San Francisco ordinance would protect media phone records from SFPD

By Brent Begin, Bay City News Service

January 26, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on an ordinance Tuesday that would prohibit the San Francisco Police Department from inspecting the phone records of members of the media who work at police headquarters.

The ordinance, written by Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, passed unanimously in a rules committee meeting this morning and Sandoval said it has received considerable support.

"What could be plainer?'' he asked. "We need to protect the First Amendment rights of the press. We don't want to give the police a back-door opportunity to spy.''

Sandoval said he introduced the ordinance after reading a media report on the Police Department's use of city records to determine the source of a memo leaked during the Fajita-gate scandal.

The city's telecom department reportedly kept logs of calls in the Hall of Justice press room and handed over the logs to police investigators, a practice police said did not violate any laws or constitutional protections because the phone lines were owned by the city.

"It's like dangling a piece of cheese in front of a mouse,'' Sandoval said. "You can't expect them to ignore it.''

The ordinance is designed to prevent any compliance from the city in future police investigations. If approved, it would shift the costs of providing the phones from the Police Department budget to the city's Department of Administrative Services.

"I thought that it was outrageous that the Police Department was snooping on the press in that manner,'' Sandoval said. "There's plenty of blame to go around. The mayor and the Board of Supervisors should have fixed this a long time ago.''

A police spokesman could not be reached for comment.

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