Outside the large concrete building of the San Francisco County Jail with the words “Hall of Justice” etched into the wall, local leaders and community organizers convened on Monday morning to denounce allegations of women being forced to strip naked by male officers who were wearing body cameras.
The coalition alleged over 20 women were strip searched as a group on May 22, and while they were patted down by female officers, they were in view of laughing male officers who had their body cameras on.
The alleged incident culminated in the group of women filing a legal claim against the city of San Francisco. The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office also filed a complaint against the Department of Police Accountability and the Sheriff’s Office.
A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, Assistant Sheriff Tanzanika Carter, called the allegations “deeply concerning” Monday and said personnel action was taken but declined to provide further details.
The Department of Police Accountability said it could not investigate the Public Defender’s complaint because it fell outside of the scope of its agreement with the Sheriff’s Office, exposing a lack of oversight that was criticized by two members of San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Speakers with the Young Women’s Freedom Center, a nonprofit advocacy group dedicated to helping women and trans people who have interactions with the criminal justice system, set up a small altar with incense and a podium next to the entrance where women are released as a symbolic gesture they said represented their commitment to standing alongside them and their basic human rights.
‘A line was crossed’
The executive director of the Young Women’s Freedom Center, Julia Arroyo, opened the rally with passionate remarks that alleged the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office was in violation of state policy, constitutional protections, and basic human dignity.
“The people that are inside of here have not yet been convicted of a crime,” said Arroyo “A line was crossed. People were asked to undress. They were video recorded, they were filmed.”
San Francisco’s elected Public Defender Mano Raju said no one should be subject to such practices in any jail in the city. He added that additional reports of trans women being sexually assaulted and other individuals being strip searched after meeting with their attorneys was impermissible.
“I underscore our demands for transparency and accountability from the Sheriff’s Office, and I emphasize our demand for change in how deputies treat our clients in the jail and healing support for the women who were harmed,” said Raju. “San Francisco jails are already filled with people who are vulnerable because of racism, sexism, poverty and trauma. What these women endured in this mass strip search and the harassment that continued afterwards is unacceptable and unjust.”
“A line was crossed. People were asked to undress. They were video recorded, they were filmed.” Julia Arroyo, Young Women’s Freedom Center executive director
His office filed a complaint against the city’s Department of Police Accountability and Sheriff’s Office in October to ensure the women get justice and terminate the practices that enabled such an incident.
The San Francisco Department of Police Accountability said in a written statement the “DPA did not initiate an investigation because the complaint raised matters outside of the DPA’s letter of agreement with the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office.”
Sheriff’s Office cites ‘deep concern’
Several women also gathered to file a government claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, against the city of San Francisco with the help of a private attorney.
County Supervisors Jackie Fielder and Connie Chan stood alongside the organizers to make their stance known, that they would not tolerate such incidents and called for the Sheriff’s Office Oversight Board that has lacked funding since its creation in 2020 to be fully staffed.
“To be clear, this is an example of the law not actually being applicable to everyone, and that’s a problem because there are laws on the books to prevent and to have accountability for instances of injustice like this,” said Fielder. “Every elected official in San Francisco should denounce this immediately. This is also an example of a sheriff’s department that has an oversight body that has not been funded.”
Assistant Sheriff Carter spoke after the rally concluded to provide the short response of the Sheriff’s Office on the incident.
“The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office is aware of allegations that several women in our custody at county jail, two had their rights violated during the strip search,” said Carter “The conduct described is deeply concerning and does not reflect the policies, procedures or professional standards we require of our staff.”
Carter added that while she could not comment on the details of the alleged incident, “personnel action was taken.”
Tualla Auimatagi, a woman who was incarcerated a week after the alleged incident occurred, said the practices of strip searching and other dehumanizing practices were trained into new officers.
“I got here about a week after the incident happened, and there’s a lot of training cadets in there that were told by their supervisor to leave their body camera on during the strip search,” said Auimatagi. “Some of the new women, the new inmates, think that was normal to get strip searched with the body camera on and that’s not okay.”