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Police chief aims to fix record-keeping, ease overtime

Submitted by C. Nellie Nelson on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 20:00

Police Chief George Gascón made headlines in October, when he was thrown into a controversy around immigrant youth suspects — a battle he might not have otherwise taken up. But now, four months into his term, he’s beginning to take steps that reflect his priorities for the office.

Just weeks after he was hired in August, Gascón sided with Mayor Gavin Newsom in refusing to shelter undocumented immigrant youths accused but not yet convicted of a crime. Newsom’s decision — to ignore a veto-proof vote by the Board of Supervisors mandating that the youths not be turned over to federal authorities — was the most controversial move that Gascón has made in the four months that he has been chief. He did so even though he had supported a so-called sanctuary-city policy when he was police chief in Mesa, Ariz.

In the past week, however, Gascón seems to have begun following his own initiative.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, he recently had the department’s system for record-keeping analyzed and found that many crimes had been misclassified. The Police Department should have reported 1,200 domestic violence incidents to the U.S. Department of Justice as aggravated assaults. He also found many cases of crimes that had been mislabeled, or where multiple crimes described the same incident. The chief said the reporting errors should be fixed by the end of next month, as part of an $8 million system overhaul.

In a separate article, the Examiner reported that Gascón is taking steps to cut overtime spending. He has already reversed an increase in patrols in North Beach initiated in 2006 by Newsom and then-Chief Heather Fong. The department is attempting to close a $6 million deficit and is anticipating cuts next year. Overtime spending cost $34 million in the last fiscal year.