San Francisco Police Commission Meeting - August 13, 2025: Chief of Police Search Process and Recruitment Brochure Approval
San Francisco Police Commission Meeting - August 13, 2025: Chief of Police Search Process and Recruitment Brochure Approval
On August 13, 2025, the San Francisco Police Commission convened to discuss the search and selection process for a new Chief of Police. The meeting included public comment regarding surveillance equipment concerns and a detailed presentation from the search firm Ralph Anderson Associates on the recruitment brochure, timeline, and community engagement plan. The Commission unanimously approved the amended recruitment brochure, setting the stage for the search launch on August 14, 2025.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Chris Hort Klein (Sergeant Klein, U.S. Marine Corps): Stated that surveillance cameras at the Asian Art Museum and San Francisco Main Library were illegally turned on 24/7 during the Pistolhan Festival, placing surveillance on all attendees' phones. He claimed this equipment could cause mental health issues, violence, and other harms if misused. He reported the matter to the Department of Justice, FBI, and informed the sheriff and interim police chief. He said he would provide a copy of the police report to the Commission at the next meeting. He gave the sheriff and interim chief one week to investigate.
Discussion Items
- Search and Selection Process for Chief of Police: Heather Rentschler and Chief Daniel Hahn of Ralph Anderson Associates presented the recruitment brochure, timeline, and community engagement strategy. Key points:
- The search will launch on August 14, 2025 and remain open through September 8, 2025.
- The brochure was amended per city attorney review: (1) clarified the chief's appointment process (mayor appoints from a commission-nominated list; chief reports jointly to mayor and commission); (2) applications are confidential; (3) the deadline for forwarding finalist candidates to Mayor Lurie was moved to the regularly scheduled commission meeting on November 12, 2025 (from late October).
- Commission members will meet candidates in closed session; resume binders will be delivered by September 22, 2025.
- In-person interviews tentatively set for October 14, 16, and 17, 2025.
- Community meetings: eight meetings planned (increased from five in the previous search). The first meeting is August 19, 2025 at Noe Valley Branch Library. Commissioner Techie and Commissioner Benedicto agreed to attend that meeting.
- Electronic surveys in six languages, comment cards, and an email address (input-pc@ralphanderson.com) will be used for public input. Surveys will close on September 15, 2025.
- Advertising for the chief position will be placed with organizations including Northern California Asian Peace Officers Association, California POST, California Police Chiefs Association, International Association of Women Police, International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE).
- Chief Hahn had already met with the police union to solicit input from command staff and officers.
- Commissioners discussed the need for additional outreach to underserved neighborhoods (e.g., Sunset, Golden Gate Heights) and for reaching seniors and community groups like NAACP and interfaith councils. Commissioner Benedicto urged commissioners to conduct their own informal community meetings, separate from the official ones, to broaden input.
- Commissioner Yee expressed concern that the West Side (Sunset area) was not initially included in the community meeting locations; he advocated for adding a meeting in that area. Commissioner Scott requested hard copies of surveys for distribution to groups like NAACP and senior centers.
Key Outcomes
- Motion to approve the recruitment brochure as presented and amended passed unanimously (6-0). All six present commissioners voted yes: Commissioner Techie, Commissioner Scott, Commissioner Yi, Commissioner Liang, Vice President Benedicto, and President Clay. (Commissioner Scott was initially in route but voted.)
- The search formally launches on August 14, 2025.
- The Commission will receive a memo summarizing community meetings and input methods, distributed via the city's communications team.
- Commissioners will continue to serve as ambassadors, attending community meetings and encouraging survey participation.
- The next steps include candidate outreach, resume collection, and community input compilation leading to candidate interviews in October and finalist selection by November 12, 2025.
Meeting Transcript
If you could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. And to the Republican. Is it visible? President Clay, I'd like to take roll. Yes, please. Commissioner Tekke? Commissioner Scott is in route. Commissioner Liang. Here. Commissioner Yi. Here. Commissioner Elias. Here. Vice President Benedicto. Present. President Clay, you have a quorum. Thank you. General public comment. Line item one, general public comment. At this time, the public is now welcome to address the Commission for up to two minutes on items that do not appear on the tonight's agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the police commission. Under police commission rules of order during public comment, neither police, DPA personnel nor commissioners are required to respond to questions by the public, but may provide a brief response. Alternatively, you may submit public comment in either of the following ways. Email the Secretary of the Police Commission at SFPD.commission at SFgov.org. Our written comments may be sent via U.S. Postal Service to the public safety building located at 1245 Third Street, San Francisco, California at 94158. If you would like to make public comment, please approach the podium. Good evening, police commission. For the record, my name is Chris Hort Klein. I also go by Sergeant Klein of the United States Marine Corps. What I'm handing out is very concerning. Over the weekend, I took some pictures of the Asian Art Museum in the San Francisco Maine Library, and that was during the festival, the Pistolhan Festival. And this surveillance equipment should not be turned on. And that means everybody at the festival had surveillance placed on their phone, which is illegal. These are surveillance cameras that are used to control crowds, protests, violence, et cetera. And they should not be turned on 24-7-365 and can cause mental health issues, violence, car accidents, health issues, overdoses, and suicides if used inappropriately. I filed a report with the Department of Justice and the FBI, and I've informed the sheriff and the interim police chief. Next week at the next at the meeting, I will give you that copy of the police report naming the three suspects. And that report, there was not named a police officer or any senior officials within the police department. However, this is police equipment, and it needs to be addressed immediately. Previously, if you don't have a copy of this, I'll send it out to you as well. And with this technology, you can reverse engineering and you can cause incidents. So the National Guard was deployed to Washington, D.C., not because of the violence there. The communication interface sits there. And if you reverse engineer back to there, you can cause violence like shootings anywhere in the United States. That is what the issue is, and it's happening here, people using this equipment, and it's a police commission issue. Again, I will send you that report next week. I'm giving the sheriff and the police interim chief one week to do their investigation. Thank you. That is the end of public comment. Line item two.
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