Heather Jeanne Fong (, born 1956) is the former

chief of police Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...

for

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

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. She is the first woman to lead the San Francisco Police Department, and the first

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

woman to head a major metropolitan city police force. She is also the second

police chief in SFPD history, the other being Fred Lau. Fong became the Interim San Francisco police chief in January 2004 after Alex Fagan Sr. was reassigned by

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California fr ...

. She became the permanent police chief in April 2004. Fong most recently served as the

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Assistant Secretary for State and Local Law Enforcement, a position she held since November 17, 2014. She left the position at the end of the Obama administration.

Early life and education

Her ancestral roots are in Ho Chung village, Chung Shan County (now in

Zhongshan City Zhongshan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Provinces of China, province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbati ...

Guangdong Province Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. In high school, Fong joined the Police Athletic League's cadet academy for two years. She graduated from St. Rose Academy in

Western Addition, San Francisco The Western Addition is a district in San Francisco, California, United States. Location The Western Addition is located between Van Ness Avenue, the Richmond District, the Haight-Ashbury and Lower Haight neighborhoods, and Pacific Heights. ...

in 1974. Fong grew up in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco and holds a

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degree from the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

and a

Master of Social Work The Master of Social Work (MSW) is a master's degree in the field of social work. It is a professional degree with specializations compared to Bachelor of Social Work (BSW). MSW promotes macro-, mezzo- and micro-aspects of professional social wor ...

degree from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

. In college, Fong was a member of the

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and worked as a police cadet. Fong graduated from the

police academy A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or othe ...

on August 15, 1977. At the time, the San Francisco Police Department was under pressure to hire more minorities and women, as they had only two Asian American officers and no female officers in 1974.

Career

Shortly after graduating from the police academy, Fong was put on the

Golden Dragon massacre The Golden Dragon massacre was a gang-related shooting attack that took place on September 4, 1977, inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 822 Washington Street in Chinatown, San Francisco, California. The five perpetrators, members of the Joe ...

case. She transferred to the police academy in 1979 as an instructor. She was placed as one of two female child abuse investigators in 1983 and then worked in the department's planning and community outreach department starting in 1986. In 1992, she worked one year as a youth investigator. She was promoted to lieutenant in 1993, captain in 1994, commander in 1998, deputy chief in 2000, and assistant chief in 2003. In 1996, Chief Fred Lau assigned Fong to captain the department's Central Station, which oversees Chinatown, North Beach, Union Square and the Financial District. Fong was assigned to the Special Operations Division in August 1998 when she was promoted to commander. While there, she was responsible for the Traffic, Tactical, and

MUNI Muni may refer to: Municipal * A common US abbreviation for municipal, municipal services, and the like *Municipal bond *Municipal Bridge, the former name of the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky *"Muni", slang for a mu ...

Transit companies. In June 2000, upon promotion to deputy chief, she was assigned to the Field Operations Bureau, where she managed the uniformed patrol personnel of the San Francisco Police Department. In August 2002, she was assigned to oversee the Administration Bureau. In May 2003, she was appointed assistant chief of police.

Chief of Police

Mayor

was impressed with Fong's performance during

Fajitagate Fajitagate was a series of legal and political incidents in San Francisco that began with a street fight outside a neighborhood bar between three off-duty San Francisco Police officers and two other local residents over a bag of fajitas, leading ...

. He appointed her acting chief of police on January 22, 2004, and chief of police on April 14, 2004. Transgender-SFPD

Fong drew criticism in June 2008 for failing to complete firearm recertification for over five years though all San Francisco police officers are required to recertify annually by department regulations. Fong was quoted as saying that she was too busy to recertify. When the controversy erupted in the local media, she was recertified a week later. In 2008, Fong became embroiled in a promotion scandal and faced pushback from SFPD rank and file over her controversial plan to cut the rank of Inspector (equivalent to Detective). About 53 San Francisco police officers filed a complaint with the Civil Service Commission. They tested for Q-35 jobs as inspectors 10 years prior, but Fong has decided to eliminate that position, and fill those investigative roles with Q-50 sergeants. 40 to 50 percent of the knowledge and abilities needed for an inspector were not covered by the sergeants test. The San Francisco Police Commission subsequently determined that Fong had acted improperly, and that personnel from the 1998 Q-35 inspectors list should have been hired instead of sergeants. Litigation is presently ongoing for the plaintiff officers, 39 in total and many part of the original Civil Service Commission complaint who are now retired.

Retirement

Fong announced in December 2008 that she would be stepping down in April 2009, after serving five years as San Francisco's police chief. Fong receives some $264,000 annually in pension payments.Heather Knight
S.F. pays supplemental pensions to retired brass
''San Francisco Chronicle'' (March 13, 2011). The high amount of pension payments to Fong and other retired top officials in San Francisco's police and fire departments has prompted critical comment.Matier & Ross
S.F. retirees' solid-golden years
''San Francisco Chronicle'' (June 1, 2009).

References

SF Chronicle on Fong retirement

External links