The San Francisco Chronicle weighs in on the police indictments and department scandal, dishing out some heavy criticism to Mayor Willie Brown.

In May, 2002, the Chronicle ran an extensive series on problems with the SFPD, notably that they came in dead last in solving crime, which you can access here.

Chronicle writer Kelly St. John reports today that things have not improved in the SFPD since the May, 2002 report came out.

The indictments of San Francisco Police Chief Earl Sanders and his top administrators last week are the latest scandal to hit a Police Department that was found by The Chronicle last year to rank dead last among major U.S. cities in solving violent crime.

In May 2002, a seven-month Chronicle investigation found the poorly managed agency solved only 28 percent of violent crimes between 1996 and 2000. It was the lowest clearance rate among the nation's 20 largest cities.

During the same period, San Francisco police solved just half of all homicides and fewer than one third of the rapes reported. They did not even investigate nearly 7 in 10 robberies and assaults.

The Chronicle's analysis also found, among other things, that the department did not make solving crimes a high priority, did not select investigators based upon merit and did not always provide them with such basic tools as cell phones, two-way radios and the like. "It's a wake-up call," former Police Chief Fred Lau said at the time the series was published.

This police department is in serious need of an overhaul. As to the prosecution of the indicted police, DA Terence Halinan (whom we strongly support) has selected Assistant Prosecutor Albert Murray to prosecute the case. A profile of Murray is here.

The Indictments should be available sometime today, and we will post the link to them.