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Investigation: A police officer’s hidden porn cam

Daily SF News — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 17:25:18 +0000

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — When we began investigating a hidden porn camera, we never dreamed it would lead us to a police officer. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how we broke this story.

A man in Philadelphia noticed online videos of men and boys using a public restroom, and he could tell the subjects did not know they were being recorded. He noticed several people were wearing shirts with business logos from St. Charles County, Missouri, so he googled “Investigative Reporter St. Louis” and chose me to investigate.

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The Philadelphia man sent us “non-pornographic” screengrabs so that we had a view of what the bathroom looked like and for the next several days, photographer Dave Sharp and I checked every public restroom we could find, working our way East from Wentzville. We were looking for the same tile pattern and failed to find it. We also called some of the businesses from the logos our tipster found. Every business that I called hung up on me. I sensed that the owners were concerned that my reporting of this story would somehow hurt their business, even though I’d explained they were potential victims and that would not name them in my reporting.

Our Philadelphia tipster continued monitoring the site and noticed a man with an arm tattoo that said “chimney sweep,” along with a chimney logo. Our next stop was to call chimney sweep companies which again led to hang-up after hang-up.

Out of frustration, I told my colleague that we would personally visit one of the last chimney sweep companies on our list, which was a business in St. Charles County. I’ll never forget walking in and telling the owner, “Please hear me out in the interest of justice and helping others.” He laughed, and he did.

I asked: “Do you have an employee with an arm chimney sweep tattoo?”
“Yes,” he said.

I remember yelling in gratitude, and the owner called his employee to head back to base and talk to us in person.

What we now thought would be easy, still took days to pin down. The “chimney sweep” guy gave us bathroom after bathroom that he’d recently visited. We checked each one. None matched. He apologized that he *never uses a customer’s restroom, so he’s constantly using public restrooms, and there are too many to count.

It took another couple of days before we finally found a perfect match, and we knew we had our hidden camera location – a Mobile On the Run on Clarkson just south of Interstate 40. We knew the camera had to be hidden in a ceiling tile, so we pulled it down. There was no camera. So my colleague Dave Sharp and I parked nearby and watched. We watched for hours. Hours turned into days. We went into the restroom regularly to check the ceiling tiles — never a camera.

After several days, we knew we had to take another approach. Videos were continuing to be posted, according to our Philadelphia source. We noticed police officers were regularly using this bathroom, so I knew the next step – go to Chesterfield Police. The spokesperson at the time was Captain Steve Lewis, who is now the police chief of Ellisville, Missouri.

I knew Capt. Lewis to be a good man who I could approach at a moment’s notice, so I told my colleague we would just drop in on him. As we pulled up to police headquarters, he was out front talking to citizens.

I literally jumped out of our still-moving car and yelled at him, “I can help you solve a crime in which your officers are victims. And they don’t know it.”

I had his attention, and he immediately brought me into a meeting with the highest-ranking command staff. I knew the police would be able to use search warrants to trace the website to the source and that would get our answer. First, the Commanders had to discuss strategy. One officer said something like, “We can’t tell our officers, because this will spread like wildfire. Everyone will tell their spouses, and we’ll end up seeing it on Facebook before we solve it.”

Another officer answered (I’m paraphrasing from memory), “‘You’re right, but it’s a chance we have to take. We a have a moral responsibility to tell our officers they could be victims of a crime.”

Commanders chose option two, which we respected. We waited for the results. The next day, we were met with another devastating setback. The porn website was down. It was completely gone and now untraceable. This was a wall that seemed unsurmountable. I told our Philadelphia tipster, who mentioned that other videos on the same website had become more graphic and appeared to be recorded at a different location, possibly a home.

He had one more logo from a shirt, which he snapped a screengrab and sent to me. It was a blurry three letters that seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place them. Ten other people I work with thought the same, but they also could not identify it. Then our assignment manager Glen Seibold glanced at it and knew immediately. It was from a St. Charles County car dealer. In this case, I did not feel comfortable contacting the business as a reporter because our tipster explained that the video was of a willing participant who had arrived at this mysterious home for anonymous sex.

