S.F. COPS ON DESK DUTY TOLD TO PATROL STREETS

A day after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom threatened to demote
police commanders unless they did more to fight homicides, Chief
Heather Fong ordered investigators in the department's drug and gang
units to put on uniforms and patrol city streets at night, officials
said Friday.

Newsom met with the command staff and other officials at City Hall on
Monday, a day after San Francisco recorded its sixth homicide of the
year. Last year's homicide total, 98, was the most in San Francisco
in a dozen years.

The mayor told commanders that their current strategy of combatting
violent crime wasn't working and that he would replace them if they
couldn't get the job done, said one official who attended the
meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to comment.

Newsom was particularly concerned about the shooting last Saturday
outside a Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory girls basketball game
that killed Terrell "Terray" Rogers, a community activist who was
gunned down when he walked out of the gym at halftime. The mayor told
the group he had known Rogers, whose Peacekeepers anti-violence group
was active in the Bayview neighborhood.

Newsom talked about wanting to double or triple the number of
officers in the Bayview, officials said.

"The mayor is upset about the homicide rate in the city. He made it
clear he wants to change things," said Newsom spokesman Nathan
Ballard. "He said, 'Enough is enough. Our current approach isn't
working, and it's time to fix it.' "

The next day, all 70 or so officers in the narcotics and gang task
force units were reassigned to the evening shift in uniform. Some
said they had been told to abandon current investigations, although
department officials insisted they would continue their existing
duties even as they pound a beat.

Some reassigned investigators in the gang and narcotics units were
skeptical, saying potential informants were unlikely to risk being
seen talking to a uniformed officer and that police who might be
asked later to work undercover could be jeopardized if they are seen
now on patrol. None of the officers would speak on the record,
fearing retribution.

Fong referred questions about the reassignments to spokesman Sgt.
Neville Gittens.

Calling the move a "new focus strategy," Gittens said the approach is
designed to back up beleaguered patrol units in high-crime areas. He
would not say exactly where the reassigned officers would be deployed
or how many officers in all would be on the evening shift.

"The idea is to bring these people in, put them in uniform, so they
can address an area where there has been an increase in crime," Gittens said.

The idea is to be flexible, Gittens said. There is no timetable for
how long the gang and narcotics officers will be reassigned, he said.

He downplayed the possibility that drug or gang probes would suffer
because investigating officers will be working patrol shifts.

"These guys can make drug arrests - there is nothing that says they
can't do that," Gittens said. "If the need arises, they will handle
it accordingly."

Gary Delagnes, head of the Police Officers Association, said the
department is telling rank-and-file officers that it wants them to be
aggressive in problem areas. That approach could be undermined,
however, by officers' lack of confidence in their bosses and in City
Hall, he said.

"You have to have the D.A. on board, probation on board, cops on
board, you have to have City Hall on board - the cops don't have
faith in the system, the cops don't have faith in the (police)
administration," Delagnes said. "They don't have faith that City Hall
has their back."

Delagnes said the idea promoted by commanders is to have specialized
units "drive around the Bayview, jack everybody up and go after these thugs."

But, he said, "cops are going, 'Oh, yeah, sure, and who is going to
cover us? Who's is going to defend us?' This city does not have the
stomach to do this kind of stuff. They try to put the cops in the
middle and the cops come out the losers.

"They don't trust the system," Delagnes said. "Who could blame them?"

Meanwhile, he said, drug enforcement will suffer as officers are
pulled away to work patrol duties.

Ballard said the mayor is confident Fong will make the changes needed.

"It's her department and her tactics," Ballard said. "The mayor
backs her 100 percent."