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being a cop has never been easy, even during the best of times. And these have not been the best of times. Since 1960 our society has been in almost constant turmoil. The civil rights movement and then the war in Vietnam brought the police in direct conflict

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with large groups of citizens whose crimes, if indeed they were crimes, were done in the name of peace or justice. Yeah, problem. I'm a manager in the county advice store. Down on clean Fillmore. Strange fellow had disconnected and shoplifted the through it all, the police have

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retained the support of a majority of the people. This was confirmed recently in a report by the State Attorney General's Office. It showed that 70% of the public rated police services from good to excellent looking for that wallet. See if we can find it. They take

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us darn good care of this year. Do you think you get pretty good police protection around here? I think so. We're satisfied with it, certainly. But the same attorney general's report found that among the young, the poor and the non white approval of the police is

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not nearly so unanimous. Worse yet, a majority of all people, young and old, white and nonwhite alike, believe law enforcement is tainted with racism. I seen a person on the floor handcuffed with his hands behind him, his ankles, handcuffed his knee on his back and says,

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Don't forget, buddy. You struck me first. Hand me my stick. I'll finish them off. They pull them out of the patrol wagon at the station and punch him in the stomach three times they're treating. Everybody is criminals because somebody says that this is a high crime

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area and the people that live here and know about the crime and know about the problems of the crime. And they don't need a lot of mad men running around throwing people up against the wall, drawing guns on them because that to me, is the biggest

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crime and the most frightening crime e. But the violence between people and police has not been one sided. This has also been a time during which police stations have been bombed and policemen cold bloodedly murdered in the streets. Since 1960 11 San Francisco police officers have

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lost their lives in such unprovoked attacks as a presidential fact finding commission put it not long ago. The police are greatly loved, greatly hated, critically important in a moment. A look at how things were going in San Francisco these days between the people and the police.

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Cities like people, have personalities. Many are ugly and crowded. A few are clean and attractive Among the cities of the world. San Francisco is a glamorous superstar. She is, as the Convention and Visitors Bureau is fond of pointing out everybody's favorite city. San Francisco is also

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the home of some three quarters of a million people, nearly half of whom belong to racial and ethnic minority groups. And it has long been the mecca for a host of unorthodox subcultures and lifestyles, making San Francisco the most colorful and cosmopolitan of American cities. Yet,

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contrary to the multiracial character of its population, San Francisco's police remain overwhelmingly white despite a federal court order to integrate. And even though they were recently required to live in the city, most members of the department are suburbanites. This creates the impression, particularly in non white

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neighborhoods, that the police are an outside force there to suppress the people rather than protect them. Complaints against San Francisco policemen are now coming in at a rate of 100 a month. The most serious, about four complaints in 10, are investigated by fellow officers assigned to

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the department's Internal Affairs Bureau. Captain Hugh Elbert heads the bureau, which is currently a year behind in processing complaints. Can you really be objective about the behavior of another police officer? I cannot be objective, but I could be morally objective in a sense, like, uh could

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be factual and make a impartial investigation. E think it's just a few bad apples in the barrel. I don't think it's a characteristic of the police department. Dr. Washington Garner, a local physician, is president of the city's Three Man Police Commission. Do you think that the

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department is being responsive enough in ridding itself of those few bad apples? That's a good question. I don't think so. Why? Because there is. There is, ah, unspoken rule, or something between the men in blue that they don't hurt one another. So they always tried to

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protect one another. Instead of trying to weed out the ones that are doing these sort of things, they tried to protect Donald M. Scott, a veteran of more than three decades on the force, is the current chief of police. We do accept complaints, but we have

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an obligation to protect our men and as well as the complainants toe ferret out the truth of the matter and and what's good for the department is gonna be good for the people. I'm satisfied that Don Scott is exercising that delicate balance of judgment that is

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necessary and preserving the morale of the police organization and disciplining those who need it. Mayor Joseph Alioto, because he appoints both the police chief and the police commissioners who oversee the chief, stands at the very top of the police hierarchy. There's a certain mentality, and the

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Police Department doesn't quite understand the importance of community relations, a certain group of policemen. That's certainly not true of the leadership. The views of the department administrators are are changing with the times. We see a need for being more service oriented, less lock him up and

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throw him in the slammer. Supervising Captain Jeremiah Taylor commands the 1100 uniformed patrolman who make up the backbone of the SFPD. A few members of the police hierarchy have MAWR influence on department policy Well, I think that in prior years, historically, where there was a view

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in the police department that they were rather a militarily oriented organization and they came on rather strong. And now we see it as being more service oriented, a need to help the people unless we get community support. You know, police aren't gonna solve, uh, crime situation

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without community support. But if the leadership of the San Francisco Police Department is really committed to better community relations, they haven't made it obvious to the men and women of the department's Community Relations Bureau, most of whom are minorities. Formed in 1962 when black militancy and

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race tensions were running high, the bureau's aim is to promote understanding and cooperation between the police and the minority communities. But the bureau remains small. Only 15 people. It is isolated from the rest of the patrol force and has little discernable influence on policy making within

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the department. While the heads of most other bureaus carry ranks of lieutenant and captain, the director of the Community Relations Bureau is an assistant inspector barely a half step above patrolman, he is Officer Rodney Williams. I think that the police cannot be apart from the community.

