S.F. Police Chief Demotes 2 Top Aides, Calls for New Leadership

The chief of the troubled Police Department has demoted two of his three top commanders, saying a “different style of leadership” is needed.

Replacements for Cmdrs. Ray Canepa and Gerald D’Arcy, both 55, will be announced today, if his recommendations are accepted by the San Francisco Police Commission, Chief Cornelius Murphy said.

“I think we need a different style of leadership,” Murphy said at a news conference Tuesday. “When they were appointed (in 1980), they were the right people for the job, but times change, methods change and people change. We can’t lag behind the times.”

Both commanders have said they would resign rather than accept lower positions of captain and a $10,000 cut in annual salaries of $61,000.

The department’s third commander, Richard Klapp, will remain, Murphy said.

Murphy and the 2,000-member Police Department have been embarrassed and criticized in the last year for a number of bungled operations, including one in which gun-toting officers staged a simulated sniper-hostage scene at a local elementary school and another in which armed officers kept patrons at a trendy bar for more than an hour while searching for drugs.

Another target of criticism was a police academy graduation party for which a prostitute was hired to perform a sex act on a graduate.

Bob Barry, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Assn., criticized the demotions, saying both officers have “impeccable careers.”