An “independent agency” should replace the San Francisco Police Department in deciding who receives credentials granting access to nonpublic events, following an incident last week in which a police officer evicted an online journalist from a news conference, Supervisor Aaron Peskin said Monday.

Peskin said he will ask City Attorney Dennis Herrera to draft legislation creating a new system for how journalists are granted passes giving them access to crime scenes, police news conferences and other places from which members of the public are restricted.

Peskin said last week’s incident, in which a reporter for the left-leaning online news site 48 Hills was removed from a police news conference, “restarted a long-running conversation that San Francisco has been grappling with since the dawn of the Internet about how to properly credential press.”

“This, at the dawn of the Trump era, is more important than ever,” Peskin said. “We are going to do a policy analysis of what the best practices are, and if they don’t exist, we are going to figure them out.”

The 48 Hills reporter, Sana Saleem, was thrown out of a news conference at police headquarters shortly before officials played body-camera footage of a shooting by a police officer.

The Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists said throwing out Saleem was a “troubling sign” and that journalists’ ability to report should not be “hampered by arbitrary denial of access from the Police Department.”

At last week’s Police Commission meeting, former acting Police Chief Toney Chaplin said the incident was probably a misunderstanding.

An officer unfamiliar with 48 Hills removed Saleem after learning the publication was digital-only. Saleem said she did not have an official police credential. But the requirement to carry one is usually not enforced at news conferences.

Peskin did not give specifics for how the process should change, but suggested the Police Department shouldn’t have the final say-so.

“Without any disrespect to the Police Department, it is probably time that an independent agency be in charge of press credentials in San Francisco,” Peskin said.

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com @LizzieJohnsonnn