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There are part of it, and these community problems are police problems. And it's unfortunate that sometimes we looked upon maybe non policeman. Officer Fred Lau, one of only a handful of Orientals in the department, is a member of the Community Relations Bureau units trying to make

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policing the ethnic communities very much easier for the the average police officer. I think without community relations without our endeavors, it would be very difficult for a white police officer. The police to minority communities always attract so much attention down here in Chinatown because there's so

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many people around. They like to get in on the excitement. If there's any, you know, don't go. I, on one of San Francisco's largest minority communities, lies within the shadow of downtown skyscrapers. This is the Chinatown North Beach section of the city, a teeming ghetto of

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55,000 people behind its quaint facades. This is a community troubled by grinding poverty, badly overcrowded living conditions, gang warfare and political conflict. On this day, partisans of mainland China staged a mass rally in ST Mary's Square at the same time the anti communist nationalists had staged

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their own event only a block away in Portsmouth Square. The conflicting events dramatized the deep and frequently angry split within the Chinese community and raised the danger of open conflict. On the day before the competing political events, Officer Lau conferred with supervising Captain Taylor and Inspector

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Philpotts of the department's intelligence bureau. He asked for the meeting not to promote police presence at the Chinatown political rallies, but to minimize it. Okay, well, on this information, then what I'm going to do is alert the district Command, the Central Station, who will have the

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appropriate number of uniforms people available and in the background. Of course, we'll have our crime prevention people in the event that something untoward does break out. We'll be able to handle. So that's what we're gonna do. And if you don't see anything wrong with it, we'll

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go ahead. One thing I'd like to add is that people were very vehement about having community relations people there, too, act maybe advisers to the uniformed personnel to prevent any type of, uh either over any over reaction by, uh, either police or by the people. Have

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you talked Thio The following day, Fred and fellow community relations officer Joe Williams were on duty in Chinatown while he circulated through the crowd, Officer Lau kept one year tuned to a police radio. It kept him in touch with the movements of the department's tactical unit,

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which had been alerted for duty. E think my presence serves a couple of purposes? One. It's a deterrent for people who might want to disrupt the thing. And number two it provides. The confidence that there are policemen there without antagonizing anyone on that itself helps dissolve

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a lot of the detention there. What the people didn't want was an overreaction on the part of the police. We can always maintain control of the situation if there is cooperation, both from people and from the police With Officer Fred Lau has a special understanding of

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as well as a commitment to the Chinatown community, for he was born and raised here, speaks the language and has many friends and relatives in the neighborhood, China tell is one of the very few ghetto communities that is also a tourist attraction. The city perpetuates the

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neon ghetto image of Chinatown were they have to make it attractive in order to bring into commerce, and to that extent I think it's exploited where the city makes him more comfortable with tourists than they do for people who live there. I think the police Department

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is very pointed towards that faction that they've always dealt with in the past, and they're still dealing with, which are the Chinese elders. They are not being neutral. In the past, the police have usually conducted themselves on a hands off policy with a hands off policy.

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Was races in its a zloty? As the Chinese people kept their problems in the Chinese community, there was no problem. It's still perpetuated. No, not only within the police Department, but bye certain factions of the media. The gang problems have opened up a can of worms.

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Along with the gang problems come the the roots of the problems, the poverty and the poor living conditions and the frustrations that the Chinese people go through where slowly beginning to dissolve the myth that we can take care of our own. I found that getting to

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know people and getting to know the problems and instead in a lot of confidence in them that they will help to police their own community. They will help identify the criminal element. They will help to prosecute criminal element without the citizenry in the neighborhood helping to

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protect their own community. Policeman cannot do it alone. Okay, is really unimportant. Uh, how much I talk about good police community relations or how much community relations the officers in this unit are performing. But if the man on the street the officer on the beat, so

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to speak, is not practicing good community relations, then everything that we've done here is going down the drain. The police are here. We need the police. If we don't have the police, where are we? But we don't want them harassing our Children. I don't want my

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son handcuffed and kicked down. And anyone who gets up because he says I'm not gonna Gravel. They kicked him down again. Now this has happened. What can happen when relations breakdown between the people and the police was dramatically illustrated near Bernal Heights recently, a group of

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rowdy teenagers had been arrested in Proceeded Park late one night. Some were maced, others allegedly beaten by two arresting officers. The incident galvanized the neighborhood in angry protests at what some parents considered a rain of police terror aimed at themselves and their Children. I know these

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officers personally, and I'm sorry that people are running up against these officers in such a manner that it's causing a great deal of problem. But I must tell you this that we have made a survey and were well aware of the fact that there is an

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inordinate amount of crime in this area. Now I'm sure that everybody here desires protection of their person and of their property. And you can't have that when you have a lot of criminals running around without having policeman. Therefore, policemen have come around. You are considered criminals.

