San Francisco police union and commission disagree over pretext to stop restrictions – NBC Bay Area

A new policy puts the San Francisco police union at odds with the city’s police commission.

Starting Wednesday, San Francisco police will no longer be allowed to conduct pretextual stop-and-frisks, which are stop-and-frisks in which an officer stops someone for a minor offense because he or she suspects the person may be involved in major crimes.

The idea is to de-emphasize certain stops that many perceive as racially motivated. The Police Commission said that by ending these stops, departments could focus their resources on more effective public safety strategies.

The police union, however, sees things differently and said it was disappointing that the police commission had spent so much effort trying to prevent them from keeping people safe.

Brian Cox, an assistant public defender in San Francisco, described the changes that will come into effect in connection with the practice of so-called “pretext stops.”

“The restrictions really focus on the types of stops an officer can use to stop someone, and there are restrictions on how they deal with the people who are in the car after stops, at any traffic stop,” he said.

There are exceptions, but that practice has changed and is now in effect following a vote by the city’s police commission earlier this year.

“Pretext stops occur when a police officer stops a motorist for a minor offense, not because they are interested in enforcing traffic laws,” said Max Carter Oberstone, vice president of the San Francisco Police Department. “But because they suspect the driver of the car is up to no good and may be involved in a crime, but they have no actual evidence that the person is involved in criminal activity.”

Cox described some of the concerns.

“This is a problem because this happens disproportionately to people of color, and that’s true in San Francisco, in California, and in the entire country,” he said.

On July 5, the San Francisco Police Officers Association posted on social media images of a small armory that they said had been confiscated during a fake police search.

A statement from the San Francisco Police Officer’s Association said, among other things:

“The Police Commission’s ban on legal stops provides a safe path for drug, gun and sex trafficking in our community. Just as shoplifters took advantage of the $950 limit to rob our stores at will, drug dealers, gang members and human traffickers will use the Commission’s law to take advantage of a shackled police force.”

In the meantime, data is being collected and verified by the Commission.

NBC Bay Area reached out to San Francisco police for comment on Wednesday but did not receive a response.