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Notable events in the history of the San Francisco Police Department

Posted in History

The following is a list of notable events in the history of the San Francisco Police Department.

  • Early 1880s: The Chinatown squad was established.
  • 1887: The hunt for Charles Bolles aka Black Bart, a notorious stagecoach robber at the time. He was eventually caught by a Wells Fargo detective James B. Hume. He disappeared shortly after he was released from prison.
  • April 13, 1895: Theodore Durrant was arrested for murdering both Minnie Williams and Blanche Lamont in Emanuel Church. He was hanged in 1898.
  • December 1, 1908: San Francisco Chief of Police William J. Biggy went overboard from a police launch during a nighttime crossing of San Francisco Bay after being accused of ordering the killing ex-convict Morris Haas in the pay of the Ruef gang. His body was found two weeks later. The Coroner's Jury returned a verdict of accidental death although people believed his death was suicide. The case remained unsolved. 
  • July 22, 1916: The bombing on the Preparedness Day parade killed 10 people and wounded 40 others. Two known radical labor leaders -- Thomas Mooney and Warren K. Billings were arrested and sentenced to death under a hasty trial. They were eventually commuted by President Woodrow Wilson in 1918 and pardoned by California governor Culbert Olson in 1939.
  • February, 1917: The police raided and blockaded the notorious red-light district Barbary Coast and refused entry to any men without legitimate business. The police then proceeded to evict over 1073 prostitutes, giving them a few hours to collect their belongings, thereby effectively shutting down 83 dives and brothels after nearly three quarters of a century as the west coast's premiere vice district. 
  • September 3, 1921: Famous silent film actor Roscoe Arbuckle aka Fatty Arbuckle was involved in a possible rape case during his stay in San Francisco. The alleged victim Virginia Rappe died three days after party at Arbuckle's suite in the Saint Francis Hotel. The scandal attracted media attention and destroyed Arbuckle's career
  • 1934: The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike erupted on the West Coast including San Francisco. In one of its strike named "Bloody Thursday", over two strikers was killed and numerous people are wounded.
  • November, 1886, Police defend old Jail in North Beach from sandlot vigilantes bent on lynching prisoners
  • 1901 Chief Sullivan issues order against officers dyeing hair and whiskers, claiming the effort detracts from the officer's duties
  • The 1901 Carman's strikes. The Employers' Association and Mayor James D. Phelan's police attacked the strikers. City police rode with scabs. Police beat people but made no arrests. Police behavior during this strike was a major factor in the fall Mayoral election which brought Eugene Schmitz, his patron Abe Ruef, and the Union Labor Party to power. 5 dead, 300 injured
  • 1909 establishment of motorcycle squad for "stopping scorchers (bicyclists) and reckless vehicle drivers" and countries first fingerprint bureau (S.F. Examiner June 13, 1977)
  • In 1913, San Francisco among first departments to hire women, three women protective officers join the force
  • November 15, 1919 Police order all IWW members out of town
  • 1921 appointment by Chief Dan O'Brien of Jack Manion to the Chinatown Squad
  • Police Academy opens in 1923, first in the nation
  • 1932 Jessie Scott Hughes murdered, trial of public defender Frank Egan ends in first degree murder sentence of 25 years
  • The 1934 West Coast longshore strike that included Bloody Thursday July 5, 1934 over a hundred people wounded, strikers Nicholas Bordois and Howard Sperry killed.
  • On July 17, 1934, the California National Guard blocked both ends of Jackson Street from Drumm to Front with machine gun mounted trucks to assist vigilante raids, protected by SFPD, on the headquarters of the Marine Workers' Industrial Union and the ILA soup kitchen at 84 Embarcadero. Moving on, the Workers' Ex-Servicemen's League's headquarters on Howard between Third and Fourth was raided, leading to 150 arrests and the complete destruction of the facilities. The employer's group, theIndustrial Association, had agents riding with the police. Further raids were carried out at the Workers' Open Forum at 1223 Fillmore Street and the Western Worker building opposite City Hall that contained a bookstore and the main offices of the Communist Party, which was thoroughly destroyed. Attacks were also perpetrated on the 121 Haight Street Workers' School and the Mission Workers' Neighborhood House at 741 Valencia Street
  • Hiring of barrister Jake Ehrlich in mid-1930s by police officers association
  • Reveleation of widespread graft reported in the 1937 investigation by District Attorney Matthew Brady's hired detective Edwin Atherton
  • On Sunday, May 2nd, 1937, Patrolman George Burkhard, trophied marksman, shoots his wife and two grown daughters and then commits suicide in the midst of prosecution for falsifying documents related to graft hearings
  • May 29, 1937, riot in the Polk gulch area on the night of the Golden Gate Bridge Fiesta.
