By Bruce Wolfe, HANC Board

Last year the Haight Ashbury was bestowed yet another Park Station captain in a short period of time, Captain Christopher Pedrini.

You may or may not know that there is a direct forum with the Captain. From the Police Department website, “SFPD hosts the city's Community Police Advisory Boards (CPAB's), which are composed of community volunteers who live and/or work in a specific geographical police district. A CPAB member’s role is to advise the district station Captain about public safety, crime and quality of life issues that affect their community.”

Immediately following each CPAB meeting, there is another hour-long community meeting where anyone can attend and address more specific or personal concerns, or other issues with the Captain and other staff.

Until January 2021, all the community/neighborhood groups and merchant associations in each police district sent representatives to the Community Police Advisory Board (CPAB), which has always had representatives from each of the district’s neighborhood groups and merchant associations, which seems obvious to bring a more direct and concentrated perspective to the table in a more comprehensive approach.

HANC has always had two representatives from our Board of Directors to CPAB.  The most recent HANC representatives have been Bruce Wolfe, Corresponding Secretary, and Karen Fishkin, Recycling Chair (alternate).

This month Captain Pedrini notified all CPAB members that per the new CPAB Guidelines (2019) (which have never been publicly announced nor published) allow him the authority prerogative to alter the membership. He has unceremoniously removed all representative group membership, reduced the size and is seeking new members that (may) have little connection to our neighborhood, no less, the issues we care about. Currently, Captain Pedrini is using Nextdoor.com to attract new CPAB members.

We need our longstanding community advocates to be serving on CPAB to bring neighborhood concerns directly to Captain Pedrini. HANC is submitting a letter of objection and concern about his decision that will be posted on our website shortly. If you have concerns about this, please voice your public comment at any SF Police Commission hearing and/or submit them to Captain Christopher Pedrini This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Chief William Scott This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; SF Police Commission This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Mayor London Breed This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; and Supervisor Dean Preston This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .