Policymaker Interview: Debra Walker

Background

          Debra Walker, currently presiding on the San Francisco Police Commission, has surmounted a litany of challenges in her personal and professional life to better cultivate her own unique blend of pragmatic analysis of policy effectiveness and a comprehension of abstract elements of societal structures and their influences. Walker has come to understand leadership both from the perspective of an advocate in grassroots movements and later came to stand on the other side of the aisle, implementing policy agenda as a leader in high public service positions. Her leadership roles in advocacy include working for campaigns, running for office herself, promoting gay rights advocacy, and being president of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club. Her experience as a policymaker in governmental positions includes chairing the Arts Task Force and being appointed to the building and inspection and subsequently the police commission.

          Walker grew up in the summer of love, at times struggling to show up to school but finding herself in tune with advancing progress in the great ethical dilemmas of the time. She struggled with substances early on but relinquished herself from their grasp by the time she was 23. Walker attended UCLA and spent the following years moving around doing work in painting, advertising, tv, and radio. Throughout her life she was always able to adapt to new circumstances and explore new terrain, consistently selling her artworks as a means of making a living. The process of her sobriety took her to Los Angeles, where the programs she had enrolled in had a group of cohorts who took the responsibility of engaging in community outreach, service, and political engagement work. She became enthralled with advocating for civil and political rights and this work took her to San Diego and again to San Francisco where she continued her work for the Gary Hart campaign in the ethical epicenter of contemporary conversation.

          Walker continued to work and show art galleries in San Francisco, becoming well acquainted with the mayor through this channel and becoming appointed to the building and inspection commission in 1999. Her vast experience with artists and the industry in relation to public services and works would lead to her appointment to chair the arts task force in 2006. Walker in this moment encountered the precipice of her intersecting experiences as an artist, advocate, and policymaker. She became adept at interweaving her experiences and dispositions to attain an approach to policy that employs practical brevity, abstract understanding, and humanity. Today she is an internationally recognized artist, advocate, commissioner, and exemplifies the beau ideal of democratic leadership.

Why become a commissioner?

          Walker observed that sometimes the most ideal positions in advocacy are not necessarily the most ideal for practical problem solving and providing positive social outcomes. Additionally, while an advocate may bury themselves in the agenda of themselves and their cohorts, upon attaining a representative position with public service responsibilities Walker saw how her role had to become one of serving the people as a whole rather than siding with a particular constituency or prescriptive ideology. This is not to say however that the needle of justice would no longer shift, for Walker utilized her empathetic upbringing in the art industry to discern how Building and Inspection codes were evicting people to create live work laws and displacing low income people to pave way for new industrial enterprises all while promoting a facade of helping struggling artists.

          This elucidated the issues in policy to Walker, who was able to utilize her vision of the abstract to unpack colossal texts which insist to help the working class and illuminate the ways in which they harm and disparage the working class through elongated methods of obfuscation, legal nuance, overcomplication, and precedence. Her work on the Building and Inspection Commission was often arduous with ever-present adversity but was sincerely fulfilling. The process took nearly 20 years to clean up the department’s policies so that San Francisco would be a more accessible and inhabitable environment for working class people who need housing.

          After being asked by the mayor several times, Walker took up the Mayor’s offer and became a commissioner on the San Francisco Police Commission. Having a history advocating on the side of the left for rights she took on the position at a time when many (especially youth) voices on the new left were taking stark positions against the institution of policing as a whole. Having become more centered on understanding the efficacy of certain societal frameworks, Walker understood the necessity for the institution, proactive enforcement, arrests, and looked at methods of modern reform as a way forward. Walker firmly believes that the way forward for police lies in improved training, cooperation, and confronting the lack of accountability and effective policy those holding representative positions engage in when they are beholden to election cycles and special interest groups.

What is the most important policy issue and why?

          Since Walker acts as police commissioner in a tangibly tense and polarized political atmosphere she has engaged much of her policy attention towards the multifaceted issue of creating healthy police and community dynamics to support better outcomes for all.  She utilizes a holistic approach to understanding this through socio-economic, political and cultural dimensions in order to process how policy can be effectively enacted to address and uproot deeper issues. Walker’s unique perspective shapes her analysis which still incorporates quantitative statistics but also seeks to develop better understanding of the qualitative realms that include cultural socialization, social contact, implicit biases, structural malignancies, and the psychological role of complex human interactions.

          Policing may be in need of this approach to analysis, leadership, and policymaking, as mass sensationalization over specific outcomes and events has led to isolated and reactionary forms of decision making which can appease optics surrounding a circumstance but may fail to address the larger picture or root issue. Walker has observed this phenomena when specific events perpetuate a basis for defunding the institution as a whole or spur advocacy in hands-off policing. Instead of acquiescing to reactionary concerns, she sees the paramount importance of shaping policy around having a more well trained and approachable police force.

