Richard Hongisto

Of Finnish descent, Hongisto was the son of Gladys Longrie and Raymond Hongisto. In 1942, Dick moved to San Francisco with his parents and brother Don.{{cite news |last1=Hampton |first1=Adriel |last2=Soltau |first2=Alison |title=Hongisto Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111580882/richard-hongisto-1936-2004/ |work=The San Francisco Examiner |date=November 5, 2004 |location=San Francisco, CA |page=4 |access-date=October 19, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

"Hongisto grew up in the city's Richmond and Fillmore districts, and his parents ran a grocery store in the Sunnydale neighborhood."{{cite news |last1=Sward |first1=Susan |title=RICHARD HONGISTO / 1936-2004 / S.F. public servant led a tumultuous life / He was a cop, sheriff, supervisor, assessor, police chief |url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/RICHARD-HONGISTO-1936-2004-S-F-public-2676500.php |access-date=6 December 2024 |work=SFGATE |date=5 November 2004 |language=en}}

Dick graduated from George Washington High School. He later attended San Francisco City College. While completing a bachelor's degree at San Francisco State University, Hongisto became an officer of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD).

As a police officer, Hongisto earned a reputation for activism, fighting discrimination within the police force and against police brutality. He was a co-founder of Officers for Justice, an organization of officers who were primarily racial minorities or gay.

Hongisto's activism made him controversial among the ranks of the SFPD, but at the same time he was a popular public figure. He ran for sheriff in 1971, and was elected — an event that shocked the San Francisco political establishment. The incumbent, Matthew Carberry, had been a four-term sheriff, was well-connected politically, and had been considered a shoo-in for a return to the job.

Hongisto's election had been orchestrated methodically by computer analyst Les Morgan, using the then-new idea of precinct analysis of voting trends. Hongisto was considered the first candidate for public office in San Francisco to be elected largely by outsiders: gay, Latino, and other minority voters who had a strong voting presence, but who had been ignored by the political establishment.

He was the first sheriff to hire gay and lesbian deputies, and later became embroiled in controversy when he deliberately delayed the eviction of residents from the International Hotel, a residential hotel in Manilatown, San Francisco, next to Chinatown, San Francisco.

File:Joe Diones looks out the window of the I-Hotel on 848 Kearny Street.jpg After a long period where he refused to order the eviction, which included time spent in the San Mateo County jail on contempt of court charges, Hongisto eventually carried out the mass eviction, which earned him the enmity of some of the very people he tried to protect.

{{see also|Mayoral administration of Dennis Kucinich|Cleveland Division of Police}}

After serving as the sheriff in San Francisco,{{cite news|last=Gorney|first=Cynthia|date=December 15, 1977|title=Hongisto quits as sheriff|language=en-US|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/12/15/hongisto-quits-as-sheriff/f075ab1a-b3d0-432b-8524-99aa10647a8b/|access-date=June 17, 2021|issn=0190-8286}} Hongisto briefly moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1977, where he served as police chief under Mayor Dennis Kucinich.{{cite news|date=December 14, 1977|title=Cleveland swears in police chief, a former San Francisco sheriff|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/15/archives/cleveland-swears-in-police-chief-a-former-san-francisco-sheriff.html|url-status=live|access-date=June 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617065434/https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/15/archives/cleveland-swears-in-police-chief-a-former-san-francisco-sheriff.html|archive-date=June 17, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} His penchant for controversy, and conflicts with Kucinich, eventually led to his being fired by the mayor on live local television.{{Cite news|last=Wagner|first=Joseph L.|date=November 4, 1978|title=In Cleveland: a lot of tunnel, and precious little light|language=en-US|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/11/04/in-cleveland-a-lot-of-tunnel-and-precious-little-light/57b0bd77-91ee-444e-9b80-ead421270f65/|access-date=June 17, 2021|issn=0190-8286}} In Cleveland his firing sparked a recall drive to remove Kucinich from office.

The Governor of the State of New York then invited Hongisto to manage that state's prison system.{{cite news|last=Dionne, Jr.|first=E. J.|date=July 18, 1978|title=Cleveland's dismissed police chief named corrections head by Carey|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/18/archives/new-jersey-pages-clevelands-dismissed-police-chief-named.html|url-status=live|access-date=June 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180319030912/https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/18/archives/new-jersey-pages-clevelands-dismissed-police-chief-named.html|archive-date=March 19, 2018|issn=0362-4331}}{{cite news|last1=Lewis|first1=Daniel|last2=Ferrell|first2=Tom|date=July 23, 1978|title=Hello Hongisto, out of the frying pan and into Albany|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/23/archives/the-region-in-summary-hello-hongisto-out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into.html|url-status=live|access-date=June 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617064847/https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/23/archives/the-region-in-summary-hello-hongisto-out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into.html|archive-date=June 17, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} Hongisto accepted the challenge of reforming a system that had been plagued by riots and unrest within several of its facilities. Permanent appointment to this position required confirmation by the state senate, which was not forthcoming. Hongisto therefore returned to San Francisco to run for supervisor in 1980.

