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The San Francisco Police Department began operations on August 13, 1849 during the California Gold Rush in San Francisco, California, under the command of Captain Malachi Fallon.
At the time of founding on August 13, 1849, Chief Malachi Fallon had a force of one deputy captain, three sergeants, and thirty officers. [1]
In 1851, Albert Bernard de Russailh wrote about the nascent San Francisco police force:
As for the police, I have only one thing to say. The police force is largely made up of ex-bandits, and naturally the members are interested above all in saving their old friends from punishment. Policemen here are quite as much to be feared as the robbers; if they know you have money, they will be the first to knock you on the head. You pay them well to watch over your house, and they set it on fire. In short, I think that all the people concerned with justice or the police are in league with the criminals. The city is in a hopeless chaos, and many years must pass before order can be established. In a country where so many races are mingled, a severe and inflexible justice is desirable, which would govern with an iron hand. [2]
On October 28, 1853, the Board of Aldermen passed Ordinance No. 466, which provided for the reorganization of the police department. [3] Sections one and two provided as follows:
The People of the City of San Francisco do ordain as follows:
Sec. 1. The Police Department of the City of San Francisco, shall be composed of a day and night police, consisting of 56 men (including a Captain and assistant Captain), each to be recommended by at least ten tax-paying citizens.
Sec. 2. There shall be one Captain and one assistant Captain of Police, who shall be elected in joint convention of the Board of Aldermen and assistant Aldermen. The remainder of the force, viz., 54 men, shall be appointed as follows: By the Mayor, 2; by the City Marshal, 2; by the City Recorder, 2; and by the Aldermen and assistant Aldermen, 3 each.
In July 1856, the "Consolidation Act" went into effect. This act abolished the office of City Marshal and created in its stead the office of Chief of Police. The first Chief of Police elected in 1856 was James F. Curtis a former member of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance. [4]
In early August 1975, the SFPD went on strike over a pay dispute, violating a California law prohibiting police from striking. [5] The city quickly obtained a court order declaring the strike illegal and enjoining the SFPD back to work. The court messenger delivering the order was met with violence and the SFPD continued to strike. [5] Only managers and African-American officers remained on duty, [6] with 45 officers and 3 fire trucks responsible for a city population of 700,000. [7] Supervisor Dianne Feinstein pleaded Mayor Joseph Alioto to ask Governor Jerry Brown to call out the National Guard to patrol the streets but Alioto refused. When enraged civilians confronted SFPD officers at the picket lines, the officers arrested them. [5] The strike was joined by the city's firefighters. [8] The ACLU obtained a court order prohibiting strikers from carrying their service revolvers. Again, the SFPD ignored the court order. [5] On August 20, a bomb detonated at the Mayor's home with a sign reading "Don't Threaten Us" left on his lawn. [9] On August 21, Mayor Alioto advised the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that they should concede to the strikers' demands. [9] The Supervisors unanimously refused. Mayor Alioto immediately then declared a state of emergency, assumed legislative powers, and granted the strikers' demands. [10] City Supervisors and taxpayers sued but the court found that a contract obtained through an illegal strike is still legally enforceable. [10]
In 1997, the San Francisco International Airport Police merged with SFPD, becoming the SFPD Airport Bureau. [11]
As of September 8, 2011, ground was broken for San Francisco's new Public Safety Building (PSB) in Mission Bay. A replacement facility for the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Headquarters and Southern District Police Station currently located at 850 Bryant, the PSB will also contain a fire station to serve the burgeoning neighborhood. The new building was completed in 2015. [12]
The first African American police officer on SFPD in the 19th-century was Edward Dennis, the son of George Washington Dennis. [13] [14] In 2014, the San Francisco Police academy graduated its first publicly reported transgender police officer, Mikayla Connell. [15]
Daniel James White was an American politician who assassinated George Moscone, the mayor of San Francisco, and Harvey Milk, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, inside City Hall on November 27, 1978. White was convicted of manslaughter for the deaths of Milk and Moscone and served five years of a seven-year prison sentence. Less than two years after his release, he returned to San Francisco and later committed suicide.
Heather Jeanne Fong is an American security official and the former chief of police for San Francisco, California, United States from 2004 to 2009. She is the first woman to lead the San Francisco Police Department, and the first Asian American woman to head a major metropolitan city police force. She is also the second Asian American police chief in SFPD history, the other being Fred Lau.
Richard Duane Hongisto was a businessman, politician, sheriff, and police chief of San Francisco, California, and Cleveland, Ohio.
The Golden Dragon massacre was a gang-related mass shooting that took place on September 4, 1977, inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 822 Washington Street in Chinatown, San Francisco, California, United States. The five perpetrators, members of the Joe Boys, a Chinese youth gang, were attempting to kill leaders of the Wah Ching, a rival Chinatown gang. The attack left five people dead and 11 others injured, none of whom were gang members. Seven perpetrators were later convicted and sentenced in connection with the murders. The massacre led to the establishment of the San Francisco Police Department's Asian Gang Task Force, credited with ending gang-related violence in Chinatown by 1983. The restaurant itself closed in 2006.
