Better Know A Beat Cop: Officer Kate Bartel

Better Know A Beat Cop: Officer Kate BartelPhoto: Rose Garrett/Hoodline
Meaghan Clark
Published on January 15, 2015
Kate Bartel is a self-proclaimed nerd. She loves fantasy novels, and all things Disney and Star Wars. Kate is also a police officer with the city's Northern District.
For more than six years, she’s been working in San Francisco, patrolling Hayes Valley, Duboce Triangle and the Lower Haight. In an effort to learn more about our local beat cops–an idea which we hope to turn into a regular Hoodline series–we met up with her in the neighborhood last week to get to know more about her background, interests, and aspirations on the job.

Kate grew up in the area and attended Sacramento State. Members of her family have always worked in public service, from an army case manager to a paramedic with the fire department. From an early age, Kate knew she wanted to serve. “My parents blame my reading too many Nancy Drew books,” she said. 

When we first caught up with Kate in Patricia’s Green, she was making some four-legged friends. She’s a dog lover, and has been fondly attached to her husky, Bailey, for 12 years. She is familiar with most of her route’s shop owners, and one of the biggest perks of the job, she said, is that "it’s the best people-watching job ever."

"This is the first time I've ever been on a foot beat," she said. "I like having the communication with the neighborhood because it makes us more approachable." After a multi-year staffing shortage that thinned the ranks of the SFPD, foot patrols were reinstated in the area in the wake of a July shooting at Hayes and Buchanan.

On a typical day working the 11am to 9pm shift, Kate and partner Officer Gordon Moore average about 15 miles a day on bikes, nine miles if they're on foot. "If the weather's nice, we like to get on bikes, because that way we can get to places faster." Though they have a specific geographic beat, they also respond to calls outside their area. They were the first officers to respond to the recent bus stabbing of a transgender woman on Van Ness. (Note: Because the pair work the day shift, they were likely not on duty for the homicides that took place in Hayes Valley on Friday night.)

Officer Moore noted that people's general interactions with the police tend to be negative. "You meet an officer maybe once in your life, and usually you're a victim, so you meet them on one of your crappiest days. The only impression you have of the police department is negative, because it was a bad day ... or you got arrested. With this, we meet people on a positive level." "When you know your police officer," said Kate, "there's less of a disconnect."

Though Kate likes the foot patrol beat, she has other hopes for the future. "My dream job for the department is canine," she said. "That, however, is a very long list to get on ... if I stay on patrol, maybe in about eight years, if I'm lucky, I could get on canine."

Lightning get-to-know-you round: 

Favorite food: “I’m a meat and potatoes gal.” 
Favorite restaurant: House of Prime Rib
Favorite 'hood: Hayes Valley or Union Square 
Favorite movie: Practical Magic  
Dog or cat: Dog
Coffee or tea: Coffee 
Donuts or scones: Scones (“I make a great lemon blueberry scone”) 
Dolores Park or Alamo Square: Duboce Park