OIG Newsletter #2/April/2024

Dear San Francisco, 

March was an incredibly busy month meeting with city leaders to rally support for funding the important work of our new department in the upcoming fiscal year. I presented a summary of my first three months in office on March 21, 2024, to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Government Audit and Oversight Committee. A special thanks to Supervisor Shamann Walton for attending to introduce me and to President Julie Soo for the supportive words. Please find a link to that presentation here: https://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/player/clip/45706?view_id=11&redirect=true

March was also a month to celebrate the achievements and contributions of the women in our city and regional governments. I had the privilege of attending a few events, including the Powerful Women of the Bay Awards Luncheon and the 2024 Women's Leadership Conference sponsored by the Sheriff's Office. The conference focused on Women in Public Service.

 I would like to take this opportunity to highlight and express my appreciation for the contributions of the incredible women who serve on our Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board: President Julie Soo, Vice President Xochitl Carrion, and Board Member Ovava Afuhaamango. These strong leaders have played a vital role in the development of the Office of the Inspector General and in providing oversight for the Sheriff’s Office.
 

President Soo and Vice President Carrion are accomplished attorneys who bring their expertise, skills, and vast experience to lead this board. Board Member Afuhaamango keeps us focused on the community and has many innovative ideas for building trust, improving communications, and cultivating relationships to keep everyone engaged. We are grateful to Board Member Afuhaamango for suggesting the creation of this newsletter and establishing a presence on social media. You can find the links below.

I’m very excited and proud to launch the OIG’s new case management system with a dedicated online- electronic complaint filing system and a complainant portal to allow complainants to follow the progress of their cases. This is a major step forward in building our department. The case management system will be the central hub for managing and tracking our work, analyzing and reporting our data, and making our services more accessible to the public. Developing a case management system can often take years and cost millions. With the help of the Department of Police Accountability, we launched this system in record time, less than three months since my taking office, and at a small fraction of the cost of building the system from scratch. You can find the online complaint landing page here: https://sfsda.my.salesforce-sites.com/Departments

I have been reflecting on the significance of having a clear and strong message about the purpose and goals of our department. You can find the official mission, value, and vision statements of the OIG by visiting the website we launched last month and clicking on the "Learn more about us" icon in the "About" section. I also included a quote by Nelson Mandela that perfectly captures the importance of our work: "No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones." You can find our website here: https://www.sf.gov/departments/office-inspector-general

The Office of the Inspector General is currently co-located with the Department of Police Accountability at 1 So. Van Ness Ave. San Francisco, CA 94103. I'm pleased to share with you that we have created a separate suite of fully equipped office workstations to house our future Inspector General investigators and staff. Everything is in place to get the investigation division operational as soon as we receive approval and funding in the budget to hire and onboard the necessary staff.

I’m continuing to meet with many stakeholders to learn about what matters to those most deeply impacted by what happens inside our jails and by our criminal justice system including the Latino Task Force, the Bayview Community, and the Deputy Sheriff's Association President, Ken Lomba. I want to extend a special thanks to the Dream Keeper Team of the Human Rights Commission for inviting me to their community updates meeting, where I had the opportunity to connect with several community groups and organizations, such as the Bayview Opera House, the Young Community Developers, and Stand in Peace.
 

During these meetings, I heard the concerns and issues raised by the stakeholders which include the poor conditions in the jails, the disproportionate increase and concentration of Latino inmates in one part of the jail, the difficulties that family members face when visiting their loved ones, and the lack of multilingual services, making it hard for non-English speakers to communicate effectively with service providers. Furthermore, the long 16-hour shifts that deputies must serve multiple times a week takes a toll on their physical and mental well-being.
 

Most of the stakeholders agree that the root of many complaints is insufficient staffing. This leads to a lack of access to services and an overreliance on long overtime shifts, which causes exhaustion and creates a host of problems. I am committed to working with all stakeholders to find solutions to these issues.

In 2020, San Francisco voters passed Supervisor Walton's Proposition D, which resulted in the formation of the Sheriff's Department Oversight Board and the Office of the Inspector General. The primary function of these entities is to provide independent oversight for the Sheriff's Office. On December 20, 2023, the board appointed Inspector General Wiley, who officially assumed his role on January 8, 2024.
 

We appreciate your patience and support as Inspector General Wiley builds the Office of the Inspector General to become operational. While the Inspector General seeks funds through the budget process to serve the people of San Francisco and deliver on the promise of Proposition D, the Department of Police Accountability will continue  to provide independent investigations into complaints of serious misconduct against San Francisco Sheriff deputies and in-custody deaths pursuant to existing agreements.

Please stay tuned for updates about the transition of this work.