This was a job for the police. I returned to Chesterfield Police Commanders who visited the dealership. They found the person from the video, and that person told police about the house he had visited (where he thought he was having sex with a woman behind a curtain). When police arrived at the house in Wentzville, they could not get a hit on the license plate from the car parked in the driveway. It came up as “anonymous” or “protected.”

So they knocked on the door. It was one of their own colleagues – a police officer who answered. It was David Cerna. This all went down without my presence as it was part of an active police investigation.

The next day the commanders brought me back into police HQ and sat me down with my colleague Dave Sharp. They said, “You’re not going to believe who we traced your material to.”

I’m thinking professional athlete or politician. They said no – it was one of their own officers. Cerna was immediately fired and lost his police license.

The police investigation continued and determined that he had also secretly video recorded his own colleagues in the police locker room. They found Cerna also inappropriately frisked a teen boy and recorded his genitals. Cerna was convicted, went to prison for a year, and is now a sex offender for life. We continue reporting on him to this day as he continues to fight cases in court ranging from shoplifting and drug use to failing to report as a sex offender.

This is our reporter’s story filed on June 11, 2014:

You or one of your kids may have appeared on video on a pornographic website. A FOX 2 investigation led to the discovery of a police officer behind it. Videos of men going to the bathroom began spreading across the United States until Fox Files investigator Chris Hayes traced them to a gas station bathroom in Chesterfield.

With the help of police, we found an unexpected suspect.

Update: Former cop accused of posting bathroom videos online to face grand jury

It started with a hidden camera we discovered was at the Mobile On The Run on Clarkson, just south of the Chesterfield Mall. Video from a hidden camera showed people going to the bathroom and the videos were posted on a pornographic website.

Our investigation started on the East Coast, where a man said he clicked on a banner that took him to the offensive porn website. He noticed many victims wearing company shirts. That’s how we found victim Rob Cheney who told us, “When I saw myself pooping, I was just like you’ve gotta be kidding me.”

We asked Cheney for a list of places where he used the bathroom. He explained, “I had to think because you don’t document everywhere you go to the bathroom, so it took me a while to pinpoint where it was.”

Fox 2 checked his list of restrooms, comparing the online video to each bathroom. Then we found a perfect match, from the floor tiles to the drain by the toilet. Cheney just moved to the area and laughed, “Three weeks and I’m already on a poop cam pretty much. So three weeks and everybody’s seen me poop? That’s terrible. Hahaha.”

But we found no camera when we first discovered the bathroom. We took our investigative research to Chesterfield Police. Chief Ray Johnson held a news conference and said, “The Chesterfield Police Department has arrested one of our own officers, working from a tip from an investigative reporter Chris Hayes from Fox 2 News.”

The website unexpectedly shut down during the investigation, but Fox 2 had already gathered intelligence needed to break the case. A key break involved a web posting of a St. Charles County man visiting the house of the possible suspect. The St. Charles County man went to the house for anonymous sex.

According to police, the suspect later admitted luring about 50 men to his Wentzville home, offering oral sex through what he called a gloryhole. He reportedly lured the men through a Craigslist ad, then secretly videotaped them entering his home and using his gloryhole.

Neighbor Kim Parker remembered talking to other neighbors during the police raid of Cerna’s home. She said, “We were discussing how we had noticed a lot of suspicious cars at all different times of the morning and evening, always with Illinois license plates, circling the area, pulling in the driveway and then shortly after pulling back out.”

The raid followed our lead involving the Craigslist add. And it netted the arrest of Chesterfield’s own officer, 33-year-old David Cerna.

Cerna’s reported website included an interesting discussion when someone posted “is this legal?” The response reads, “I’m not an attorney so I don’t know.”

Police Chief Ray Johnson described getting the phone call that his officer was the suspect. He said, “It was rather shocking of course and took a minute to sink in, but we realized the severity of it and just set out to deal with it immediately as we would with any other suspect.”

Chesterfield Police used our information to crack this case in less than one week. To the Department’s credit, officers did not hesitate to say they found one of their own officers. He’s a single man who has served on the force for six years. Cerna faces charges in St. Louis County for the bathroom hidden camera and charges in St. Charles County for videotaping men he reportedly lured to the gloryhole. He is no longer a Chesterfield Police Officer.