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Let me make myself playing. If you won't listen to me, then I don't intend to stand here and be attacked. The police officer grabbed me by the neck, threw me on the ground. His partner jumped on me, hit me over the head with a flashlight where

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I got several stitches in my head. I was arrested for assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and failing to identify myself in front of my house. You say one thing. The police report says something else. Witnesses who were there are on the report. This will go to

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court and the judge will determine who is telling the truth and make the appropriate decisions. I'm his mother. There is evidence that he was hurt on. This is what the people here are here tonight about. They're not here about minority and all that kind of jazz.

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They're here in regards to the policeman. They want police protecting here because believe me, they need it. You people proceed. A valley is what city planners call one of San Francisco's lost neighborhoods. Wedged between Potrero Hill and the Bear North Slope of Bernal Heights, Proceeded Valley

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enjoys good weather and a normally quiet family atmosphere. But there is also much poverty and Proceeded Valley, particularly among the many Latinos, Samoans and Filipinos who live there. It is the kind of neighborhood where people who can't afford a mechanic fix their old cars in the

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street and frequently get ticketed for it. It is also the kind of neighborhood where men without jobs congregate on street corners to share beer and small talk. One of the few amenities of Proceeded Valley is the park, like a small town public square. The park is

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everyone's backyard. Police from the Ingleside District station crews proceeded park heavily. They see the men on the corner of the teenagers drinking beer and smoking marijuana. And from the perspective of a patrol car window, these things add up to trouble. And so arrests are frequent in

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Proceeded Park. I've been down there for about 3.5 years now. It's the smallest car sector in the Ingleside, on the reason it is the smallest because it has more crimes for a person in that particular sector than in any of the other Ingleside sectors. Now, I'd

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say in the procedure park area, there is a lot of big problem with dope people pushing it, people using it, people committing crimes because it because of it. But the people of Proceeded Valley see their neighborhood and its problems differently than do the police who patrol

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it. I am born and raised in this neighborhood. I have acquired a substantial amount of property here, and I intend to live here until I die. Had it been this bad, I would have gone a long time ago. There is heroin in the neighborhood. Ah, and

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it's been around for a long time and nothing's been done about nothing. They know who the people are that are dealing it, and by they I mean ah, lot of the people on the police department that do patrol here. They're looking for things to try to

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best people born. I mean, you know, they have busted people, but it it's always the wrong people, and we want to be treated as human beings. We don't want people coming in and hitting us first and then asking us our name. I think that the police

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are during a job. But there's a lack of confidence and willingness on the part of many of the area residents. Thio Thio call the police when necessary. I think that the relationship existing presently between the procedure park residents and the police eyes one of distrust. For

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nine years, Patrolman Joe Williams wore a uniform, and for the past five years he worked. The Ingleside district primarily Proceeded Valley. In May 1973 he joined the Community Relations Bureau, and when trouble broke out between the people of Proceeded Valley and the police, Joe Williams found

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himself back on his old beat. One problem is obvious to him a conflict in values and lifestyles with the police caught somewhere in the middle there, two different lifestyles. And I think that one lifestyle says that, you know, drinking beer is no problem. It shouldn't be

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a source of police attention and police receiving complaints rather regularly concerning people consuming booze in the park. So I think that when the element that says that the police are grassing young people drinking in the park, they neglect to see that there are some residents in

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the area who are very concerned about people who are minors being around adults and consuming booze. And I think if the police car could park, get out, introduce himself. Thio, uh, businesses and the residents in the community get to see the police is another human being.

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It wouldn't be this you and your nuts type thing. You know, thats would help to let the community know that the police are there to serve them. You know, e think it would probably help the police in recognizing some of the bad element in the community.

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And also, uh, it would probably give the people on the opportunity to advise the police of, uh, this element. Who's causing problems in the community as opposed Thio. People who are really hot brother harmless. Every community in this city that I know off wants law and

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order. The residential population of San Francisco is very pro police, and I don't think that should be mistaken. I don't think any confrontation should miss Take the fact that people want safe streets, homes and parks. And today we don't have. Um, Dianne Feinstein is president of

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San Francisco's Board of Supervisors. People want this to change. It's not gonna change by prowling squad cars. It's got to change by a whole new climate of police work and a whole new coalition of cooperation between the citizenry and the police department. In my view, this

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means an opening up of the department and acceptance of citizen views. We want peace offers we want Don't we want people? Don't we want police officers on the street where we can talk to them, find out their names, get to know maybe even their family, their

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Children, so we can communicate as human beings people to people? What everybody would you be able to help us by giving us this alternative? We're trying to do that right now. But you all know that when you call the police, you want a policeman to come

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right now. Now, if you have everybody out walking around the streets being saying hello And how do you do when you call the police for the guy breaking down the back door? There's nobody to respond. But we feel that the crime would be eliminated greatly if

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people didn't feel intimidated if people felt like they were safe on the streets. We don't feel safe in our own community any longer. Not because of our neighbors and our friends and our strangers that come to our community. But because of the police officers, that's our

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plea This evening were frightened of the police officers. The police officers are not serving the community were scared to death. Mhm.