Upon his return to San Francisco, Hongisto was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where he helped to place Proposition M, a measure which would limit construction of high rise commercial buildings, on the public ballot. The measure passed overwhelmingly, and has to this day continued to impact the development of San Francisco's skyline.

With the endorsement of then-Mayor Art Agnos, Hongisto later ran for the office of Assessor.

In 1991, he ran for mayor but did not make the run-off, coming in fourth. After declining to endorse Agnos for re-election as mayor, in a race won by police chief Frank Jordan, Hongisto was appointed in 1992 by Jordan to be San Francisco's police chief.{{cite news|last=Gross|first=Jane|date=April 18, 1992|title=New mayor's 'shaky' start has San Francisco puzzled|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/18/us/new-mayor-s-shaky-start-has-san-francisco-puzzled.html|url-status=live|access-date=June 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180821002134/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/18/us/new-mayor-s-shaky-start-has-san-francisco-puzzled.html|archive-date=August 21, 2018|issn=0362-4331}}

Hongisto's tenure as police chief lasted only six weeks, and was punctuated by controversy over his handling of demonstrations and riots which occurred in the wake of the Rodney King police brutality trial in Los Angeles. Hongisto cordoned off an entire neighborhood in the Mission district on a Saturday afternoon, establishing a net that saw the arrests of all people on the street, demonstrators and ordinary citizens alike. Hongisto had rented city buses to transport the arrested citizens, and they were processed at a warehouse on San Francisco's wharfs. Instead of merely citing and releasing those arrested, Hongisto ordered that they be arrested and processed at the Santa Rita jail in Dublin (Alameda County), rather than in San Francisco County, thus ensuring that they would not be able to avail themselves of their civil rights and return to San Francisco. This enraged progressive activists and civil libertarians as well as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which ordered Hongisto to release the citizens he had arrested. On the following Saturday, Hongisto ordered police to disrupt another demonstration and arrested demonstrators with no order to disperse. Both incidences were later the targets of class action suits against the city of San Francisco, although the former, undertaken by the Lawyer's Guild, would not be resolved for nearly a decade.

Soon thereafter, a gay and lesbian community newspaper, the San Francisco Bay Times, published a cover graphic of Hongisto's head pasted on the body of a lesbian activist. The activist, dressed in a police uniform, held a giant baton with one end protruding from the groin area as if it were an erect penis. The headline screamed, "Dick's Cool New Tool: Martial Law", in reference to the police actions. What happened afterwards is subject to dispute. Hongisto claimed that he had asked members of the police union to gather copies of the paper to show members of the rank and file what he was enduring in the activist press, in reaction to their criticism of his supposedly failing to properly defend their conduct of the arrests during the King riots. Around 2,000 copies of the free papers were taken from news racks by three officers and later found stored at the Mission District police station. Hongisto was publicly accused of ordering the confiscation of the papers in attempt at censorship, a charge he continued to deny up to his death. After a hearing, the San Francisco Police Commission found him culpable, and Mayor Jordan dismissed him.{{cite news|date=May 15, 1992|title=San Francisco police chief fired over removal of gay newspapers|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/05/16/san-francisco-police-chief-fired-over-removal-of-gay-newspapers/d434fa17-5000-43ef-8002-633d9529c848/|access-date=June 17, 2021}} One of those three officers, Gary Delagnes, later became president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.

In 1993, Hongisto married Susan Chavez, who was 23 years his junior.{{cite news |title=Former police chief's wife dies after argument, crack overdose |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1gQoAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA4&dq |access-date=21 January 2025 |work=The Spokesman-Review |date=September 25, 1994}} On September 24, 1994, Chavez Hongisto died of an asthma attack brought on by smoking crack cocaine.

Hongisto left public life to become a full-time businessman and real estate investor, apart from an unsuccessful run for County Supervisor in 2000.

Hongisto died of a heart attack on November 4, 2004, at the age of 67, leaving behind a son and daughter. He married four times, and was living with a 31-year-old girlfriend at the time of his death.

