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Crime & Safety

New Officer on Police Force Learns What Makes South City Tick

Mazi Sadiki, 27, put himself through the police academy after a stint in the military.

There have been just two murders in South San Francisco so far this year, both gang related.  It's been a bad year.

Lat year there were none and while South San Francisco is not the safest city in San Mateo County, compared with, say, Hillsborough or Atherton, it is one of the safer cities in Northern California. In this town of 60,000, you have a 1-in-510 chance of being a victim of a violent crime, and a 1-in-41 chance of being a victim of a property crime.  You're safer here than in 40 percent of other U.S. cities. 

And just this year, although still understaffed, the police department has hired five new officers. Mazi Sadiki is one.

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Sadiki, 27, was president of his class at the police academy in San Mateo and at the top in terms of physical conditioning.  His ambition is to join the SWAT team.

Patrolman Sadiki and one of his training officers, Corporal John Stankewicz, stopped by Peet's on Grant Avenue to talk about coming of age as a cop.  Stankweicz is tutoring Sadiki on the nuances of the east side, which includes Old Town, the streets out by Genentech and Terra Bay, where the houses up on the hillsides once went for $1 million.

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South San Francisco crime varies.  On the west side, it's largely domestic violence, loitering and juvenile disturbance, including gang activity — which is not getting any better but it is being contained.

On the east side, police face burglars, arsonists, ravers on ecstasy, prostitutes working in the motels off Airport Boulevard and dead-of-night scavengers looking for copper.

"This isn't San Francisco," said Stankewicz, who has been with SSFPD for 11 years.   "When I started out gangs were a real problem here, but not so much anymore.  But you never want to be complacent."

"Most of the activity here involves kids flying the colors.  They're in these little groups like the Cypress Park Locos and the Westborough Park Sureños.   Twenty or 30 kids in each. But that makes them more dangerous in a way because when you get out of the car, you may assume you're dealing with juvenile delinquents when actually you may be facing a real gangbanger from 25th and Mission in the City."

That's one of the one most important lessons Patrolman Sadiki needs to learn and remember.

For his part, Sadiki has always wanted to be a cop. He was strongly influenced by his godfather, a deputy sheriff in Florida where he grew up.  

He served in Iraq as a gunner with the First Air Cavalry, doing convoy security and gate guard duty around Taji.  He returned to Florida, where he was born, in 2005 and with his wife moved to Northern California. He worked as a BMW mechanic in Roseville and then in 2007, he went into real estate, using what cash he had to buy up distressed homes.

For a while he made a small profit.  But the next year the market got hot and burned up his margin, so he found a job selling mortgages.  Then that market crashed.

In 2008 he decided to make a career in law enforcement and paid $5,000 to go to the police academy.  In the old days, say 10 to 15 years ago, out of a class of 60, two might put themselves through, rather than being sponsored by police departments. In Sadiki's class, all but 10 paid their own way. 

"The competition is much tougher now," he said, "because police departments are cutting back, and so if you want this you have to pay for it yourself and then take a chance you can find an opening."

"A lot of people imagine getting through the academy is easy.  I can tell you, it isn't."

With certificate in hand, Sadiki looked for a position in San Jose as well as South San Francisco. He was offered a conditional position at both and went with the latter. 

 "It's more personal here," says Sadiki, who lives in San Jose, with his wife and 19-month-old child and is paid $32.23 an hour.  "It's more like the military; you have the sense that people have your back.  I like that."

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