Terry Wiley, San Francisco’s inaugural inspector general tasked with investigating misconduct at the Sheriff’s Department, declined to answer definitively whether he will keep his new job during an oversight meeting today.
Wiley won a primary election in March for an Alameda County judgeship after running unopposed. Now, as a judge-elect at the Superior Court of Alameda County, he is set to take on that role in January 2025.
At the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board meeting today, board member Jayson Wechter asked Wiley whether he would renounce his judgeship, or leave his role as inspector general.
“What I have said from day one is, my commitment is to the city and county of San Francisco. And that’s my statement today, and that’ll be my statement tomorrow,” Wiley said. “And that’s why we’re working hard to put the agency together.”
Wechter pressed again: “Does that mean you will not accept the judgeship?”
After a pause, Wiley responded. “I’m going to be very up-front with you. Let us get a budget.”
President Julie Soo called Wiley’s response “a fair assessment.” Other board members did not comment on Wiley’s reluctance to commit to his new role.
Wiley was selected as San Francisco’s first inspector general after a contentious, year-long search featuring much infighting on the board, and he began the job on Jan. 8. He is a career prosecutor who recently worked at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, and lost an election to lead that office against Pamela Price in 2022.
As inspector general, Wiley is tasked with building out an office of investigators and setting up processes to investigate claims of misconduct by sheriff’s deputies in San Francisco and at the city’s jail facilities.
The nascent office of the inspector general, however, is struggling to secure its budget. Wiley today said he does not expect to get the six investigators and two senior investigators he requested to be fully operational in his budget proposal.
Wiley proposed a $2.5 million budget for the entire oversight department in February. In that proposal, he noted that additional budget cuts coming down from the mayor’s office would extend the inspector general’s reliance on outside support, and delay the office’s ability to become fully operational and fulfill its duties.
Today, Wiley said that his approach is to “strategically” and slowly “phase in” the inspector general’s office, instead of requesting funding for all of its needs simultaneously. Prior to this shift, the sheriff oversight board’s 2023 report already anticipated a 12 to 18 month transition period for the office to be fully set up.
In the meantime, the Department of Police Accountability has been supporting the Office of the Inspector General with investigating claims of sheriff misconduct. Two investigators from the police oversight agency are currently dedicated to sheriff cases.
This is what you get when there’s a failure to perform a national search for a specialist in civilian oversight. You get someone who is merely using this appointment as a way to get somewhere in their career. This has happened over and over: at DPA with Joyce Hicks, Paul Henderson, and now with this choice. If anything is going to get done, do a proper recruitment. But of course, the city of SF doesn’t want that because they really don’t care about civilian oversight and have endlessly sabotaged it.
His commitment to the city should go only so far as the city herself commits to the oversight department. Smart move then by Wiley – use the vote across the Bay as leverage and litmus test for how serious SF actually is. Bolt to Alameda if it turns out all theatrics.
We need more cops, not more watchdogs on the few cops we have.
Take the judge job. Let the oversight board keep fighting. That’s what they live for.