{{collapse top | title = Richard Hongisto electoral history}}

{{election box begin no change

| title = San Francisco sheriff election, 1971{{cite web|title=Sheriff Richard Hongisto, the notable exception|url=http://www.sfsdhistory.com/eras/sheriff-richard-hongisto-the-notable-exception|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121010837/http://www.sfsdhistory.com/eras/sheriff-richard-hongisto-the-notable-exception|archive-date=January 21, 2021|access-date=June 17, 2021|website=SFSD History}}

}}

{{election box winning candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Richard Hongisto

| votes = 81,403

| percentage = 36.33%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Matthew Carberry (incumbent)

| votes = 59,848

| percentage = 26.71%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Matthew O'Connor

| votes = 49,802

| percentage = 22.23%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = William Bigarani

| votes = 33,015

| percentage = 14.73%

}}

{{election box total no change

| votes = 224,068

| percentage = 100.00%

}}

{{election box gain with party link no change

| winner = Democratic Party (United States)

| loser = Republican Party (United States)

}}

{{election box end}}

{{election box begin no change

| title = San Francisco sheriff election, 1975{{cite web|title=Chronological list of SF sheriff elections and candidates (1850-2020)|url=http://www.sfsdhistory.com/research/chronological-list-of-sf-sheriff-elections-and-candidates-1850-2020|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922213533/http://www.sfsdhistory.com/research/chronological-list-of-sf-sheriff-elections-and-candidates-1850-2020|archive-date=September 22, 2020|access-date=June 17, 2021|website=SFSD History}}

}}

{{election box winning candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Richard Hongisto (incumbent)

| votes = 96,009

| percentage = 49.62%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Michael Nevin

| votes = 30,861

| percentage = 15.95%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Eugene Pratt

| votes = 27,126

| percentage = 14.02%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = William Bigarani

| votes = 23,436

| percentage = 12.11%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Walter Rabenorth

| votes = 8,343

| percentage = 4.31%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Bob Geary

| votes = 7,723

| percentage = 3.99%

}}

{{election box total no change

| votes = 193,498

| percentage = 100.00%

}}

{{election box hold with party link no change

| winner = Democratic Party (United States)

}}

{{election box end}}

{{election box begin no change

| title = San Francisco Board of Supervisors election, 1980{{citation needed | date = June 2021}}

}}

{{election box end}}

{{election box begin no change

| title = San Francisco Board of Supervisors election, 1982{{cite web|date=November 2, 1982|title=San Francisco Board of Supervisors election, 1982|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=831559|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617071033/https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=831559|archive-date=June 17, 2021|access-date=June 17, 2021|website=Our Campaigns}}

}}

{{election box end}}

{{election box begin no change

| title = San Francisco Board of Supervisors election, 1986{{cite web|date=November 4, 1986|title=San Francisco Board of Supervisors election, 1986|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=546520|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090603082928/https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=546520|archive-date=June 3, 2009|access-date=June 17, 2021|website=Our Campaigns}}

}}

{{election box end}}

{{election box begin no change

| title = San Francisco assessor-recorder election, 1990{{citation needed | date = June 2021}}

}}

{{election box end}}

{{election box begin no change

| title = San Francisco mayoral primary election, 1991{{cite web|date=November 5, 1991|title=San Francisco mayoral election, 1991|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=128989|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026155555/https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=128989|archive-date=October 26, 2020|access-date=June 17, 2021|website=Our Campaigns}}

}}

{{election box winning candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Frank Jordan

| votes = 59,928

| percentage = 31.88%

}}

{{election box winning candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Art Agnos (incumbent)

| votes = 51,714

| percentage = 27.51%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Angela Alioto

| votes = 34,910

| percentage = 18.57%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Tom Hsieh

| votes = 18,241

| percentage = 9.70%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Richard Hongisto

| votes = 17,663

| percentage = 9.40%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Gloria La Riva

| votes = 2,552

| percentage = 1.36%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Joni Jacobs

| votes = 1,397

| percentage = 0.74%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Cesar Ascarrunz

| votes = 724

| percentage = 0.39%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Ellis Keyes

| votes = 337

| percentage = 0.18%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Dehnert Queen

| votes = 310

| percentage = 0.17%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Peter Planteen

| votes = 214

| percentage = 0.11%

}}

{{election box total no change

| votes = 187,990

| percentage = 100.00%

}}

{{election box hold with party link no change

| winner = Democratic Party (United States)