  • September 1938 mounted police chase striking Retail Department Store Employees Union in commercial district where thirty-five department stores are affected in general strike
  • October 23, 1943, San Francisco Chronicle reports accusations of police tipoffs in the Burns-Caldwell underground abortions case
  • October 1943, Iron Ring police clique exposed. Certain officers are accused of participating and profiiting from after hours bars, vice and gambling operations. Ostentatious displays of jewelry, cars and flashy cash decried as criminal gains (SF Chronicle October 25, 1943)
  • 1944 V-Day riots that lasted three days, mostly joined by men in uniform
  • The Nick de John mafia murder of 1947
  • The 1949 frameup and arrest for narcotics possession of Billie Holliday
  • September 30, 1955 Chief George Healey asks for disbanding of Chinatown squad, upon request of influential Chinese World newspaper, which states that squad is an "affront to Americans of Chinese descent".
  • The 1957 arrest of City Lights Bookstore publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti on obscenity charges for publication of the Allen Ginsberg poem Howl
  • September 1, 1958 Chief Frances J. Ahern dies of a heart attack at a baseball game in Seal Stadium
  • May 13, 1960 A large group of students and citizens fire-hosed down the marble steps inside City Hall rotunda by the SFPD for protesting their exclusion from HUAC hearings, 52 arrests.
  • The 1961 arrest of comedian Lenny Bruce for obscenity
  • New Year's Eve party at California Hall raided and 600 attendee's lined up and photographed as homosexuals. The cases went to trial with support from the ACLU. All are acquited
  • The Zodiac serial killer case which rocked the Bay Area during the 1960s and '70s
  • Arrest of seven young latinos Los Siete De La Raza for the The May 1, 1969 murder of an undercover officer Joe Brodnik and wounding of partner Paul McGoran
  • The 1960s targeting of SFPD officers for assassination by militants connected to the Black Panther Party
  • Feb 16, 1970, a homemade bomb exploded outside the police Park Station on Waller St. Sgt. Brian McDonnell (44) died 2 days later and 8 other officers were injured. Black Panthers or the Weather Underground were suspects
  • The August 1966 Compton's cafeteria riot 
  • Hunters Point riot. September 27, 1966 a three day riot breaks out when a white police officer shot and killed a sixteen-year-old fleeing the scene of a stolen car. National guard cover city for two days
  • In 1966-67, Hippies enact walk-ins in Haight street intersections precipitatng repeated military-style police marches down the street
  • 1967, Police arrest dancers Rudolph Nureyev and Dame Margot Fonteyn on the roof of a house near the panhandle for being in the vicinity of pot smoking
  • December 1968 through January, 1969, police repeatedly called onstudent protestors by Chancellor S.I. Hyakawa
  • The racially-motivated 1970s Zebra murders by a violent Nation of Islam offshoot
  • The Symbionese Liberation Army crime spree and the 1975 arrest of Patty Hearst, William and Emily Harris and Wendy Yoshimura in a house on Bernal Heights
  • The September 1977 Golden Dragon massacre
  • In the late 1960s, New Age philosopher Alan Watts suggested police cars be painted baby blue and white instead of black and white. This proposal was implemented in San Francisco by Chief Charles Gain in the late 1970s. Along with the new color scheme, Gain substituted the City's seal (which appeared on almost all other municipal vehicles owned by San Francisco), with "Police Services" for the department's traditional seven-pointed, blue star logo Watts suggested the police wear baby blue uniforms, but this was never implemented
  • August 18, 1975 over 90% of 1,935 police walk out in pay dispute
  • Sep 22, 1975 President Gerald R. Ford dodged a second assassination in less than three weeks. Sara Jane Moore, an FBI informer and self-proclaimed revolutionary, attempted to shoot President Ford outside a San Francisco hotel, but missed
  • August 4, 1977 over 400 riot-equipped police (some on horseback), and sheriff's deputies take the I-hotel International Hotel from 2000 protestors.
  • August 25 1977 Police commission approves an equal opportunity plan that includes recruitment of homosexuals
  • The assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk and the arrest of former SFPD officer, firefighter and Supervisor Dan White in 1978.
  • The White Night Riots which followed White's acquittal of first degree murder charges and conviction on lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter and led to an unprovoked police raid on a Castro Street gay bar called the Elephant Walk, two miles away and hours after the City Hall disturbance
  • Jauary 27, 1979, Police department settles racial discrimination suit filed by Black Police Officer's Association
  • In May 1984, notorious sex party at California Halls Rathskeller bar, celebrating the graduation of new San Francisco Police Department cadets
  • September 1984 police siege Lord Jim's bar looking for drugs. Hold 60 patrons for more than an hour, prompting lawsuits that cost many thousands of dollars
  • The 1981 arrest of David Carpenter, the "Trailside Killer."
