Bias is a systemic problem for the San Francisco Police Department, which should overhaul the way it trains, tracks and disciplines officers to make sure they don’t target people of color and to rebuild community trust frayed by scandals and shootings, according to a report by an ad-hoc panel of retired judges created by District Attorney George Gascón.

The 239-page report, which noted racial disparities in police stops and searches, was released Monday after a yearlong review prompted by the emergence of a trove of racist and homophobic text messages exchanged among several officers. It comes as police forces around the nation grapple with accusations that they discriminate against African Americans.

The blue-ribbon panel found that the department’s policies banning biased policing were sound, but recommended dozens of ways to tighten oversight, measure conduct and be more transparent with the public. The report found anecdotal evidence that some city officers engaged in controversial “stop and frisk” tactics — which police officials have denied.

The Police Department “must pay greater attention to the potential of bias toward people of color,” said Anand Subramanian, executive director of the panel composed of judges LaDoris Cordell, Cruz Reynoso and Dickran Tevrizian Jr. “The panel found indications of institutionalized bias and institutional weaknesses in the San Francisco Police Department, and its oversight apparatus, that if left unaddressed, could let bias go undetected and unmitigated.”

The report, which includes 81 recommendations, was condemned in stark terms by the union representing rank-and-file officers, which called the panel a “kangaroo court” with no authority and suggested the report could inflame antipolice sentiment after the slaying of five officers in Dallas last week.

Police officials, meanwhile, said they would analyze the report in coming weeks and forward it to the U.S. Department of Justice, which is conducting its own top-to-bottom review of the San Francisco force.

The report drew heavily from interviews with community members, recounting that residents in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods like the Bayview and the Mission told the panel that they believed they experienced more scrutiny from officers, with some making assumptions that men in the neighborhoods were gang members.

Unjustified searches alleged

Several attorneys with the federal and city public defenders’ offices told the panel that their black and Latino clients report that they are often subject to unjustified searches. One attorney described a practice referred to as “hop outs” — when three undercover officers jump out of a car and surround and search a person for no apparent reason.

The panel — which worked without pay, as did eight law firms that did research — found weaknesses in both internal and external oversight. For instance, it said police don’t collect enough data on use-of-force incidents to allow scrutiny of whether people of color are treated differently. The regulatory Police Commission and the civilian Office of Citizen Complaints need more resources and better practices, according to the report.

Divided officers

Some officers who spoke to the panel said they believed individual but not systemic bias existed. However, black and female officers in particular experienced a divide in the force between them and a “good old boys” club of white male officers who make up the majority of the force, the report states.

The unnamed officers said black officers received harsher discipline than white colleagues, and that “there is still a small percentage of male officers who believe that women do not belong in police work.”

The report offered a unique window into the bitter relationship between Gascón, a former city police chief, and the Police Officers Association, which the panel determined had too much influence on departmental decisions and discipline.

“The SFPD blurs the line between it and the POA, and allows the POA to take on an outsized role inside and outside the department,” the report reads. “The POA has historically taken positions resistant to reform and insisted that there is no widespread or inherent bias in the department.”

The union hit back Monday, calling Gascón a publicity-seeker who handpicked the judges and censored testimony of officers who disagreed with him.

The report is “divisive at a time when San Francisco sorely needs unity between police officers and the community we serve,” said union President Martin Halloran in a statement. “On Thursday, a sniper in Dallas took aim at police officers and murdered five in cold blood. Today, George Gascón is taking aim at police officers in San Francisco with half-truths and distortions. We’re sitting on a tinderbox and Gascón is lighting a match.”

Halloran said police bias “is much more limited in scope.”

At a news conference Monday, the judges on the panel reacted strongly to the union’s response. “The recommendations that we made in this report are not rocket science,” said Tevrizian, a former federal judge. “It’s just good police practices. I get offended when the Police Officers Association buries its head in the sand and won’t even pay any attention to the recommendations.”

Gascón said in a statement, “The fair administration of justice is the premier civil liberties issue of our era, but unlike the rest of the nation San Francisco now has a thoughtful and comprehensive blueprint that shows us the way forward.”

The panel had difficulty obtaining some documents from the Police Department, and at times had to resort to filing requests under the state’s public-records law. Meanwhile, the report states, the union facilitated interviews only with officers who said they did not believe systemic bias existed within the department, and responded harshly when a black sergeant, Yulanda Williams, testified otherwise. Halloran criticized her in an open letter.

Changes under way

Several recommendations made by the panel have already been put in place by the department and the Police Commission. For example, before his recent resignation, Chief Greg Suhr said all officers will have undergone training to avoid subconscious bias by the end of the year. After the Dec. 2 fatal shooting of Mario Woods by five officers, the Police Commission reopened the department’s use-of-force policy, which the panel said had been outdated. Efforts are in place to boost data collection, as well.

“This city needs positive and healing leadership,” said Cordell, a former Santa Clara County judge. “All of these 81 recommendations can be implemented, and they can be implemented in our lifetimes. All it will require is the moral and political will to do so.”

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo