The Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee approved one of Mayor London Breed’s appointees to the Police Commission today, but rejected the reappointment of incumbent Debra Walker, questioning whether she believes in the commission’s mission or duties.
The Rules Committee sent C. Don Clay, a recently retired Alameda County Judge and longtime criminal defense attorney, to the full board with a positive recommendation.
“It’s not often that we get people with the level of qualifications as Judge Clay. So I think that’s an important step forward for this body,” said Supervisor Ahsha Safaí.
But Walker, who has been serving on the police commission since 2022, was advanced with a negative recommendation after Safaí and fellow Rules Committee member Supervisor Shamann Walton voted against her reappointment. Supervisor Hillary Ronen, the chair of the Rules Committee, was absent from today’s meeting, as was Supervisor Connie Chan, who was meant to be filling in for her.
Walton asked both Clay and Walker during their respective hearings today if they believed that the civilian Police Commission has “too much power” over the San Francisco Police Department, a hotly debated issue that culminated in the March passage of Prop. E, the mayor’s ballot measure weakening the commission. Since then, the commission has struggled to meet at all, in part because Breed missed the deadline to nominate her two appointees by a month and a half.
Clay said he is not very familiar with the issue, as a recent retiree who had long kept himself out of politics.
“As a judge just retiring two months ago, one of the things you have to do, you have to separate yourself from what is happening politically … but I see there have been issues,” Clay said.
He added: “You’ve always got to be on the side of restricting power,” referring to the police department. It is unclear if his view also applies to the commission.
Walker, in answering the same question, said the commission is “overstepping,” particularly with the issue of pretextual traffic stops, an often racially biased technique used by police to find criminal activity. In January 2023, after a months-long process, the Police Commission voted 4-2 to limit nine specific pretextual stops, then approved the policy unanimously that April. That policy is currently being implemented.
Breed first appointed Walker to the Police Commission by Breed in 2022, and the Board of Supervisors ratified her appointment, voting 8-3 in favor. Supervisors Chan, Ronen, and Dean Preston voted against her appointment in 2022.
At that time, Safaí and Walton supported Walker’s appointment to the commission. Today, however, both were much more critical of her.
“She’s done some great work here in San Francisco, but unfortunately, the work on the Police Commission has not been something that I can, in good conscience, support moving her forward,” Walton said. That decision, he added, was based in large part on her statements today.
Asked to describe the police department’s vehicle-pursuit policy, which was overridden by Prop. E, Walker could not formulate a coherent description.
Asked her opinion of the new community input requirements that Prop. E put in place, effectively blocking the Police Commission from setting policy freely, Walker gave a confusing response: She said it is “vital” to get input from every neighborhood in the city to set policy, but she also appeared to criticize the commission’s own role of providing civilian guidance.
“I think the morale of the department was down, because there’s way too much input from people who aren’t police officers,” Walker said.
“So, you’re saying there’s ‘way too much input from people that don’t know what it’s like to be a cop’ — as a commissioner?” Safaí asked, apparently dumbfounded. That input, he clarified, is a commissioner’s role, and contradicted her support for Prop. E.
He went on to ask if Walker even believed the commission was necessary, or if it should be setting policy for the police department as required by the city charter. He appeared unconvinced by her response.
“I don’t walk away with the feeling that there’s a confidence or a belief from this commissioner in the role of the police commission,” Safaí said. “I applaud Ms. Walker for all her work and service to the city, but I don’t believe that she actually believes in the work of this body, and that’s what gives me pause.”
The two commission nominees will now go before the full board for a vote next week. To be approved, the nominees require a majority vote.
Good. Judge Clay has an impressive record and has worked in many different roles with in the realm of law enforcement, our courts and criminal justice. Debra Walker was London Breed’s tool on the commission and repeatedly politicized the essential oversight work of the body. She walked out of commission meetings more than once, and in doing so, was perfomative, not effective. The work of the Police Commission is essential very, very difficult…….not at all for the thin skinned or weak hearted. Walker should go back to the Arts
“Clay said he is not very familiar with the issue, as a recent retiree who had long kept himself out of politics.”
This is a lie. I call Bullshit. A judge who is not familiar with this issue? BS!
Debra Walker is an amazing artist but a wishy-washy politico. She really did not belong on the commission.
Eleni
I was there and I don’t believe Walker’s nomination even made it out of committee.
Also, Chan was there but only for the first item on the Agenda which was a ‘Vision Zero’ related Budget item she is shepherding that was continued for a week.
h.
Walker is the type of police commissioner we need.
When we have a commission of pro-crime people like the gang attorney John Hamasaki, well, we all see what happened to the city. We’re still trying to fix it. We need commissioners like Walker to do so.
someone who abdicates their position as a check on the power of the state? i think having someone who knows why the police commission is necessary is actually more important.
David,
The Police Commission is the Public Window into the Operation of that department.
Walker, on behalf of the Mayor led walkouts to shut that window at the behest of the Mayor who actually went to the ballot to do the same.
The commission had two meetings in two months because of her and that’s unacceptable.
Put a cop on there that everyone trusts; Joe Garrity.
There are contractors on the Building Commission and Labor Union reps on Planning why not a Veteran retired cop on the Police Commission.
Plus, back in the days of Don Meredith, Joe was in camp (“Just a cup of coffee”) as a linebacker for the Cowboys.
lol
h.