  • The still-unsolved 1984 disappearance of Kevin Collins
  • Democratic National Convention in 1984
  • Part of the 1980s case against serial killers Leonard Lake and Charles Ng
  • Part of the 1980s case against Richard Ramirez, the night stalker
  • 1988, S.F. Police officer breaks two ribs and ruptures spleen of UFW leader Dolores Huerta at a demonstration in Union Square against George Bush 1, leading to the dismissal of officers with excessive force complaints and a settlement with the city for $825,000
  • Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on Tuesday October 17, 1989
  • 1992 Police Chief Richard Hongisto is fired for allegedly prompting three officers to seize more than 2,000 copies of the magazine. One of those three officers, Gary Delagnes, is current president of the Police Officers Association
  • The 1993 massacre at 101 California Street
  • The Anti-Defamation League Spy Scandal of 1993 involving ADL researcher Roy Bullock and officer Tom Gerard
  • New Year's Day 1995. Four officers charged with using unnecessary force and making homophobic comments to partygoers at an AIDS fund-raiser at 938 Harrison St.
  • June 4, 1995 - Aaron Williams, an African-American man suspected of a pet-store burglary dies in police custody. According to witnesses and police sources, a team of police led by Officer Marc Andaya repeatedly kicked Williams in the head and emptied three canisters of pepper spray into his face. Despite the fact that Williams was having difficulty breathing, the police hog-tied, gagged and left him unattended in the back of a police van, where he died.
  • April 6, 1996 - Mark Garcia, a 15 year teamster, killed by San Francisco police. Mark Garcia was robbed and partially stripped of his clothing. SFPD called. Instead of helping Mark, the police beat him, pepper sprayed him, handcuffed him, stood on his back for more than 5 minutes, hog-tied him, and then threw him into the back of a police van. Although they took him to the hospital, Garcia died as a result of this abuse.
  • The July 1997 Critical Mass bike ride that led to over a hundred arrests and charges of police overrection
  • Investigation launched into cashier's checks specifically made out to the Vice Crimes Division and handed directly to a vice squad sergeant. The money was collected from massage parlor workers arrested by the Vice Squad.
  • May 13, 1998 - Sheila Patricia Detoy, sitting in the front seat of a Ford Mustang, shot once in the head by plainclothes police officers as the car barreled out of the driveway of the Oakwood Apartments. Mother of slain girl files wrongful death claim
  • February 2002 - Off-duty officer Steve Lee in fistfight Gregory Hooper, a street vendor. Eyewitnesses report that after the fight ended, Lee shot the unarmed Hooper four times in the chest at point- blank range.
  • March 2002 - five officers opene fire on a 100-pound, mentally disabled man named Richard Tims wielding a knife, killing him. Barrage of bullets destroy a bus shelter, spray the block and fell onlooker Vilda Curry, robbing the 39-year-old mother of her ovary and the use of her leg.
  • June 12, 2001 Idriss Stelley shot more than 20 times and killed by eight San Francisco Police Officers at the Sony Metreon. Young man dies, shot 20 times by 8 cops Just before midnight on June 12, 2001
  • The 2001 case against Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller for the death-by-dog of Diane Whipple
  • February 19, 2003 - Michael Moll killed by SFPD. Officers fire eight shots, striking Moll five times.
  • The 2003 "Fajitagate" of November 19, 2002, when three police officers--Matthew Tonsing, David Lee, and Alex Fagan, Jr. left a police celebration at the House of Prime Rib and assaulted a person over a bag of Fajitas. The incident that led to a grand jury indictment of 10 police officers, including Chief Prentice E. Sanders Criminal defense attorney Jim Collins got former SFPD Officer Alex Fagan Jr. off.
  • July 8, 2005 at an Anti-G8 protest, officer Peter Sheilds' skull is fractured, San Francisco police collaborate with Federal Homeland Security department and FBI in investigation of new media journalist Josh Wolf. Wolf is later called to testify at the grand jury and jailed for refusing to speak for 226 days.
  • A December 2005 scandal involving a staged videotape of officers engaged in racist and sexist parodies. 
  • January 2007, eight former Black Panthers arrested for their alleged involvement in the 1971 murder of Sgt. John V. Young at Ingleside station and other serious thirty year old crimes. Richard Brown, Richard O'Neal, Ray Boudreaux, and Hank Jones arrested in California. Francisco Torres arrested in Queens, New York. Harold Taylor arrested in Florida. Two of the men charged have been in prison for over 30 years ? Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim. Bail amounts running between three and five million dollars each. They have been labelled the San Francisco 8.