The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is the municipal law enforcement agency of the City and County of San Francisco, as well as the San Francisco International Airport in San Mateo County. In 2000, the SFPD was the 11th largest police department in the United States.
Fred Harry Lau is a former Chief of Police for San Francisco, having served from 1996–2002. He was the first Asian American to ever hold that position, and has been called the first Chinese-American to lead the police in any major American city. In 2013, he became the TSA Federal Security Director of the San Francisco International Airport.
Jeffrey Gordon Adachi was an American attorney, pension reform advocate, and politician who served as the Public Defender of San Francisco from 2003 to 2019.
Prentice Earl Sanders, also known as Earl Sanders, was a member of the San Francisco Police Department from 1964 through 2003. He became the first African American chief of that department in 2002. His tenure was marked by "Fajitagate", a scandal over a street brawl involving several officers followed by an impeachment investigation, which led to his eventual departure.
Chesa Boudin is an American lawyer who served as the 29th District Attorney of San Francisco from January 8, 2020, to July 8, 2022. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
John Leonard Burris is an American civil rights attorney, based in Oakland, California, known for his work in police brutality cases representing plaintiffs. The John Burris law firm practices employment, criminal defense, DUI, personal injury, and landlord tenant law.
Occupy San Francisco was a collaboration that began with a demonstration event located at Justin Herman Plaza in the Embarcadero and in front of the Federal Reserve building on Market Street in the Financial District in San Francisco, California. It is based on the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York City on September 17, 2011 and is one of several "Occupy" protest sites in the San Francisco Bay Area; other sites include Occupy Oakland and Occupy San Jose.
Nathan Ballard is a U.S. Democratic strategist and attorney. He was the communications director for the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, when Newsom was the 42nd mayor of San Francisco. He is a longtime friend and advisor to Newsom. He sat on the board of directors of The Representation Project, Jennifer Siebel Newsom's nonprofit organization. Ballard had close ties with the 43rd mayor of San Francisco, Ed Lee. He was an advisor to Mark Farrell, the 44th mayor of San Francisco.
San Francisco currently has lower-than-average rates of violent crime when compared with other major U.S. cities, while property crimes, such as theft and burglary, are higher than the national average.
The Frisco Five, also known as #Frisco5, are a group of protesters who went on hunger strike on April 21, 2016 in San Francisco, California in front of the San Francisco Police Department Mission Station to demonstrate against episodes of police brutality, use-of-force violations, and racial bias. Specifically the deaths of Alex Nieto on March 21, 2014, Mario Woods on December 2, 2015, Amilcar Perez Lopez on February 26, 2015, and Luis Gongora on April 7, 2016.
Alejandro "Alex" Nieto was a man who was shot and killed by four San Francisco Police Department officers on March 21, 2014, in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Nieto was a bouncer at a local nightclub, and the shooting took place before he was to start work that evening. A couple called 911 when they saw him sitting on a bench and saw Nieto's taser. Nieto was wearing a taser, and the police officers alleged that Nieto pointed the taser at them. The responding police officers also said they believed that the taser was a firearm.
Hillary Ronen is an American politician and attorney serving as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from District 9, which includes the neighborhoods of Mission District, Bernal Heights, and Portola.
On June 14, 2017, 38-year-old Jimmy Lam fatally shot three coworkers at a United Parcel Service (UPS) facility in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. Lam then shot and killed himself as police arrived at the facility. Two others were wounded by gunfire, and three people were injured while escaping.
African Americans in San Francisco, California, composed just under 6% of the city's total population as of 2019 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, down from 13.4% in 1970. There are about 55,000 people of full or partial black ancestry living within the city. The community began with workers and entrepreneurs of the California Gold Rush in the 19th century, and in the early-to-mid 20th century, grew to include migrant workers with origins in the Southern United States, who worked as railroad workers or service people at shipyards. In the mid-20th century, the African American community in the Fillmore District earned the neighborhood the nickname the "Harlem of the West," referring to New York City's Harlem neighborhood, which is associated with African American culture.
The Hunters Point social uprising broke out in the Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco on the night of September 27, 1966, after San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) officer Alvin Johnson shot and killed Matthew Johnson, a teenager who was fleeing the scene of a stolen car. The National Guard and California Highway Patrol (CHP) were deployed late that night by Governor Pat Brown, and martial law was imposed until October 1.
The Castro Sweep is a police riot that occurred in the Castro District of San Francisco on the evening of October 6, 1989. The riot, by about 200 members of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), followed a protest held by ACT UP, a militant direct action group responding to the concerns of people with AIDS.
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