Don’t Let Criminals Get Away! Oppose advancing DGO 5.25.

Proposed Police Commission General Order 5.25 will allow criminals to avoid apprehension just by running away.

The only way this Order can be construed is pro-criminal, anti-community.

Once again, the anti-law enforcement Police Commission is making it nearly impossible for SFPD to do its job. The Commission has already eliminated our officers’ ability to engage in car pursuits of suspects (DGO5.05), and now it plans to enact DGO 5.25, effectively eliminating SFPD’s ability to pursue a suspect on foot!

If a police officer cannot reasonably pursue a suspect by foot or by car, the suspect simply cannot be apprehended. Once criminals know they are less likely to be pursued even by foot, life gets easier for them and more dangerous for every resident of SF. All a criminal has to do is turn around and run.

Tell the un-elected Police Commission you adamantly oppose DGO 5.25 and to stop creating unnecessary, dangerous, anti-common sense policies that render SFPD unable to enforce our laws!

Send an email today!

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Subject

Message to the Police Commission and Board of Supervisors:

Dear Police Commissioners,&#13;&#10;&#13;&#10;I strongly oppose advancing DGO 5.25.  It is unnecessary and to claim this is for “officer safety” is disingenuous and unsupported by empirical data.  Additionally, Order 5.25 is vague and confusing. For example, it is unclear what exactly constitutes a foot pursuit…walking quickly, running, jogging? Does pursuit with a bicycle fall under this Order? How will foot pursuit be defined, and how will an officer know if they are in violation?  &#13;&#10;&#13;&#10;Although obvious, this Commission must be reminded that everything law enforcement does is, by definition, dangerous, and our highly trained SFPD knows how to intelligently pursue criminals while keeping themselves and the public safe. It’s the very nature of their job. Chief Scott, his officers, and our legislators can and should be the ones to establish the threshold of risk for police officers and how to mitigate it.  San Francisco does not need this untrained Commission sitting comfortably at their desks to create a theoretical policy to replace our officers’ personal judgment in real-time about whether they should run after a suspect.  The very suggestion that this Commission is better positioned to spell out what should happen in a foot pursuit would be comical if it were not such a threat to public safety.&#13;&#10;&#13;&#10;DGO 5.25 begs a very dangerous question…what will prevent this anti-law enforcement Commission from using “officer safety” as grounds to stop the police department from enforcing all laws?  Is your plan to policy the SFPD out of existence on the basis of “officer safety?”   By using “concern for officer safety” as a justification for barring our SFPD from pursuing criminal suspects in any manner, you are effectively laying the groundwork for the excuse of “officer safety” to create future policies prohibiting the SFPD from performing any and every task they are legally allowed and required to perform. Yesterday, it was car pursuits. Today, it is foot pursuits. What will it be tomorrow? The Police Commission is not authorized to decide if and what laws get enforced, and you are not imbued with the authority to effectively nullify our police department.&#13;&#10;&#13;&#10;Disguising this ill-conceived, legally unsound policy under the false narrative of “officer safety,” with not a shred of empirical data related to officer safety during foot pursuits, is an offensive and brazenly arrogant dereliction of duty by this Police Commission.   DGO 5.05 already hampers the ability of our officers to pursue and detain suspects. 5.25, coupled with DGO 5.05, now makes ALL pursuit and subsequent arrests nearly impossible, allowing for criminals to flee and avoid apprehension. DGO 5.25 is unnecessary, baseless, dangerous, and lacks common sense.  This is the very definition of Commission overreach and the very opposite of ensuring public safety, and I urge you to abandon further action on this Order.

I'd like to give public comment at the Police Commission meeting on this issue.

Yes! Send me more information!Maybe next time.

Oppose Police Commission General Order 5.25 that lets criminals get away.