Lt. Tracy McCray, the president of the San Francisco police union, berated the Police Commission at its Wednesday meeting, suggesting — without evidence — that the oversight body leaked disciplinary information about an officer.
The tirade came in response to a San Francisco Standard article that identified a police officer by name who may be under investigation for alleged falsification of race data in traffic stops. McCray insinuated that the officer’s name had been leaked to the press, despite the fact that the Standard has stated it did not use leaked information.
Still, that was not enough for McCray, who at one point said she was too busy to read the Standard’s explanation.
“What is going on here?” McCray asked Wednesday evening. “And you wonder why the trust between the officers I represent and the commission is so frayed.”
Earlier in the day, McCray had sent a letter to the commission criticizing what she called a lack of adequate response to the reporting and exposure of the officer. Disciplinary records are kept confidential in California during ongoing investigations.
Shortly after the initial article was published, former police officer Lou Barberini accused the commission’s vice president, Max Carter-Oberstone, of leaking the information to reporters, without citing any evidence.
Carter-Oberstone refuted the claim on social media.
But in her letter on Wednesday, McCray again pointed to Carter-Oberstone, whom she accused of making a “panicked” response on Twitter to “protect himself.”
Carter-Oberstone responded again to McCray’s comments before the Police Commission on Wednesday, noting that the Standard had, earlier that day, also disputed the leak accusation, saying its reporting was not based on leaked information.
An article from the paper outlined the Standard’s process: It said that the paper matched the case number from a Department of Police Accountability report with a public summary of DPA’s records requests to the police department — which included the case number and Officer Christopher Kosta’s name. Another report on the Police Commission website also included Kosta’s name as part of a September agenda item. This item is now redacted.
Despite this explanation, the union still apparently blames the Police Commission.
“These are confidential records,” McCray said on Wednesday. “So I want to know how you’re going to fix it.”
When Carter-Oberstone mentioned the new story from the Standard denying any leaked information, McCray was dismissive, saying she was too busy with work to read it.
When Carter-Oberstone pointed out that Barberini, who is known for spreading misinformation on social media, started the initial accusation of a leak, McCray got more aggressive.
“I mean, are we getting into this tête-à-tête right now? Or we could talk offline,” said McCray, repeatedly speaking over Carter-Oberstone. “So do you want to get into it right now, or you don’t?”
On Thursday morning, Carter-Oberstone issued a letter to the police union again addressing what he called “reckless and irresponsible” — and baseless — accusations. He went on to denounce McCray’s practice of “proliferating disinformation for perceived political gain, embracing hard-right lunacy, and harboring a virulent disdain for the truth and for the Commission’s role in our system of government.”
The police commission has been the target of much criticism from tough-on-crime commentators on social media, as well as from the union in recent months, but the accusations are often laden with misinformation. Mission Local has addressed some of these claims.
Just this week, McCray put out a statement on the police union website applauding a “silent majority” who ousted former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and three members of the school board in 2022, saying they had now “set their eyes” on the Police Commission. The commissioners are appointed and, unlike Boudin and the school board members, cannot be ousted in a recall.
She went on to perpetuate misinformation about recent policies, including blaming the Police Commission for a foot-pursuit policy that the police department itself drafted.
McCray also blasted the Police Commission’s pretext-stop policy, which was approved early this year but has lagged in negotiations with the union since, as a “wholesale abolishment.” (The policy guides officers to prioritize safety-related stops and bans stops for nine infractions that do not impact road safety.)
Though union policy negotiations are meant to be limited to labor contract issues, McCray seemed to acknowledge in her statement that the police union is stalling the policy: “Apparently it’s going to be a downright fight with us as we will not rollover on any policy that jeopardizes our ability to get dangerous criminals off our streets.”
Police commissioners on Wednesday defended the oversight body’s integrity and denied the accusation of a leak.
“I think that it was out of line to make that accusation without evidence,” said Commissioner Kevin Benedicto, particularly after what he called a “productive” year of collaboration between the commission and the police union.
He added that the commissioners were in agreement “to get to the bottom of how confidential information made it into the public.”
This story has been updated with a response letter issued by Commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone.
Police regularly misrepresent the races of subjects they detain. They’re supposed to record their impression of what the person’s race was when the officer first stopped them. Many officers claimed they didn’t see race, and that this policy forced them to think along racial lines, when otherwise they would not have done so. The whole dept, supervisors and all, treat this like a joke. Their attitude is we’re not racist and we know we’re not racist, so fuck your witch hunt. Self reporting like this will never produce accurate data.
“Silent majority”? The current SFPD propagandist in chief not only adopts Nixon’s “law and order” policies with his rhetoric. Add her black face withTrump’s contempt for anything resembling facts, and you have the new “identity politics”. Will Musk make her the new face of Twitter? Will Y Combinator provide her with startup funds for her campaign for mayor? Beware London Breed, if these are your allies, who needs enemies? Stay tuned.
“He looks guilty”
SF will not be truly free until the SFPOA is busted, enjoined from political activity and cops are prohibited from invoking qualified immunity as a condition of employment.
The hired help’s RICO operation has now turned its attention to conflict with civilian leadership. This cannot stand.
Prez McCray is just taking a page from the POA legal advisory playbook: shoot the messenger for doing their job. It hurts when folks discover that the cop(s) aren’t doing their jobs and maybe not following the law. The Stop Data law stuff has always been a sore point for SFPD. What will happen when there’s an audit?
SF POA up to their usual. It’s a shame as there are some great SFPD officers but the union just gives everyone a bad taste in their mouth.
Almost all police officers in any city in the country are racist Republican thugs, but the worst of them by far are the police union leaders.
Tracy McCray does not care about the truth. She will feign ignorance in order to spew lies. She does not care. Veiled threats and smear campaigns are her modus operandi. She makes the whole department appear corrupt, as if any perception can be achieved via framing, truth be damned.
Not surprised morale is low in SFPD with their union leaders so brazenly on the wrong side of public opinion: There’s nobody to look out for all the good cops.
Max Carter-Oberstone has been a thorn in the police and the mayor’s side since he broke with the mayor on her choice for the commission’s leadership, ensuring the top seat went to the board of supervisor’s appointee. The mayor was sure when she appointed him that he would support her, but as we have seen with so many of her appointments, she has probably been kicking herself ever since.
Like Trump, Breed blames the people she hired when they fail her, not her own poor judgement to whom she grants power.
lot of political hacks scrambling about a lot of “nuth’n”.
its always hang the cops let the bad guys go