Burgreen Apologizes for Police Union Mailing

San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen has sent letters of apology to thousands of Neighborhood Watch Program block captains, saying he “deeply regrets” that the police union improperly used the watch group’s confidential mailing list for political purposes.

The chief’s letters, dated Election Day, began arriving by Thursday at the homes of the city’s more than 4,100 block captains.

They were mailed after some of the block captains complained that their confidential addresses had been turned over to the Police Officers Assn. The police union used the addresses to send political mailers to the block captains, asking them to help get out the vote for the weaker of two competing proposals for a police-review board on last week’s ballot.

As it turned out, the POA-endorsed plan, Proposition G, surpassed its rival, Proposition F, by a mere 815 votes.

In Burgreen’s letters, the police chief stressed that he believes the confidentiality of the block captain’s identities had been breached.

“When you agreed to serve as a block captain in the Neighborhood Watch Program, you were promised that your name and address would be kept in strictest confidentiality,” the chief wrote.

Review Under Way

“Much to our dismay,” he added, “the security of that list has been compromised. The Police Officers Assn. has obtained a copy of the roster and has used it to send at least two political mailings to block captains.”

The chief also told the block captains that an internal review is being conducted to find out how the address labels of the block captains were retrieved from a computer in the public affairs unit at police headquarters.

“The San Diego Police Department deeply regrets this violation of your confidence and offers you our most profound apologies,” Burgreen wrote. “An investigation is currently under way to determine the source of this information leak and to deal effectively and appropriately with that source.”

Other Activities

However, Cmdr. Cal Krosch, a Police Department spokesman, said it will be extremely difficult to determine how the names and addresses were obtained. He said many of the block captains are involved in other law enforcement and civic activities, and that the list used by the POA could have come from a composite of names and addresses drawn from a variety of sources.

“We may truthfully never know what really happened,” Krosch said.

The leadership of the POA, meanwhile, has insisted that they did not purposely obtain the list for their own gain in the police review board election. And they said they learned that block captains were sent the mailers only after some of the Neighborhood Watch leaders complained that their names were given out for political purposes.

Chris Ashcraft, a POA attorney, said it was his understanding that the names and addresses were obtained by a political consulting agency working with the POA in its endorsement of Proposition G. And he said the agency obtained names and addresses from several sources, including those of individuals who earlier this year were mailed political flyers in support of another law enforcement measure to increase financing for new jail construction.

Worked for Prop. G

The POA worked hard for passage of Proposition G after the San Diego Charter Review Commission--against the wishes of the police union--first developed Proposition F.

Proposition F would have created a nine-member police review board appointed by the mayor and City Council and been empowered with the authority to issue subpoenas and hold private hearings into allegations of police misconduct.

Proposition G will create a panel similar to the current board formed a year ago, except that the police chief will be removed from the selection of the board’s members. Instead, the members will be chosen solely by the city manager, who also will set the policies and agenda for the board.

Burgreen, in his letter to the block captains, said he hoped their names and addresses will remain confidential in the future.

“My pledge to you is that my administration will take whatever steps are necessary to assure that your trust is not violated again,” the chief wrote. “Your confidence and support are critical to the success of the Neighborhood Watch Program, and I appreciate each and every one of you.”