Read the Probable Cause Statement

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Automobile rams into Chinese language consulate in San Francisco and police fatally shoot driver, officers say

Daily SF News — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 04:19:04 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO – A car rammed into the Chinese consulate in San Francisco on Monday, coming to a stop in the lobby and creating a chaotic scene that ended with police shooting the driver, who later died at the hospital, officials said.

San Francisco police said they didn’t know why the unidentified driver smashed through the front of the consulate, located on a major street across from the city’s Japantown neighborhood. In a statement, the Chinese Consulate general described it as a “violent attack.”

Police descended on the consulate shortly after 3 p.m. on a report of a vehicle crashing into the building and urged people to avoid the area. Video from the scene showed a blue Honda sedan inside the lobby of the consulate’s visa office.

Officers entered the building, made contact with the suspect and opened fire, San Francisco police Sgt. Kathryn Winters said during a brief news conference. Despite “life-saving efforts” the suspect died at a hospital.

Police did not describe how the shooting unfolded, how many officers fired or if the driver had a weapon. There were no reports of any injured people inside the building.

Police are working and coordinating with investigators from the U.S. State Department and the Chinese Consulate.

“I wish I could give you more but this is a very complex investigation,” Winters said.

The statement from the Chinese Consulate general demanded more details about what happened and asked that it be “dealt with seriously in accordance with the law.”

“Our embassy severely condemns this violent attack,” the statement said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin repeated that statement at a daily briefing Tuesday without giving any details about damage to the consulate or injuries to staff and visitors.

“We strongly urge the U.S. to launch a swift investigation and take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese diplomatic missions and personnel there in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,” Wang said, referring to the 1961 agreement governing relations between countries.

The San Francisco consulate has been targeted a number of times before. Among the most serious was a fire set by a Chinese man on New Year’s Day 2014 at the main entrance. It charred a section of the outside of the building.

The man, who was living in the San Francisco Bay Area, told authorities he was driven by voices he was hearing. He was sentenced to nearly three years in prison.

San Francisco is preparing to host next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, a gathering of world leaders from Pacific Rim nations. President Joe Biden plans to attend but it’s not clear if Chinese President Xi Jinping will come.

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Automotive rams into Chinese language consulate in San Francisco and police fatally shoot driver, officers say | WTAJ

Daily SF News — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 04:14:44 +0000

San Francisco police investigate at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. Officials said a car rammed into the consulate building Monday, coming to a stop in the lobby and creating a chaotic scene that ended with police shooting the driver, who later died at the hospital. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group via AP)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A car rammed into the Chinese consulate in San Francisco on Monday, coming to a stop in the lobby and creating a chaotic scene that ended with police shooting the driver, who later died at the hospital, officials said.

Police did not describe how the shooting unfolded, how many officers fired or if the driver had a weapon. There were no reports of any injured people inside the building.

Police are working and coordinating with investigators from the U.S. State Department and the Chinese Consulate.

“I wish I could give you more but this is a very complex investigation,” Winters said.

The statement from the Chinese Consulate general demanded more details about what happened and asked that it be “dealt with seriously in accordance with the law.”

“Our embassy severely condemns this violent attack,” the statement said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin repeated that statement at a daily briefing Tuesday without giving any details about damage to the consulate or injuries to staff and visitors.

The man, who was living in the San Francisco Bay Area, told authorities he was driven by voices he was hearing. He was sentenced to nearly three years in prison.

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Automotive rams into Chinese language consulate in San Francisco and police fatally shoot driver, officers say | WTAJ

Daily SF News — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 09:59:53 +0000

Police descended on the consulate building after 3 p.m. on a report of a vehicle crashing into the building and urged people to avoid the area. Officers entered the lobby of the consulate’s visa office, made contact with the suspect and there was a shooting involving an officer and the driver, police Sgt. Kathryn Winters said during a short news conference. Despite “life-saving efforts,” the suspect was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said.

Television cameras showed a Honda sedan crashed into the visa office and the doors in front of the building were cordoned off.

Winters said they didn’t know why the vehicle crashed into the building or how many people were inside at the time but said they had no reports of other injuries.

Police are working and coordinating with investigators from the U.S. Department of State and the Chinese consulate.

“I wish I could give you more but this is a very complex investigation,” Winters said.

A statement from the Chinese consulate denounced Monday’s incident.

