Moving forces in Bay Area police departments

The year 2011 has kicked off with many changes in local government in the Bay Area. New mayors in both San Francisco and Oakland are the most prominent, but of course there are new city council members and supervisors.

The law enforcement community is also seeing its fair share of change with the new year – many police departments, courts and district attorneys’ offices are all seeing shakeups. It’s almost hard to keep track.

KALW’s criminal justice editor Rina Palta sorts out the political chaos, starting with what’s new in San Francisco.

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HOLLY KERNAN: Rina, why don’t we start with what’s new in San Francisco.

RINA PALTA: The main criminal justice change is that we have a new district attorney and we’ll also need a new police chief. Former police chief George Gascon was appointed to replace Kamala Harris’ as the district attorney. Gascon is a lawyer and an active member of the bar in California, and that makes him eligible to be the district attorney, but I don’t know anyone who saw this appointment coming.

KERNAN: Except maybe Willie Brown, who seems to know about everything going on, but why was this such a surprise?

PALTA: Well for one, Gascon apparently didn’t see it coming either. Here’s how former Mayor Gavin Newsom described offering Gascon the position. As he tells it, Newsom, on the final Saturday that he was in office, called up Gascon for advice on who to appoint district attorney.

NEWSOM: I won’t get into the details of it, except to say that as I was listening to him, it became clear to me that he was the choice. He didn’t know that. He was giving me some good advice. He didn’t know how good the advice was.KERNAN: That’s former mayor Gavin Newsom on the appointment of George Gascon as district attorney in San Francisco.

PALTA: Gascon’s a career police officer, and now he’ll be setting the policy for what sorts of cases go to trial and what cases are prioritized in the city. It’s interesting to think of a police officer as the head prosecutor in a city. That doesn’t usually happen. Traditionally, the two departments work closely together. The police department investigates a crime and pulls together the evidence and then the district attorney’s office decides how that evidence will hold up in court and makes the decision on how to charge the suspect, what sorts of sentences to ask for, etc. This has actually been a point of contention, historically, between police departments and district attorneys offices – especially in San Francisco where we have a really tough public defender’s office that wins a lot of cases. The thing with the police officers is they often thing that the district attorney’s office is not charging enough suspects or offering too many plea deals or not asking for tough enough sentences. We’re going to see whether having a career police officer at the helm of the district attorney’s office changes that. We’re also going to see whether some of the conflict of interest issues that have come up in the past are going to be addressed by Gascon. There have been issues with the district attorney’s office not letting the defenders know that police officers who are testifying in trials have been accused of crimes or misconduct in the past that might influence how jurors perceive their testimony. Will that change under Gascon, who will be forced to be in the position of offering up details about his former officers? We really don’t know.

KERNAN: You would sort of expect that this would lead to more cooperation between the police department and the DA’s office. What do you think this appointment actually means for the San Francisco police department?

PALTA: That’s a really good question. It seems like the police department found a really solid leader in Gascon – one who was willing to embrace budget cuts and look at interesting solutions. He was also the first chief in a long time to be brought in from the outside. He wasn’t part of the old-boys network inside the department, and he was considered somewhat above the entrenched politics of the police force.

KERNAN: And the big news this week was that police chief Chief Anthony Batts is thinking about leaving Oakland and possibly going to San Jose or somewhere else.

PALTA: That’s just complete chaos. After just over a year as chief, Batts this week admitted that he’s a top candidate to take over as police chief in San Jose. Will he be chosen? We don’t know yet, but it’s huge news that the chief is looking at opportunities outside of Oakland. Everybody basically wants to know why he would leave and there’s been tons of speculation. Does he not get along with Mayor Jean Quan? Is he mad about budget cuts and a dwindling staff? It’s pretty unclear.

KERNAN: What do you think that the reason is?

PALTA: For me, something stands out. And that’s something Batts said when he arrived in Oakland after a long career in Long Beach, which is a town that really didn’t expect him to leave them. It’s a town he loves. This is Batts explaining why he was leaving his hometown.

BATTS: If you look at William Bratton, he's been at six different police departments. Herald Hurt of Houston, he's been at four different departments. Charles Ramsey of Philadelphia, he's been at three different departments. So that's a norm in my industry, to move around.

KERNAN: That’s Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts, who’s considering leaving Oakland.

PALTA: Now those names, Bratton, Ramsey, are major figures, one might say famous figures when it comes to criminal justice. They’re like people in textbooks. I think maybe that’s just it: Batts wants to be among the big boys and make a name for himself in history. And with the all the problems in Oakland and the cutbacks, maybe he just doesn’t see it happening here. So if a place like San Jose comes along, that’s a very prestigious police officer job.

KERNAN: So where does that leave Oakland? Again, we don’t know that Batts is going to leave, but he said he’s considering it.

PALTA: Batts will be tough to replace. This is a man who came riding into town on a white horse. With all of Oakland’s trouble over the past year, he’s really weathered it, he’s still pretty popular. It’s hard to imagine Oakland being able to find a replacement that could fill his shoes. On the other hand, as Jean Quan said about Batts looking for other jobs, you know, Oakland is a place that needs someone that wants to be there. It’s a tough job and if Batts doesn’t see himself there, then it’s not going to work.

Find daily criminal justice news and analysis on PALTA’s blog, The Informant.