The next police chief

SURPRISING NO ONE , San Francisco police chief Earl Sanders announced his retirement Aug. 11, days after he was formally cleared of any crimes connected to the Fajitagate mess (and days after he became eligible for a full chief's pension). After 39 years on the force, Sanders leaves behind a troubled department and troubling questions about his own history in uniform.

Among the lingering questions: In 1990, John J. Tennison and Anton Goff were convicted of killing a 17-year-old Visitacion Valley boy. The duo have spent the past 13 years in state prison, serving out life sentences for the grisly slaying. But reinvestigation of the case by Tennison's lawyers suggests Sanders, then a homicide detective, covered up evidence that would have exonerated the men and solicited bogus testimony from a key prosecution witness (see "Eyewitness Blues," 6/25/03).

Then there's the matter of the San Francisco Police Department's utter disarray. While Fajitagate has yet to yield any convictions, the scandal lifted the lid on a culture of corruption and lax disciplinary procedures at the SFPD.

Mayor Willie Brown's apparent choice to replace Sanders, Alex Fagan, ought to be nothing more than a caretaker. The next mayor should pick the next permanent chief. This ought to be part of the mayoral debate, and all of the candidates should pledge to follow the lead of Los Angeles, which, in the wake of the Rampart scandal, conducted an extensive nationwide search for a qualified outsider with the credentials and commitment to turn around the department. San Francisco's police department is so riddled with scandal and corruption that only someone with no connection to any of the political factions can clean up the mess.