Stephanie Leanne Wargo

I bring 18 years of litigation experience to the Department of Police Accountability. For the last four years, I have practiced plaintiff's personal injury law and criminal defense in private practice. I served as a deputy public defender in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office from 2002 until 2014. As a deputy public defender, I helped to defend thousands of people who could not otherwise afford an attorney, and was trained to lofty standards of excellence in criminal defense.

I am a proud graduate of the University of California Los Angeles School of Law in 2001, with the distinction of Order of the Coif. While at UCLA, I was a board member and volunteer at the UCLA Free Legal Clinic, held every other Sunday at the FAME Renaissance Church in South Central Los Angeles.

California

Since 2001

Attorney

Department of Police Accountability, San Francisco

2018 - Current

Department of Police Accountability The mission of the Department of Police Accountability is to promptly, fairly and impartially investigate complaints against San Francisco police officers, make policy recommendations regarding police practices and conduct periodic audits of the San Francisco Police Department. Civilians who have never been police officers in San Francisco staff the Department of Police Accountability. Our brochure is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic. The Department of Police Accountability was originally the Office of Citizen Complaints which was created as a separate city department by an amendment to the San Francisco City Charter (section 4.127) in 1982 and placed under the direct supervision of the Police Commission. In 2016, an amendment to the San Francisco City Charter (section 4.136) renamed the Office of Citizen Complaints the Department of Police Accountability, removed the Department of Police Accountability from the police department’s budget and provided to the Department of Police Accountability the power to conduct periodic audits of the San Francisco Police Department.

Vassar Coll

Undergraduate Degree

UCLA School of Law

Law Degree

California State Bar  # 217422

Member

2001 - Current