“On the afternoon of Oct. 9, 2023, local time, an unidentified person drove a vehicle and violently crashed into the document hall of our consulate, posing a serious threat to the safety of staff and people on site, and damaging the facilities of our consulate,” the statement said. “Our embassy severely condemns this violent attack.” The consulate said that it has demanded more details about the incident and asked that it be “dealt with seriously in accordance with the law.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin repeated that statement at a daily briefing Tuesday afternoon without giving any details about damage to the consulate or injuries to staff and visitors.

China’s Consulate General sits on a major street across from San Francisco’s Japantown neighborhood.

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San Francisco tries to recruit cops from TEXAS because it faces scarcity of a whole lot of officers and enterprise leaders like Salesforce’s Marc Benioff slam town’s widespread homelessness and drug use

Daily SF News — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 19:41:52 +0000

Representatives for the California force are currently on a recruitment drive, visiting four Texas colleges
It comes after the police department had funding cut, causing them to pay out high amounts of overtime
San Francisco is currently experiencing high numbers of homelessness and open drug use

San Francisco is trying to recruit cops from Texas as it faces a shortage of officers, after businessman Marc Benioff slammed the city’s homeless and drug problems.

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is visiting four Texas university campuses throughout the month as part of a new recruitment drive.

Candidates from outside of the state of California will take a written test, a physical ability test and an interview to see if they make they cut.

A police spokesperson told the San Francisco Standard that the number of estimated applications this year is 2,104, nearly a 20 percent increase from 1,756 last year.

The recruitment push comes as the department faces staffing issues, causing them to pay out high amounts of overtime.

Representatives for the California force are currently on a recruitment drive, visiting four Universities in Texas As part of the move, the SFPD are visiting four Universities, with the poster for Sam Houston State seen here The four Texan universities are Texas Southern University, Sam Houston State University, Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi

The Standard reported that between 2017 and 2022, cops spent $88.9 million more on its employees, despite working fewer hours.

The four Texan universities are Texas Southern University, Sam Houston State University, Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi.

Following widespread calls for reforms that swept the national following the murder of George Floyd, the department in the California city had their funding cut.

Mayor London Breed was one of the first to openly speak out in support of defunding the police.

During a July 2020 press conference, Breed said: ‘We chose to change how this city and how this country treats our young Black men.’

Breed announced $120 million would be cut from the police and sheriff’s departments to reinvest in programs that help black and brown communities.

The following year, Breed u-turned on the decision and increased the police budget as the city faced a rampant rise in property crime and looting.

At the time, she said: ‘More aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant with all the bulls*** that has destroyed our city.’

Mayor London Breed speaks during the celebration of the 9th Annual Chinatown Night Out in San Francisco, California, United States on September 6, 2023 Latest figures up until Sunday show that there have been more homicides so far this year, than the whole of last year

Last year the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a $50 million increase in SFPD’s budget.

Latest figures up until Sunday show that there have been more homicides so far this year than the whole of last year.

So far, there have been 40 murders in the city in 2023, while there was just 36 last year.

Likewise, the number of robberies in the city is also higher now than for the whole of last year, with 1,989 reported incidents this year, compared to just 1,704 last year.

The number of total crimes this year is also closely catching up with last years full total, with 36,573 crimes committed this year, compared to 37,674 in 2022.

It comes after Salesforce Inc. CEO Marc Benioff said that he had pushed officials in the city to clean the place up before the company’s annual conference.

AI convention Dreamforce, which draws 40,000 people from around the world according to the company, was held in the city last week.

During a press event on Wednesday, Benioff said: ‘We put a lot of pressure on the city this year. It looks great. It’s very safe right now. We’re moving in the right direction.’

Benioff, 58, held the event at the Moscone Center, which is in an area that is currently facing issues including homelessness, crime and open air drug markets, according to Kron4.

Benioff also posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: ‘San Francisco has been incredibly clean, beautiful, and safe for the last 3 days of Dreamforce.

‘It is great that the city is able to put its best foot forward for this major event that brings in 40K people from around the world, and $80M to the economy.

‘It is important to ask why the city cannot be this clean and safe every single day?’

Salesforce Inc. CEO Marc Benioff, pictured here, said he had pushed officials in the beleaguered California city to clean the place up The AI convention, which draws 40,000 people from around the world according to the company, was held in the city over the past few days

Benioff had previously warned that the company could pull the large scale convention from the city due to the ongoing problems it is facing.