          Walker’s belief is that policy should be enacted with some respect to the linear progression of an issue it serves to address as opposed to contemporary elected leaders’ proclivity to constantly shift policy directions in accordance to the wants of special interest groups and their base by providing short-term results. She considers the current political environment to be one which may dissuade recruitment and is aiming her policy agenda at making policing a more desirable, community supported, and professionally adept position. Walker believes that by elevating and modernizing the level of police training, creating more collaborative efforts between private and public police in their communications and resources, and prioritizing practical solutions to existing problems, an ecosystem which manages healthy relationships between community and police can prosper.

What Role do Immigrants Play in our Society?

          When asked about the role in which immigrants play she referenced that in the San Francisco Mission District, a district in which she has special familiarity, where most of the residents are immigrants themselves. She denoted the roles they would take on in a society where they were the majority and expressed issues that revolve around their lack of legitimate status and documentation in achieving their socio-economic potential in their community. Harsh immigrant policy socially and economically detracts from the welfare of the community by preying on immigrants who would otherwise be productive members.

          The mission district, for example, has a plaza which has many goods (some stolen) illegitimately and illegally sold. However, if licenses are allowed to be attained and receipts given on sale a legitimate industry could form where it is already trying to organically occur. This business market in its new legal status would then be open to regulation and authorities could now target solely the illegal sales of stolen goods, thus protecting local immigrant owned small businesses and creating new healthy competition at the same time. Walker’s example elucidates the benefits which immigrants can potentially provide to themselves and the host society if given the opportunity and access to be productive and included members.

Any Advice for an Aspiring Advocate?

          Walker felt that in this period of extreme polarization it was most pertinent for young aspiring advocates to research and get involved in numerous groups and commissions that bring people on all sides together. She mentioned an anecdote where someone staunchly pro-police who had never experienced a negative interaction took a trip to the south where, upon having a traumatic encounter with an officer stated that he “[has] never understood why people don’t trust the police at the level that [he] does now.” Walker proposes that young people should venture out with their newfound independence and explore communities while gaining first hand reference of the systemic realities and difficulties. Good leaders, she says, are empathetic and bring people together. Civil wars, she accounts, arise from poor leadership.  

To What Extent has Your Life as an Artist Contributed to Your Perspective of San Francisco? Does it actively affect how you think about policy?

          Walker likens art to magic; she says people don’t know why it works but they get it when it happens. She described one painting she produced under an emotional state when grieving for her lost mother. As a prolific artist she imbued the painting with the emotional soul of her struggle, characterized in the essence of the art. While on display a woman’s glance caught the piece hanging on the wall while standing upon a moving walkway. It must have been that the essence of the painting spoke volumes to her as it met her eyes and brought her to an emotional state of sobbing tears. It was a glance not at the scenery which the art depicted, but rather the essence of what went into its depiction that could move another individual.

          Walker expresses the value in understanding these abstract and underpinning notions which aggregate an ontological view of society and how things occur. Her comparison of policy to art demonstrates how there may be more than meets the eye to the language and presentation of a policy. Walker believes people should engage with policy, understand and refine their role in commissions, and focus on all aspects of societal structures while keeping the humanity of the subjects which policy ultimately intends to affect in mind.

What is One Policy San Francisco has Undervalued, which if Enacted you Feel could Spur Significant Difference?         

          Walker, in regards to overlooked San Francisco policy, specifically addressed bolstering cooperation between private and public sector police. She suggests this policy as a part of a wider initiative to create a healthier atmosphere between communities and police through the cultivation of peer to peer connectivity. All of this, done in a manner which aligns with services, grants, and assistance, can pave the landscape for harmonious relationships between police, additional government assistance, non-governmental organizations, and the communities. Walker's vision of sustainable community ecosystems which support healthy growth relying on the delicate nature of these relationships is something that she hopes to propagate in San Francisco through careful policy application.

Conclusion

          The interview with Debra Walker exceeded all expectations of being informative, powerful, and concise. Her story reflects an unyielding ability to persevere and overcome even as a written bio but it's uniquely touching and triumphant when having the privilege of hearing her recount it first hand. Her story and bold engagement with policy and politics is reminiscent of notions derived from class lectures and readings. These include the difficulties that ensue when trying to pass bills in California on account of election cycles/spending, special interests and bureaucracy. Additionally, how imperative committees are to progress. Walker underscores a thematic notion which is similar to one drawn out in class; there is efficacy to achieving outcomes still to be found in the political systems so long as one has the knowledge and wherewithal to formally navigate its dense web.