SF police union calls for city to rejoin the Joint Terrorism Task Force

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco's Police Officers Association is leading the call for the city to re-join the Joint Terrorism Task Force following the attack in New Orleans. San Francisco left the task force in 2017, and now some are calling for the city to re-enter the intelligence-sharing organization led by the FBI.

The terror attack in New Orleans on New Year's Day has law enforcement across the country and here in the Bay Area looking at how best to defend against similar attacks.

Now, in a social media post,  San Francisco's Police Officers Association has called for the city to rejoin the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. 

The SFPOA said the recent attacks coupled with upcoming events in San Francisco, including the mayoral inauguration, the JPMorgan Chase convention and NBA All-Stars game, now is the time to rejoin. 

"The eyes of the world are going ot be on San Francisco basically for the next two months," said Tracy McCray of the SFPOA. "To see how we handle these high profile events."

The FBI describes the Joint Terrorism Task Force as the "nations front line of defense against terrorism, both international and domestic." The JTTF works to coordinate law enforcement efforts and facilitate communication. 

Rick Smith is a former FBI agent and security expert. He said in light of recent attacks,  law enforcement needs every tool at it's disposal to keep people safe. 

"It takes an event like this in New Orleans and LAs Vegas to realize how important it is to have this coordination, this instantaneous coordination," said Smith. "You know, one command post. SFPD needs to be involved in this."

San Francisco left the Joint Terrorism Task Force in 2017, as President Trump took office for his first term. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, Council on American-Islamic Relations and other organizations supported the move at the time, concerned the task force could infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens. 

The SFPOA argued that San Francisco should reconsider its position, and that the city can work with the task force to protect the city from terrorism, and protect the rights of the people. "I think it's a fine line, everybody has to know what their part is, and they have to follow the rules," said McCray.

The SFPOA says now it's up to city leaders to determine the path forward. "Well, it's the police commission, because they have to agree to the MOUs," said McCray. "But, that would be in conjunction with talking with the police chief, talking with the mayor, talking with the board of supervisors. So, the decision makers in this city have to come together to some joint agreement." 

The Council on American-Islamic Relations released a statement reading in part:

"The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) strongly opposes any efforts by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) to rejoin the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). We extend our condolences to all those impacted by the recent attack in New Orleans, but increasing collaboration with the JTTF will not make our communities safer—it will only further erode public trust and compromise essential civil rights protections."

KTVU has also reached out to the incoming Lurie administration and to SFPD to see if we could get clarity on if the city will make any effort to rejoin the task force, and so far we've not heard back.