Thank you to everyone who attended my Captain’s Community Meeting on Wednesday, March 23rd. It was truly a pleasure to see so many of you had taken the time to attend and be part of the conversation. My hope in changing the Captain’s Community Meeting format was to engage with a larger population of the community and I believe it was a success. It allowed me an opportunity to meet with community members I had not heard from in my first year as the Captain of Taraval. It also allowed many of you to speak one on one with me about your concerns and suggestions on how we could improve our service to you. A special thank to Supervisor Katy Tang for moderating the meeting and using the time as a follow up to the public safety meeting that occurred last September. There were so many questions and citizens that hoped to be heard, I told Supervisor Tang, I think we are going to need a follow up to the follow up. In days that followed, I received numerous calls and emails from residents who wanted to contribute further to the conversation. I value those conversations as I know from experience we are always more successful when we can work in partnership with the community and other city agencies.
The topic of video and the value of video evidence came up in the meeting. Video evidence has become a vital tool in the identification of suspects and the prosecution of cases. If you are a resident who has video surveillance set up on the perimeter of your home, please contact me and let me know. At Taraval Station, we keep a list of locations were cameras are located throughout the district. This has proven to be extremely valuable as it allows us to quickly research where we may have video footage that may have captured an incident. For those who were not able to attend the meeting, if you have video that records and may be useful to us during an investigation, please email me at denise.flaherty@sfgov.org. Once I have your information, I will forward it to our video retrieval officer, Officer Michael Pheng. Please be sure to include a telephone number where you can be reached as well.
On Tuesday, March 29, 2016 Supervisor Norman Yee will be hosting the District & Public Summit with Taraval Station. The meeting with be held at the West Portal Elementary School Auditorium, 5 Lenox Way and will take place from 7:00pm-9:00pm. “The summit will offer an opportunity for District & residents represented by Taraval Station to work with City departments, to connect with neighbors and to implement strategies to increase safety in the community.” I would encourage all of you to please join us this evening as we work together to safe guard our neighborhoods.
In closing, I would like to acknowledge the men and women of Taraval Station, who consistently work hard to serve the community. Your efforts do not go unnoticed or unappreciated. Thank you for dedication and concern to those who are victimized and for being the face of the San Francisco Police Department.