The following story comes from reporter Sonner Kehrt, a student at UC Berkeley's School of Journalism.

Race and education were among the primary issues raised by local activists and community youth on Monday night at the fifth and final meeting for community input into the selection of a new police chief in San Francisco.

At the meeting in the Fillmore, attended by close to 40 people and moderated by three representatives from the city’s seven-member Police Commission, concerns over the selection process often eclipsed the discussions.

“A lot of us believe that this is basically a sham,” said David Carlos Salaverry, a member of San Franciscans for Police Accountability. The group, which held a press conference before the meeting at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, called for the mayor to extend the August 31st deadline for police chief applications, allow citizens to pose questions to the candidates, and permit community members to serve alongside the Police Commission as part of the selection process.

“If the process goes as currently planned, the police chief will start on day one without any legitimacy in San Francisco,” said Karen Fleshman, also of the group. After the meeting, she added, “To have it be closed from now until Mayor Lee announces it—it does not serve Mayor Lee well, it does not serve the community well, and it does not serve the chief well.”

Fleshman and Salaverry were among the meeting’s attendees, who were split into two facilitated groups to discuss qualities they would like to see in the new chief who will replace former police chief Greg Suhr.

Suhr, already under pressure to step down because of his handling of several shooting incidents and the internal police culture, resigned in May, a day after police shot and killed a women in the Bayview District.

The most frequent concern raised on Monday night was racial sensitivity. “We need a chief who brings to the position no sense of racial grievance,” said John Jones, a San Francisco resident.

Many participants of Mo’MAGIC, a community program working to address issues facing children in the Western Addition, agreed.

India Dow, 14, one of about 15 youth members of the group present, said she had been coming to the public meetings because she wanted to see the city choose a chief who will ensure she is not judged on the basis of her race. “We don’t have a lot of black leaders,” she said.

Rachel Guido, whose 15-year- old son Derrick Gaines, an African-American, was killed by a South San Francisco officer in 2012, said that the race of the chief is less important than his or her focus on racial issues. “For me, it’s not a black and white thing,” she said. “For me, it’s the mentality of the force.”

The group also debated the role that education and experience should play in the selection process. While the importance of patrol experience surfaced during the discussion, several participants said they valued a formal education. Salaverry noted his concern over Interim Police Chief Toney Chaplin’s silence on his own educational background. “He has refused to divulge his academic record, and he has no experience running a modern police force,” Salaverry said.

Chaplin, who was promoted to Commander in 2015, has said he has a bachelor’s degree, but he has not specified in what field or from where he received it.

“I’ve heard that most cities of San Francisco’s size require that their chiefs have advanced degrees,” said Commissioner Victor Hwang. Hwang, along with Thomas Mazzucco and President Suzy Loftus, represented the Police Commission at the meeting. He said he was looking forward to undertaking his own “objective research” during the commission’s selection process to better understand the qualifications that will make a good chief.

Applications for the position are due Wednesday to Ralph Andersen & Associates, the firm hired by the Police Commission to oversee the search. The firm will then “roughly sort” the applications and forward them to the commission by September 7th, said Hwang.

The commission will interview strong applicants and present three final names to the mayor.

Hwang said that the commission has not been given a specific timeframe for forwarding the names to the mayor, but it will probably be at least four to six weeks, if not longer. Currently, the commission does not plan to release the final three names to the public.

The commissioners emphasized their commitment to a fair process and to representing the issues raised at the meeting. Responding to questions about how participants could be sure their input would be considered during the process, Mazzucco said, “We will ask those questions. If someone is biased, they’re not going to go to the mayor. If they’re not interested in community policing, they’re not getting an interview.”

Fleshman again raised the possibility of community members posing questions to the applicants.

“I guarantee you,” Mazzucco said. “We will grill these applicants.”