He told The San Francisco Chronicle: ‘If this Dreamforce is impacted by the current situation with homelessness and drug use it may be the last Dreamforce.’

Mayor London Breed responded to Benioff’s claim that Dreamforce made the city’s transformation possible.

She told ABC7 News: ‘It’s not just because of Dreamforce. There are other conventions. This is what we do for every convention that comes to SF.

‘My pushback is San Francisco changing. Things are getting better.’

Despite this, Mayor Breed did concede that some areas of the city, particularly the Tenderloin and South of Market, did still present challenges.

The city has struggled for years with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses, and is on pace for its deadliest year yet.

More than 849 people are expected to die of drug overdoses in 2023, on pace to exceed the current record of 720 deaths in 2020

In the first five months of 2023, preliminary reports show there were 346 overdose deaths in the city – an increase of more than 40 percent from the same period in 2022.

Latest figures show that overdose deaths are continuing to rise, soaring in August with an additional 84 deaths, 66 involving fentanyl.

Economists have warned the city is spiraling into an ‘urban doom loop’ – a vicious circle of interconnected trends and forces that send cities into economic and social ruin.

Over the past few months, dozens of retailers announced they would be vacating the downtown area of the city.

Drug addicts and the homeless congregate in the Tenderloin District of the California city Open drug use is now common in the city, something which the police are cracking down on San Francisco Police have attempted to shut down open-air drugs markets in the hard-hit Tenderloin and SoMa areas of the city. Pictured: 64-year-old Deliada Valdez who has been homeless for four years is seen in Tenderloin District of San Francisco, California, United States on August 28, 2023

Retail stalwart Old Navy announced they would be shuttering their flagship store in the area last month, becoming the latest chain to exit the city.

Nordstrom also announced they would be closing all of their locations in the city.

The company said that due to the ‘changing dynamics’ of San Francisco it would be shuttering all remaining stores in the next few months.

In April, Whole Foods announced it was closing all their locations, with Anthropologie and Office Depot having also made the same decisions.

High theft has proved a problem in the area recently, with a Walgreens in the city center resolving to chaining their freezers to stop shoplifters.

A map reveals the major businesses which have left, or plan to leave, San Francisco in recent months

A disturbing recent report showed 95 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the COVID pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent.

Out of 203 retailers open in 2019 in the city’s Union Square area, just 107 are still operating, a drop of 47 percent in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.

One Target store in the city has been forced to lock up more of its products to stave off thieves.

An employee at the location previously said it was being robbed as often as ‘every ten minutes.’

Video footage of another Target has been shared on social media and shows large quantities of their stock now behind barriers.

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Household of Erik Salgado Calls for Justice After Determination Not To Cost CHP Officers Who Fatally Shot Him – CBS San Francisco

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 14:38:33 +0000

OAKLAND (CBS SF/AP) — The family of Erik Salgado, a 23-year-old unarmed man fatally shot in 2020 by California Highway Patrol officers, on Tuesday denounced a report from the district attorney saying there was not enough evidence to prosecute the officers.

Salgado was shot and killed by three members of CHP’s auto-theft task force in June of 2020 on Cherry Street in Oakland. On Monday, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley publicly released the final report on the fatal shooting and said she agreed with its conclusion “that the evidence does not support criminal charges” against the officers.

READ MORE: Grieving Parents Make Tear-Filled Plea To End Gun Violence At San Francisco Rally

Salgado’s family and supporters gathered on the steps of the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland. Attorney John Burris, who is moving ahead with a civil rights lawsuit over Salgado’s death, said there was no legal basis for the CHP officers to shoot into Salgado’s car.

“I think that report is a sham,” Burris said at the Tuesday news conference, adding he was disappointed but not surprised. “The decision is bittersweet because although disappointed with the decision it does allows us to go forward,”

The Salgado family said the officers involved in the shooting used excessive force, especially because Salgado was not armed. he added.

Salgado’s mother Felina Ramirez said through an interpreter Tuesday morning, “All I want is justice. I want justice for my son.”
She spoke through tears as she described never being able to see her son again.

