A San Francisco police officer was called out by the Department of Police Accountability for a June 2024 incident in which he reportedly failed to disclose that he saw his son assault a man, and he failed to activate his body-worn camera in time to document the incident.

The circumstances around this incident, first noted by KRON4, are strange to be sure. According to a complaint that was filed by the victim himself, the unnamed, uniformed officer wearing a body-worn camera got into an aggressive altercation with the complainant, and somehow the officer's son, brother, and friend were all present — and it does not seem like any of the three was a police officer, so it's unclear why they were even there.

On or around June 5, 2024, the officer reportedly ran into the complainant on the street, and the context suggests that the two were already acquainted with each other, though that is not clear. The complainant was not being accused of any crime, according to the description of the incident. According to the complaint filed with the Department of Police Accountability (DPA), the officer and the complainant began antagonizing each other — the officer claims the complainant began by "berating and belittling" him.

The officer then reportedly suggested he get a boxing promoter to set up a fight between them, a "gangster vs. cop" match. And when the complainant referred to the cop as a "bitch," the officer repeated that the complainant should "slap a bitch" and said "If you see a bitch, slap them!"

Some of this part of the incident was documented in video footage submitted by the complainant, as the officer did not activate his body-worn camera until 12 minutes into the incident, as it was winding down. The complainant further said that he repeatedly asked the officer if his camera was on and told him to turn it on, which is documented in the complainant's video.

The DPA found that there was a "preponderance of evidence" to support the complainant's claims, and they concluded that the officer had acted inappropriately, and that he should have activated the body-worn camera when the war of words began.

But at some point in this incident, the officer's son became involved, getting into the complainant's face, slapped his cellphone out of his hand, and punched him in the face, causing a swollen lip.

The officer's brother and friend witnessed the incident, but when the officer submitted a report on it, he failed to disclose that the "community members" present at the time included his own family. He also failed to disclose that any assault occurred.

It appears this incident was resolved as of late February by the DPA, but there was an additional, unexplained complaint listed that they said was the jurisdiction of the Internal Affairs division.

Neither the officer nor the complainant's names are provided in the DPA incident report (see page 28 onward), which was published in early March.

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images