}}

{{election box end}}

{{election box begin no change

| title = San Francisco Board of Supervisors election, 1992{{cite web|date=November 3, 1992|title=San Francisco Board of Supervisors election, 1992|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=546886|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090603022135/https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=546886|archive-date=June 3, 2009|access-date=June 17, 2021|website=Our Campaigns}}

}}

{{election box end}}

{{election box begin no change

| title = San Francisco Board of Supervisors primary election (district 5), 2000{{cite web|date=November 7, 2000|title=San Francisco Board of Supervisors election (district 5), 2000|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=548134|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617071557/https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=548134|archive-date=June 17, 2021|access-date=June 17, 2021|website=Our Campaigns}}

}}

{{election box winning candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Matt Gonzalez

| votes = 12,743

| percentage = 42.30%

}}

{{election box winning candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Juanita Owens

| votes = 8,589

| percentage = 28.51%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Agar Jaicks

| votes = 3,621

| percentage = 12.02%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Holman Turner, Jr.

| votes = 1,273

| percentage = 4.23%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Richard Hongisto

| votes = 1,210

| percentage = 4.02%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Joe Konopka

| votes = 789

| percentage = 2.62%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Jay Bagi

| votes = 743

| percentage = 2.47%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Nicholas Gaffney

| votes = 504

| percentage = 1.67%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Demian Barrett

| votes = 324

| percentage = 1.08%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = John Palmer

| votes = 163

| percentage = 0.54%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Rob Anderson

| votes = 106

| percentage = 0.35%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Write-in votes

| votes = 60

| percentage = 0.20%

}}

{{election box invalid no change

| votes = 5,990

| percentage = 16.59%

}}

{{election box total no change

| votes = 36,115

| percentage = 100.00%

}}

{{election box end}}

{{election box begin no change

| title = San Francisco assessor-recorder primary election, 2002{{cite web|date=March 5, 2002|title=San Francisco consolidated primary election results, 2002|url=https://sfelections.sfgov.org/results-summary-mar-2002|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127014109/https://sfelections.sfgov.org/results-summary-mar-2002|archive-date=January 27, 2021|access-date=June 17, 2021|website=SFgov.org}}

}}

{{election box winning candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Mabel Teng

| votes = 39,648

| percentage = 30.62%

}}

{{election box winning candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Doris M. Ward (incumbent)

| votes = 29,414

| percentage = 22.71%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Ronald Chun

| votes = 24,346

| percentage = 18.80%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = John Farrell

| votes = 18,784

| percentage = 14.51%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Richard Hongisto

| votes = 11,446

| percentage = 8.84%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Jim Rodriguez

| votes = 5,714

| percentage = 4.41%

}}

{{election box candidate no change

| party = Nonpartisan

| candidate = Write-in votes

| votes = 141

| percentage = 0.11%

}}

{{election box total no change

| votes = 129,493

| percentage = 100.00%

}}

{{election box end}}

{{collapse bottom}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.dreamworld.org/wash George Washington High School], San Francisco.

{{s-start}}

{{s-civ | pol}}

{{succession box

| title = Sheriff of San Francisco

| years = January 8, 1972 – December 11, 1977

| before = Matthew C. Carberry

| after = Eugene A. Brown

}}

{{succession box

| title = Chief of the Cleveland Division of Police

| years = December 14, 1977 – March 24, 1978

| before = Michael Aherns

| after = Jeffrey Fox

}}

{{succession box

| title = Chief of the San Francisco Police Department

| years = April 1, 1992 – May 15, 1992

| before = William Casey

| after = Anthony Ribera

}}

{{s-off}}

{{succession box

| title = Acting Commissioner of the New York Department of Corrections
{{small|Acting}}

| years = 1978–1979

| before = Benjamin Ward

| after = Thomas Coughlin III

}}

{{succession box

| title = Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
from the at-large district (seat 2)

| years = January 8, 1981 – January 8, 1991

| before = District-based elections

| after = Kevin Shelley

}}

{{succession box

| title = Assessor-Recorder of San Francisco

| years = January 8, 1991 – April 1, 1992

| before = Sam Duca

| after = Doris M. Ward

}}

{{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hongisto, Richard}}

Category:1936 births

Category:2004 deaths

Category: People from Itasca County, Minnesota

Category: Dennis Kucinich

Category:20th-century American politicians

Category:American people of Finnish descent

Category:California sheriffs

Category:Cleveland Division of Police

Category:People from Bovey, Minnesota

Category:San Francisco Board of Supervisors members

Category:San Francisco Police Department chiefs