October 2, 2006

The San Francisco Youth Commission withholds support of File #061275 until we receive further specific information regarding this supplemental that would appropriate $2.6 million out of the general fund towards violence prevention.

Obviously, the Youth Commission does not promote children being out late unaccompanied yet we opposes the notion that punitive measures are the best and most effective forms of preventing violence. The use of some of the requested budget toward police overtimes for the purpose of enforcing a 1994 police code on curfew enforcement is problematic; we do not believe that enforcing curfew laws that will detain children 13 and under is the crux of solving violence in San Francisco.

Furthermore, there are a number of reasons that this legislation and related police bulletin unfairly targets specific groups and thus effects the civil liberties of youth:

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• Children are being targeted as the PROBLEM. Less than 10% of people charged with homicide are under the age of 18.

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• These plans will disproportionately effect youth of color and unnecessarily bring them into contact with the criminal justice system.

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• Children from districts with low-income families in San Francisco will be targeted such as D9, D10, D11, which have the highest population of youth in the city. Parents fined for curfew violations may have disadvantaged circumstances, thus making fines an even heavier burden.

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• There is a potential of increased police negative interactions with youth–targeting youth combined with a general lack of police training toward working with children.

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• In the past year, police/SROs (school resource officers) presence in schools has doubled resulting in no dramatic change in youth violence.

Furthermore, we request the following specific actions/information:

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• Police Department–review and report data to assess the role children and under 13 and under truly play in contributing to arrests, criminal activity and homicides;

• Police Commission–hear and calendar the revised DGO 7.01, the policies and procedures for juvenile detention, arrest and custody;

• Mayor's office–prepare a specific outline of how the curfew law will be implemented specifically in regards to how youth will be detained and where they will be processed';

• Juvenile Probation Department–review the protocol of how police will use this funding to detect and detain youth on probation.

Until such aforementioned actions are taken, the Youth Commission withholds support and recommends the ordinance be delayed. We look forward to working with the community, the City departments and commissions as well as Mayor Newsom and the Board of Supervisors to better address violence prevention.