San Francisco police chief responds to calls for him to resign over raid on journalists home

Lyanne Melendez Image
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
San Francisco police chief responds to calls for him to resign over raid on journalists home
Police Chief William Scott relinquished control of the investigation into the raid of a journalist's house after acknowledging mistakes were made.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- After San Francisco's Mayor London Breed ordered an outside review of the raid on a journalist's home by police, Breed said she now wants to restore the public's trust.

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott relinquished control of the investigation after acknowledging that mistakes were made.

RELATED: Police commission leaders defend SFPD chief after raid on journalist's home

Chief Scott responded to our questions after the police union suggested he should resign or be fired.

Chief Scott: "What do I say? We have a plan moving forward, we'll execute the plan, we're asking for an independent investigation to look at the report and the investigation itself and the initial incident so that's where we're at. I don't want to add more fire to this."

Lyanne Melendez, ABC7 Reporter: "They're bothered because they say you know about it, did you?"

Chief Scott: "I don't want to add more than what it already is so..."

Chief Scott was then escorted away by his staff.

A few hours later, Chief Scott said he had nothing to hide and convened a casual press conference at police headquarters.

RELATED: Former SFPD Commander responds to cries for Police Chief Scott to resign after raid on journalist's home

"The facts haven't changed. There are issues, there were mistakes that were made. I'm not going to point fingers publicly, I'm not going to make assessments in front of the press when we're looking for outside eyes to look at this investigation."

Last Friday, the chief requested that an outside agency take over the investigation into the death of former public defender Jeff Adachi. A confidential police report on Adachi was leaked to freelance videographer Bryan Carmody. His house was later raided by police using what some say was extreme force.

The investigation into the raid is expected to be handled by the Department of Police Accountability.

Chief Scott has apologized for the raid.

It was Mayor Breed who ordered the chief to relinquish control of the investigation into the leak. We asked her if she still trusted the police chief.

RELATED: SF Police union calls for Chief Scott to resign after raid on journalist's home

"I think at this point my goal is to focus on restoring the public's trust by providing an outside entity for the purpose of dealing with this particular issue."

Mayor Breed added that she won't jump to any conclusions around whether or not the chief should remain in his position based on demands from organizations or individuals, referring to the Police Officers Association.