Three years after voters called for oversight of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office, and more than a year since the civilian Sheriff’s Oversight Board was selected, the body has tapped a longtime prosecutor to oversee investigations and audits into the department.
Terry Wiley, who rose to a top position at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office but lost the election for district attorney to Pamela Price last year, will take the Sheriff’s Office’s first-ever inspector general role. In November, Wiley had filed to run for Alameda County judgeship.
“I’m very excited about meeting the challenges of the Inaugural Inspector General position, and building a strong professional and talented [Office of Inspector General] team,” Wiley said in a statement to Mission Local.
The board struggled over the past 16 months to overcome infighting and finally hire Wiley. He will be tasked with developing oversight policies and hiring investigators for a new Office of Inspector General.
Wiley, known for prosecuting the police corruption and brutality case of “the Riders” in Oakland, does not have experience in police oversight, although the job posting for his position emphasized such experience as “highly desired.” Instead, he headed felony trials and the juvenile division at the Alameda DA’s office, and most recently was the director of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
The San Francisco Standard first reported Wiley’s selection.
The position pays up to nearly $225,000. It is unclear what experience other contenders for the job had. It is also unclear whether all board members agreed on Wiley as their top choice: In October, the board held a six-hour closed-door meeting to conduct interviews with each of the applicants.
“I wish him well, and will do everything I can to support him and hopefully give him the resources necessary to do the job,” said board member Jayson Wechter. “Not having had direct experience in oversight, I hope that he will reach out to the local oversight community … in the Bay Area and nationwide, who have set up offices like his.”
After the board decided in January to hire an inspector general through the city’s human resources department, the department announced in July that only five of the 37 applicants for the position in a three-month period met the minimum requirements for the job. Several, the department said, would not be considered because of the exclusion of former law enforcement.
The city’s charter precludes anyone “employed previously by a law enforcement agency” from serving in the inspector general role. The board chose to adjust its interpretation of “law enforcement” partway through the hiring process, apparently deciding that a prosecutor fell outside that definition. Multiple board members, including Board President Julie Soo and Wechter, have expressed opposition to the clause, which was included in District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton’s initial proposal creating the oversight board and Office of Inspector General, which voters approved in 2020.
Soo said in an October meeting that the charter language was so constricting that she spoke with the city attorney about shifting the interpretation of “law enforcement” to widen their search.
“So we narrowed that down, in particular, to get more candidates we could interview,” Soo said in October, adding that, in layperson’s terms, law enforcement generally refers to only police or sheriffs. “And it made a lot more sense.”
The City Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the topic, claiming attorney-client privilege.
Wiley’s campaign website emphasizes his interest in shifting away from a purely carceral prosecutorial approach; it says that he worked with the probation department to cut incarceration rates in Alameda County Juvenile Hall by two-thirds to reduce racial disparities there.
He also has criticized some more progressive approaches, and reportedly called his political opponent, Pamela Price, “Chesa Boudin on steroids.” He was supported for the Alameda DA role by former Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf and civil rights attorney John Burris.
Supervisor Walton said he was pleased with the hiring, but did not comment on Wiley or potential changes to his measure specifically.
“I am happy that we have finally selected someone for this very important role in our city,” Walton said. “Sheriff’s oversight is important, and now we can continue the work of accountability.”
Wiley is expected to be officially announced at a ceremony on Dec. 20. Only the three mayoral appointees to the board — Soo, Xochitl Carrion, and Dion-Jay Brookter — are expected to attend.
The board’s four members appointed by the Board of Supervisors were told they could not be there, Mission Local has learned, because the board would have to call a special meeting for more than three members to meet under public-meeting laws.
It is unclear why the board did not call a special meeting.
So Willie swears in a prosecutor to take a position from which law enforcement was legally precluded and Julie Soo slithers in to excusify the corruption, as is her way.
Hope he and others do ride-alongs as well as shifts with Deputies to
learn what the law enforcement officers have to deal. Our former
D.A. Bodin thought it was beneath him to do so. Walking, or better yet,
patrolling in a law enforcement officer’s shoes can be enlightening.