SF supes approve labor arbitrator for Police Commission

Following several controversial police shootings of people of color, including Mario Woods, the Police Department has committed to making a series of changes meant to strengthen relations with disenfranchised communities and bring down the use of force. less Following several controversial police shootings of people of color, including Mario Woods, the Police Department has committed to making a series of changes meant to strengthen relations with disenfranchised ... more Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close SF supes approve labor arbitrator for Police Commission 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The Board of Supervisors approved Tuesday the mayor’s nomination of a longtime mediator and labor arbitrator to the Police Commission, filling a seat that has been vacant since January.

Robert Hirsch was appointed 10 to 1, and is scheduled to be sworn in before Wednesday’s meeting.

Hirsch runs his own firm specializing in employment, civil rights, real estate and commercial matters, and serves as a mediator and arbitrator for the federal courts. His work as a mediator and arbitrator included work with law enforcement on labor issues, something he said gives him the insight and skills that would serve him well as a police commissioner.

“I think for myself,” Hirsch told The Chronicle Tuesday. “I believe in consensus, I believe in collaborative work and I believe in bringing different points of view form the community together, but ultimately, when it comes to making a decision, I’m going to think for myself based on all the information I’ve received.”

Hirsch will be joining the Police Commission at a turning point for the city’s police force and its civilian oversight board. Following the emergence of bigoted text messages exchanged between two separate sets of officers and several controversial police shootings of people of color, the Police Department has committed to making a series of changes meant to strengthen relations with disenfranchised communities and bring down the use of force.

These efforts for reform are why Hirsch has wanted to join the commission for some time, he said. At the rules committee hearing where his nomination was sent to the full board for approval, Hirsch said while he respected police officers, “I have seen what everyone else has seen over the past few years and that is a clear abuse of force by police officers and police departments all over the country.”

“It’s not isolated,” he said. “It’s not, in my view, an issue of rogue police officers. It’s systemic and it’s in the way we have evolved policing in the United States.”

Hirsch had previously applied for an open seat in December.

“I had became convinced that policing in the United States really needs to be reformed,” he said. “You need to make a choice in your life: Are you going to sit back or are you going to participate? I believe people should participate wherever they can plug in.”

The sole dissenting vote on Tuesday was from Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer, who said at the April 26 rules committee hearing that she wanted to pass on the recommendation to the full board with “no recommendation.”

“For this job, I think it takes a really deep knowledge of policing in the 21st century,” she said. “It needs a very, very deep knowledge about what is happening specifically in San Francisco around our Police Department. You need to know the external and the internal politics that happen within the Police Department and the things that surround it in order to penetrate internally what is happening in the Police Department.”

Hirsch acknowledged that he’s not familiar with the politics and probably won’t be until he’s sworn in. But he said he believes that will actually serve him well as a commissioner.

“I’m not a politician and I don’t think Mayor Lee selected me because I’m a strong political advocate of his, although I’ve known him for many, many years,” he said. “I’m not in anybody’s pocket.”

Hirsch is filling a seat vacated by former Police Commissioner Suzy Loftus, who resigned after almost five years following a commission-led overhaul of the department’s use-of-force policy, the appointment of a new police chief and the roll out of body-worn cameras.

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