By A.C. Thompson

Marylon Boyd, the mother of Cammerin Boyd, the legless African American man slain by San Francisco cops after a high-speed car chase May 5, is worried by the pace of the San Francisco Police Department's probe into her son's death.

"It's been 90 days," she said at a recent meeting of the Police Commission, the body that oversees the 2,300-officer SFPD. "Apparently there's not much going on with any of the investigations that are supposedly [underway]." As is standard practice, the SFPD's Management Control Division (a.k.a. Internal Affairs), the homicide squad, and the District Attorney's Office are all looking into the incident.

While it's not unusual for a thorough and diligent examination of a fatal shooting to take more than three months, Boyd does have reason to be concerned.

When it comes to cases where cops kill or wound civilians, the SFPD moves at a crawl. The department is still investigating officer-involved shootings dating back to 2001, has a backlog of at least 26 such investigations, and hasn't closed a case since January 2002, the Bay Guardian has learned.

Among the cases the department has yet to a draw a conclusion about is the June 13, 2001, slaying of 23-year-old Idriss Stelley at the Sony Metreon, a high-profile tragedy that triggered a series of protests and prompted Stelley's mother, Mesha Monge-Irizarry, to file a wrongful death suit. The city eventually paid $500,000 to settle the suit.

"I see no evidence that the Internal Affairs investigation has even started," attorney Andrew Schwartz, who represents Stelley's survivors, told us by phone. "I've been involved in civil rights cases in multiple jurisdictions, and I've never seen a department as lackadaisical as the San Francisco Police Department."

The backlog is significant for several reasons. For one, as long as the cases are open, the public has only the vaguest information about cop-versus-citizen confrontations. Second, closing a case and issuing a final report means determining whether the shooting was justified, as well as sanctioning officers who might have broken the law.

It's hard not to wonder if the SFPD, currently besieged by several lawsuits accusing police higher-ups of refusing to discipline havoc-wreaking ex-cop Alex Fagan Jr., is reluctant to smack down its unruly elements.

In an interview, a key SFPD official acknowledged the department had fallen behind. "I'm currently reviewing policies at the Management Control Division in an attempt to clear the backlog," said Capt. Denis O'Leary, who oversees the MCD as well as the department's legal office. "I recognize this is a serious problem."

The department, according to O'Leary, is in the process of drafting a new general order that should speed up internal investigations. He also said the District Attorney's Office was partially responsible for the backlog.

Asked if the SFPD really intends to discipline out-of-control cops, O'Leary told us, "Chief Fong is bringing misconduct charges to the Police Commission every week. She's very clear that if somebody engages in misconduct, they're going to get it. The department takes misconduct very seriously."

Still, it looks like Schwartz is right when he says other cities are more aggressive about investigating their own. While noting several variables that can complicate a probe, Sacramento Police Department spokesperson Michelle Lazark said, "We generally try to complete the internal investigation and present it to the chief within 30 days."

At the San Jose Police Department, homicide commander Sgt. Mike Sterner, who oversees officer-involved-shooting investigations for his force, says the SJPD has a "goal of completing those investigations within a year."

But up here in sophisticated, liberal San Francisco, things work a little differently. As Malaika Parker, executive director of Bay Area Police Watch, told us, the SFPD backlog "means that all of the cops involved in all of these shootings haven't been held accountable. Nobody has done anything to keep them in check."

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