records about a fugitive shot by police, citing the "ongoing investigation" excuse.
Gascon plans an about-face toward greater openness. "I come from a world where everything is public record from day one," he said. "You don't want to undermine the integrity of an investigation, but police business is public business. We have to be careful that we do not use protecting an ongoing investigation as an excuse. We're not in the business of hiding things. I think the onus is that you have to show that the release of information actually is going to compromise an investigation. The burden should be on the side of those who wish to withhold information. The overarching principle should be openness and transparency."
Most pressing to San Franciscans has been the police department's notorious failure to bring criminals to justice. A 2002 Chronicle inquiry showed that detectives investigating violent crime were loath to leave their desks, preferring instead to pursue leads by phone, and simply let many crimes drop through the cracks.
Gascon said the solution is straightforward: improve the department's ability to obtain and analyze information about crimes, then weed out weak performers. "If the captain is not performing, or the lieutenants, officers, or sergeants, it's really simple," he said. "It's not very complicated. Good performance comes to the surface."
Mesa Command staff at the losing end of Gascon's drive to upend policing in that desert suburb didn't see a visionary. They saw a leader blinkered by preconceived notions, trucked in from Los Angeles, who was prone to making snap judgments before he'd taken the time to figure out what was going on.
The San Francisco police union is already girding for a similar battle. In the July newsletter of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, president Gary Delagnes wrote a front-page column noting that the union had fought to have an insider hired as incoming chief, and that Gascon's outsider status portends a culture clash.
Gascon arrives "via two police departments that bear very little similarity to our own," Delagnes wrote. "It's going to be interesting on both sides of the equation. I have advised him to get to know the members and don't prejudge anything or anyone until he has had the chance to meet our people."
Ex-chief Ribera echoes Delagnes' advice. He compares Gascon to the last outsider to lead the department. "Charlie Gain, in 1975, when he came in, made the decisions too quickly," Ribera said. "He came in and did some quick interviews, and made his decisions based on those interviews. There were a lot of ruffled feathers. If the new chief were to ask my advice, I'd say, 'Take your time on this.' There's no urgency. I can tell you the people in there now are all quality people. They may not fit into his current plans. But they're quality people."
Disgruntled ex-brass in Mesa describe a similar turn of events. "He came in chopping heads, and cutting out anything and everything in his path to get his message conveyed," said Federico, who retired in 2007 after 30 years. "His strong leadership style, it can be a benefit to a department. But I think he had a lot to gain by engaging his staff, which I don't think he did. He came here well prepared. He did his homework as far as the community of Mesa. But he didn't put much regard in his existing staff."
Gascon acknowledges that there was turmoil during his first year at the department. "Some people may feel they were pushed out, and if they feel that way, I'm not going to debate that," he said.
But Gascon said he had good reasons for driving what some commanders thought was a department purge: "There were people at high levels of the command staff who didn't know what the crime levels were. I remember talking to one of our command staff, and he gave me a blank stare and said he didn't know what the crime levels were. It's like walking into Microsoft and finding out they don't know what their products were or how they were performing."
In San Francisco, he adds, "I expect them to know what the business is, and what the practices are. For people who do not, that's going to be a problem."
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