Salgado’s sister, Amanda Majail-Blanco, says they’ve been waiting two years for answers – answers they say this report does not provide.

“We have to remember that this is an investigative report on cops investigating their own, and this shouldn’t be trusted,” said Majail-Blanco.

Prosecutors identified the officers involved as CHP Sgt. Richard Henderson and Officers Donald Saputa and Eric Hulbert. The CHP said at the time the officers were conducting a traffic stop on the Dodge sedan driven by Salgado when he rammed it against their patrols and they opened fire.

Salgado was struck at least a dozen times. His pregnant girlfriend was in the passenger seat and was wounded.

READ MORE: South Bay Fentanyl Dealer Sentenced To 8 Years In Prison For Selling ‘Killers In Disguise’ M30 Pills

Salgado was driving one of the Dodge Hellcats that was stolen a few nights earlier from a San Leandro car dealership during looting that happened around the George Floyd protests.

The report says when the officers pulled Salgado over and got out of their cars to talk to him, he tried to drive away, ramming their patrol vehicles twice. Thats’ when the officers opened fire, later saying they worried the Hellcat Salgado was driving could hit and kill one of the officers.

“The DA has said, ‘Well, I’m not really clear that that’s what happened, but right now I have nothing else to turn to.’ Why? Because there’s no video,” said LaDoris Cordell, a former judge and a former independent police auditor.

Cordell says video from body worn cameras would have taken away any doubt as to whether the shooting was justified. According to the DA, the cameras were not required by CHP policy.

“Had they had cameras on and activated, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, nor would the DA have any question about whether or not pressing charges, filing charges was the right thing to do,” says Cordell.

The 34 page report does leave the door open for criminal charges to be filed in the future “should more witnesses or evidence come forward.”

Katie Nielsen contributed to this report.

MORE NEWS: New COVID Cases Among States’ Highest As San Francisco Slowly Returns To Normal

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San Francisco restaurant apologizes for refusing to serve 3 armed law enforcement officials

Sat, 02 Apr 2022 19:38:22 +0000

Dec 5, 3:20pm The restaurant Hilda and Jesse has apologized for refusing to serve three uniformed and armed San Francisco police officers on Friday.

“We made a mistake and apologize for the unfortunate incident on Friday when we asked members of the San Francisco Police Department to leave our restaurant,” co-owners Rachel Sillcocks and Kristina Liedags Compton wrote in a statement posted to Instagram Sunday afternoon. “We are grateful to all members of the force who work hard to keep us safe, especially during these challenging times.”

Yelp has added a disclaimer to Hilda and Jesse’s page, saying the page is being monitored by its support team, after a bombardment of negative reviews earned the restaurant a one-star rating.

Dec 4, 10:30pm A restaurant in North Beach refused to serve three uniformed and armed San Francisco police officers on Friday, because staff felt “uncomfortable with the presence of their multiple weapons.”

Staff “politely asked” the officers to leave, according to an Instagram post from the Hilda and Jesse, at an all-day brunch eatery that opened its doors on Nov. 1.

“We respect the San Francisco Police Department and are grateful for the work they do,” the post reads. “We welcome them into the restaurant when they are off duty, out of uniform, and without their weapons.”

The statement also added that “this is not a political statement, we did what we thought was best for our staff.”

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott tweeted a response on Saturday evening: “The San Francisco Police Department stands for safety with respect, even when it means respecting wishes that our officers and I find discouraging and personally disappointing.

“I believe the vast majority of San Franciscans welcome their police officers, who deserve to know that they are appreciated for the difficult job we ask them to do — in their uniforms — to keep our neighborhoods and businesses safe.”

By Saturday evening, Hilda and Jesse, located at 701 Union St., had been inundated with negative reviews on both Yelp and Google. It currently has one star and over 400 reviews on Yelp; the company normally puts a disclaimer on businesses receiving unusually high numbers of reviews due to controversy, but as of Sunday morning, that banner was not added.

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San Francisco police chief says restaurant’s refusal of service to on-duty officers was upsetting and a disappointment

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 08:56:57 +0000

CNN, KGO

By Travis Caldwell, CNN

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said Tuesday that an incident last week when police officers were refused service at a local restaurant was “upsetting” and a disappointment.

