May 27, 2008
Washington Post Rightfully Bashes SFPD's Mad Skillz
The San Francisco Police Department gets trashed (again), this time care of Karl Vick's Washington Post post article on the foibles of our very own Keystone Cops. In it, basically, he reveals that our police force, in a word, sucks.
A few stellar examples are cited. Take, for example, the "Cadaver Van Case" where the fuzz waited eight days before checking out a van, "even though their cadaver dogs signaled it might contain something dead." The cops, though, were meh on the entire case; a San Diego citizen ended up catching the killers in Mexico with little more than border crossing knowhow, pluck, and some Kinko copies.
Oh, and the Hugues de la Plaza case? In Hayes Valley? Where SFPD "first surmised that de la Plaza ... stabbed himself three times in the chest, then washed and hid the knife somewhere in his San Francisco apartment." The case is still not listed as a homicide, and French authorities are now trying to get involved to solve the thing. (de la Plaza was a French citizen.)
The San Francisco Police Department responds, as usual, like a stubborn, mildly-retarded, rejected American Idol contestant:
"If you were talking to someone in our department, they wouldn't say we screwed up. Someone else would say we did screw up. That's all a matter of opinion," Sgt. Wilfred Williams said. "Are these cases an indication of some larger problem? Again, that's a matter of opinion. We wouldn't say we necessarily have a problem."
Stunning.
And the article goes on (much of it being painful yet necessary to read). But unlike tone-deaf American Idol contestants, the SFPD gets rewarded for their efforts. Last year Mayor Newsom gave the force a 25 percent pay raise.
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They do suck....when was the last time they solved a murder case? Its not that big of a city.
Nothing surprises me when it comes to SFPD's ineptness. A friend who works in London as part of the Metropolitan Police Service came for a visit last year and went on a ride along with the SFPD. He was amazed at how lax our police were. He found them to be very condescending to anyone of color. He was extremely surprised when the unit he was with was dispatched to a call and the officers ignored it because they wanted to get coffee at Starbucks.
I have to say, I was pretty appalled by the general crap-ness of the police force here. They make the cops back home look like Eliot and Benson. I could cite numerous examples of personal observations of their suck-ness. This article is far from surprising.
Cops should catch bad guys? Again, that's a matter of opinion.
and the man to the far right in the picture is none other than Fatty Arbuckle, of "raped a girl with a coke bottle in the St. Francis in San Francisco" (but he really didn't) fame.
Ah, the bay area connection.
Brock, are you going to post about the Fire department's inability to drive through the streets w/out hitting other vehicles, or is it only an issue when muni does it?
That Washington Post article is just fucking embarrassing.
They should have it laminated and posted at every precinct.
If I'm ever detained by the SFPD for doing something wrong, I'll be sure to try out that "all a matter of opinion" defense.
Is it me, or is the SFPD spokesperson in the article none other than Jeff Lebowski with his "that's just your opinion, man" response?
A couple of observations:
Heather Fong looks like the alien from American Dad and is about as good at her job as he would be.
An SFPD cop once told me I should "learn to speak f*cking English" when I replied to his question with a "what?"
They're still looking for the Zodiac Killer.
They're all either big fatties or miniature asians who look like fourteen year olds.
The moment The Big One hits they will all run screaming back to Tracey or where ever the f**k they live and leave us to fend for ourselves,
I actually went on a ride along with an officer from the Mission District station, and he was awesome. He was extremely intelligent, friendly, and totally tuned in to SF sensibilities. He had some insight into why the SFPD has problems, though of course wasn't able to speak entirely freely.
I didn't get to spend much time with other officers, so maybe I just got one of their best because they wanted to impress the people on the ride along. Still: they've got at least one awesome cop.
That previous post was brought to you the PR firm of Hack, Shill and Brownnose
fizzandpop: eh, I don't have any trouble believing that there are a few -- hell, even a lot -- of solid officers in the SFPD. The law of averages practically guarantees it in a city this size. I'll even allow that it's a good thing to keep in mind when talking to any random one, since there's nothing to be gained in being dismissive until you're sure you're dealing with an idiot.
It just doesn't have much to do with evaluating the quality of the department as a whole compared to other cities.
Wow, SFPD nice response. Why not just say "my mom doesn't think I'm incompetent!"
Seriously, I've met a few nice police officers in this city but the few good ones are surrounded by totally inept, entitled douchebags.
Lots of good individual cops. Some even get promoted. Heather Fong used to be one of them.
It's the institution, folks. You have elected politicians who bank on an electorate which is dubious of the need for police in the first place. Then a corrupt union which banks on public contempt and whines on about how their job is so hard because the government won't let them do it.
Oh and BTW: There are some benefits to living in such as laxly policed city as ours. If there are people that you really hate, and they have no family in town and few friends, you can murder them with impunity. Just don't use a gun.
fizz: my rates are reasonable! Hire me to publicize your next bar mitzvah.
SFPD: The best traffic control money can buy.
@RobinSF - Good call! Maybe the parking enforcement people should swap with the regular police - I get dinged every time I forget about street cleaning - maybe murder could be ticketed too!
I have to admit I was amazed when I saw a recruiting booth advertising a starting salary of $72,000 for officers. You'd be lucky to earn that much starting at most jobs that require a college education. Hell, a friend of mine just started as a programmer at Google and even he isn't making that much. At that kind of pay I was even briefly tempted. Not enough to ever cut my hair or take a job where you carry a gun (it's not the gun I mind so much as the idea that you have it because people would be interested in shooting at you), but damn tempted nonetheless.
No wonder we don't have any money. We're blowing it all on our terrible police force. One that claims they can't enforce a foot patrol because they have out of date technology (and a general unwillingness to actually do their jobs). How much technology do you need? We're talking about what is ostensibly the oldest form of police work available: walking around. Give someone a club, cuffs, and a radio and that would seem to be that. With a city this dense and congested I can't imagine that a car would really do much good anyway.