I have no reason whatsoever to think that Jeff Godown will be anything but a capable and good San Francisco Chief of Police. My reservation is about the process, not the individual. Jeff Godown is a respected and highly professional command police officer. He is a clear asset to the SFPD, but that doesn't override the will of the People of San Francisco. We, the people, are in ultimate command of our City.
The San Francisco of Board of Supervisors recently passed cutting-edge legislation that will assure that the construction industry hires local workers for San Francisco construction projects. It was widely supported by the People of San Francisco. This policy should be respected by everyone, including Mayor Newsom, who is now Lt. Governor and no longer associated in any official capacity with the City of San Francisco. I am confident the spirit of the legislation will be respected by incoming interim Mayor Ed Lee.
So, what should the process be when we look for a Chief of Police? First, we should look within our own family, our own community. But that's not what Mayor Newsom did.
Did he look within the rank and file of our own police force? No.
He hired a guy from LAPD who came here with Gascon. He is a newbie to San Francisco. Although, in the interest of fairness, this is an interim position and it had to be filled immediately. Deputy Chief Godown is a logical choice for interim chief. He should not be excluded from consideration for the permanent position, but should be considered equally with the other short-listed candidates.
The Los Angeles Police Department is a fine department, but they work a lot differently than we do here in San Francisco, and quite frankly, we, the People of San Francisco, like running our police department our own way, thank you very much!
The Chief of our police department should be first and foremost a San Francisco Police Officer with experience in this City. We want to know who we are dealing with and we want to be comfortable with the choice. We also want greater public participation and SFPD rank-and-file participation in the selection process.
The new permanent Chief should be appointed by Mayor Lee ONLY after being interviewed by:
a) a public hearing before the People of San Francisco
b) an interview before the San Francisco Police Officers Assn (SFPOA)
c) an interview before the San Francisco Police Commission
No permanent appointment should be made until the results of these interviews and resulting recommendations (or transcript of comments in the case of the public hearing) are formally presented to Mayor Lee who would then make the appointment after taking these recommendations and comments into serious and careful consideration.
Jeff Godown should remain as interim Chief of Police only until this selection process is complete and a permanent appointment made. Then, whomever is finally chosen, be it Mr. Godown or someone else, will be the People's Chief of Police.
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