Scott praised the officers’ professionalism at the Hilda and Jesse restaurant in the city’s North Beach neighborhood Friday when three uniformed, on-duty officers were asked to leave because employees were uneasy about their service weapons.

“We wear uniforms but we’re all humans,” Scott told CNN’s Michael Smerconish. “We get things done to us and said to us that are hurtful, but we have to rise above it and be professional. That’s what these officers did.”

In a since-deleted post reported by local media, the restaurant’s social media account stated that staff felt “uncomfortable with the presence of their multiple weapons” and the officers were asked to leave.

“We respect the San Francisco Police Department and are grateful for the work they do. We welcome them into the restaurant when they are off duty, out of uniform, and without their weapons,” the post said.

The restaurant’s stance sparked a fierce reaction online and it was subsequently inundated with negative comments on review sites such as Yelp.

The owners, Rachel Sillcocks and Kristina Liedags Compton, later apologized in another social media post, stating “We are grateful to all members of the force who work hard to keep us safe, especially during these challenging times. We hope this will be a teachable moment for us as we repair and continue to build bridges with the SFPD.

“These are stressful times, and we handled this badly,” they said.

Scott said he spoke with the owners over the phone on Tuesday and has accepted their apology.

“One of the things that we have to do, and this was said by the owners of the restaurant, is we have to sit down and have conversations,” Scott said. “We know that there are sometimes opposite sides of conversations about police officers and policing. But we sit down, we have conversations, and we can agree to disagree, but there has to be some civility in this process.”

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San Francisco restaurant denies service to three law enforcement officials who made employees ‘uncomfortable’

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 07:39:08 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – A restaurant that denied service to three San Francisco Police Department officers because their weapons made staff “uncomfortable” has apologized.

The restaurant, called Hilda and Jesse, said staff politely asked the armed officers in uniform to leave on Friday shortly after seating them, according to the post. Hilda and Jesse said the restaurant is a “safe space,” and the presence of weapons prompted his staff to deny the service officers, the business said in a social media post.

“We respect the San Francisco Police Department and are grateful for the work they do,” the post wrote. “We welcome them into the restaurant when they are off duty, out of uniform, and without their weapons.”

The restaurant said its actions are not a political statement, stating it did what it thought was best for its staff.

Substitute teacher who sang Britney Spears on karaoke machine ‘relieved of duty’

Police Chief William Scott tweeted a response, saying community engagement is a “core principle” of police reform and officers are asked to shop and eat at small businesses in order to “support local businesses and get to know those they’re sworn to safeguard. ”

“The San Francisco Police Department stands for safety with respect, even when it means respecting wishes that our officers and I find discouraging and personally disappointing,” Scott continued. “I believe the vast majority of San Franciscans welcome their police officers, who deserve to know that they are appreciated for the difficult job we ask them to do — in their uniforms — to keep our neighborhoods and businesses safe.”

On Sunday, Hilda and Jesse apologized for the way the incident was handled.

“We are grateful to all members of the force who work hard to keep us safe, especially during these challenging times,” the restaurant said. “We hope this will be a teachable moment for us as we repair and continue to build bridges with the SFPD. These are stressful times, and we handled this badly.”

The restaurant has faced backlash on Yelp since the incident, receiving so many negative reviews that it’s been left with an average one-star rating. Yelp has temporarily paused the ability to leave reviews for Hilda and Jesse as it sorts through which posts are based on first-hand experiences and which are in response to the incident involving SFPD.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Sunday, Dec. 5 at 3:05 pm to include an apology issued by the restaurant.

The post San Francisco restaurant denies service to three law enforcement officials who made employees ‘uncomfortable’ appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

San Francisco restaurant denies service to three law enforcement officials who made workers ‘uncomfortable’ | KTAB

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 03:31:13 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – A restaurant that denied service to three San Francisco Police Department officers because their weapons made staff “uncomfortable” has apologized.

The restaurant said its actions are not a political statement, stating it did what it thought was best for its staff.

Substitute teacher who sang Britney Spears on karaoke machine ‘relieved of duty’

On Sunday, Hilda and Jesse apologized for the way the incident was handled.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Sunday, Dec. 5 at 3:05 pm to include an apology issued by the restaurant.

The post San Francisco restaurant denies service to three law enforcement officials who made workers ‘uncomfortable’ | KTAB appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.