Police Probe Handling of S.F. Kidnap Report

SAN FRANCISCO — Embattled acting Police Chief Alex Fagan has ordered an investigation into the handling of a kidnapping report after officers failed to pull over a vehicle matching the description of the suspect’s upon learning it belonged to a department lieutenant, officials said.

“This thing fell through the cracks,” Fagan said. “There is something wrong here.”

The incident began about 2:15 a.m. Tuesday when, according to police documents, a 19-year-old woman called authorities to report that she had been kidnapped while walking home.

The woman said she was forced into a car and banged on the windows to draw attention to her predicament, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which cited police documents.

Somehow, the woman said, she was able to get out near her home. She told police the car was a black SUV driven by a man who appeared to be in his 30s.

Then, according to the police dispatch logs, Officers Joshua Phillips and Michael Chantal arrived at her home while other officers were alerted on their radios to watch for the vehicle.

Minutes later, police spotted a Cadillac Escalade matching the description and officers ran a check on the license plates. The vehicle was found to be registered to a police lieutenant, police told the Chronicle.

That’s where Fagan said department protocol may have lapsed.

“My understanding is that there was no stop, there was no arrest, there was no detention, there was no cold show,” Fagan said, referring to the practice of allowing an alleged crime victim to possibly identify a suspect.

The woman told Phillips and Chantal that she didn’t think she could identify the driver and said she did not want to try, according to the officers’ report. The report said patrol units could not locate a suspect.

Fagan confirmed to the Chronicle that an internal investigation began late Tuesday after a department tipster urged investigators to examine the dispatch log.

Fagan is the father of one of the accused off-duty officers in a street brawl scandal that has come to be known as “fajitagate.” Fagan is the acting chief while Police Chief Prentice Earl Sanders remains on medical leave.