SF Superior Court: Sunshine Please.
On Witness Safety, the City Says “Vaya con Dios”
• • • • • • • • June 2025 • • • • • • • •
The San Francisco Superior Court’s online portal fails the public — especially crime witnesses — by hiding critical case information behind an outdated, unusable system, leaving people vulnerable and uninformed.
Imagine you witnessed a violent crime, reported it, and testified in court, risking retaliation from a local offender’s criminal family. You turn to the San Francisco Superior Court’s online portal to check the defendant’s status — pending cases, custody, or prior convictions. Instead, you find a maze of screens revealing little: Greg Mattis (a pseudonym) has four felony cases today and nine priors from decades past, like drug trafficking and vandalism. Details? Unavailable. Is he in custody? The system shrugs. Case resolutions? A cryptic “SEE MINUTES OF 09-27-24” helps no one. This isn’t just inconvenient — it’s dangerous. Witnesses, victims, and residents can’t assess risks or protect themselves when the system obscures what matters.
... people who risk their safety to fight crime deserve better than bureaucratic guesswork.”
Nearby counties like San Mateo and Marin don’t stumble like this. After a quick “I’m not a robot” check, San Mateo’s portal delivers clear case details with basic inputs — enough to ease your mind or prompt precautions. Marin’s system skips the robot test entirely and still outperforms San Francisco’s. The contrast is stark: a witness in San Francisco is left guessing about a defendant’s whereabouts, while someone 20 miles away gets answers in minutes. San Francisco’s system isn’t just bad—it’s an outlier in its failure.
Couldn’t you just visit 575 Polk Street, as per the webpage concerning our defendant, for his records? Sure, if you’ve got time, patience, and a decoder ring for court jargon — most don’t. Also, the correct place to get the records is at the Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant. Or maybe witnesses should just accept the uncertainty? No — people who risk their safety to fight crime deserve better than bureaucratic guesswork.
San Francisco’s court needs a modern overhaul. Scrap the clunky, bolted-on relic of a portal and build one that works: simple navigation, transparent case details — charges, custody status, resolutions — and no cryptic acronyms like “HS/F 11132(a).” Model it after San Mateo or Marin, where usability isn’t a luxury. Prioritize witnesses and victims, not outdated architecture. It’s not about flashy tech — it’s about delivering what’s promised: public access to justice.
A system that leaves courageous witnesses in the dark doesn’t just fail them—it ultimately fails us all. We can — and must — do better.
Mark M. Hull, PhD, JD, FRHistS, FRSA
Stop Crime Action
June 2025
