The Informant

Rina Palta

From left, SFPD Commander David Lazar, OCC Director Joyce Hicks, Police Chief George Gascon, Huckleberry Director Denise Coleman, and Angela Chan of the Asian Law Caucus

What happens when a child or a teenager is arrested in San Francisco? Likely, they go to one of two places: Juvenile Hall, at 375 Woodside Ave. or alternatively, they’re sent to a place called Huckleberry–Huckleberry Community Assessment and Referral Center (CARC), a service provider for at-risk youth on the western outskirts of downtown SF. But for a long time, it was unclear who would go where, what kinds of things had to happen on the way, and when and whether the child’s parents would get involved.

Joyce Hicks, executive director of the Office of Citizen Complaints (OCC), which handles reports of police misconduct, says complaints involving juvenile treatment have been small in number, but severe. In one instance that occurred before she worked at the OCC, Hicks says two juveniles were picked up for questioning and taken to be identified by witnesses. Witnesses dismissed the kids as suspects and police dropped them off two blocks from where they had been picked up. Their parents or guardians were never notified they had been in police custody. Complaints like that one spurred the OCC to move to get a clear policy outlined and publicized for dealing with arrested juveniles. Hicks says her department first requested a change to police procedures in 2004 and now, six years later, they’re finally being implemented.

Now, SFPD Commander David Lazar said, after a joint re-write of the police department’s General Orders by the SFPD, the OCC, and community groups, there’s a clear procedure in place. Speaking at a press conference at Huckleberry this morning, Lazar said that from now on, police officers have been directed, except in the case emergency:

1. To read juveniles their Miranda rights within 30 minutes of being detained;
2. To notify the child’s parents immediately;
3. To tell juveniles that they’re allowed to have their parents or guardians present while they’re questioned;
4. To audio tape all interrogations of juveniles;
5. To let kids know that they’re allowed to have translators;
6. And to make every possible effort to bring kids for questioning not to Juvenile Hall or a police station, but to Huckleberry, where they’ll receive a psychological and medical examination and be exposed to available community services. (Juveniles accused of certain serious crimes must, by law, be taken to Juvenile Hall.)

Also important to the process, said Ron Stueckle of Sunset Youth Services, is a pamphlet released today called “Know Your Rights” (Or “Alamin ang lyong” in Tagolog and “IIPABA HECOBEPIIIEHHOJIETHNX”–approximately–in Russian; the pamphlet is available in six languages).

“There’s amazing amounts of disinformation out in the streets about youth rights and officer responses,” he said. “It’s difficult at best and often dangerous.” If kids know their rights and police do, too, relationships should be smoother.

Paul Henderson, the Chief of Administration at the District Attorney’s office, emphasized diversion to Huckleberry instead of Juvenile Hall for most kids as an amazing opportunity to get kids who’ve never had a psychological evaluation, and have maybe never even been to the doctor access to those services instead of a quick trip to juvenile detention. For kids who’re arrested, he said, this may be their first interaction with law enforcement, even their first interaction with government, and that experience–whether positive or negative–can set that individual’s attitude towards the system in one direction for a long time.