My Chief not only qualified when required, but he also came to each team's qualification date....
S.F. police chief has skipped target practice
Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, June 5, 2008
(06-04) 16:47 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- After being assailed by the police officer whose satiric videos earned him and nearly two dozen others suspensions in 2005, San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong acknowledged that she has gone years without taking the target practice required for officers who carry guns.
The head of the city's Police Commission said Wednesday that the panel is likely to take disciplinary action against Fong, which could range from a letter of reprimand to something more severe.
Department rules require all police officers who carry guns to pass shooting range tests every six months. Fong said in a statement this week that "the duties of a police chief are demanding and time-consuming. I acknowledge that I have not scheduled time for firearms re-qualifications. This will be addressed for future re-qualifications."
Fong did not say when she last took a target-practice session at the department's shooting range at Lake Merced or when she would be tested next.
The issue of Fong's proficiency with a gun was raised last week by Officer Andrew Cohen. He wrote to Police Commission President Theresa Sparks that the chief had gone five years without being certified, which he called "an egregious matter of misconduct."
"I know the chief is busy, and an occasional lapse or non-appearance may be justified," Cohen wrote. "However, 10 consecutive failures to qualify are simply outrageous and insulting to all the men and women of the department."
Cohen, an officer since 1995, ran afoul of the chief and Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2005 after he shot videos showing officers responding to mock calls. One showed a homeless black woman railing against white people after apparently being hit by a patrol car. Another showed an officer ogling a woman he had stopped for a traffic violation.
One officer was shown dressed as a transgender person, and another video showed officers attempting tai chi to vaguely Asian music, then heading into a massage parlor.
Newsom and Fong called a news conference to label the videos as homophobic, sexist and racist, and Fong suspended Cohen and 23 other officers at the Bayview station without pay.
An appeals court ruled that Fong had exceeded her authority, but Cohen and other officers still face disciplinary procedures. Separately, he and some of the other officers have sued over the chief's actions. Cohen is out on medical leave after he had an accident while working in the records room.
He told the Police Commission that Fong should face discipline for failing to pass her target-practice tests and should be forced to give up her weapon.
Under department policy, failing to qualify on the shooting range results in admonishment for a first offense, followed by a reprimand for a second, a possible suspension for the third and an automatic suspension for the fourth.
Cohen noted that in the last five years, "scores of officers" have been disciplined and even denied pay raises and promotion for the same infraction the chief has committed.
Allowing those under her to be disciplined while she was skipping target practice herself amounted to an "arrogant, ethical and moral failure" on the chief's part, Cohen said.
Sparks said Wednesday that Cohen's complaint has "opened a whole kettle of fish we need to look at."
"I think there's little chance that this will go without something, some disciplinary action," Sparks said, adding that the Police Commission probably would take up the matter in a closed-door personnel session next week.
"I don't think there is any question that the chief violated the general orders," Sparks said. "She admits it."
She added that police officials "need to qualify like anybody else. ... There are certain things you do to become a police officer, and qualifying at the range is one of them."
Gary Delagnes, head of the Police Officers Association, said Fong "should have been smart enough to qualify at the range."
But, he added, Cohen's accusations "have been very personal and vile in nature. It's unfortunate we are wasting our time on this."
E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at
jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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