A San Francisco police sergeant and former longtime labor leader allegedly harassed a person to the point that they called 911 to report him during a night of drinking in uniform in Cow Hollow, The Standard has learned.
Sgt. Brian Kneuker, 37, is a 13-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department and past vice president of the city’s Asian Peace Officers Association. He declined to speak with The Standard when reached by phone and did not return a follow-up request for comment sent via email.
The allegations against him surfaced in a 911 call placed in the early morning hours of Aug. 15, according to police dispatch records and audio.
The 911 caller reported that they and a friend met Kneuker in Union Square at around 8 p.m., when he told them to stop drinking in public. Kneuker allegedly asked for their Instagram name and invited them to a bar, the records show.
They ended up meeting him at the Bus Stop Saloon on Union Street in Cow Hollow, where the caller said Kneuker drank while in full uniform.
The records show Kneuker allegedly “became aggressive and defensive” when the caller did not want to go to the officer’s home after leaving the bar.
Sometime later, the caller dialed 911 near a motel on Lombard and Divisadero streets, shortly before they said Kneuker pulled up in a black SUV. The caller believed Kneuker was driving drunk.
The police officer allegedly asked the caller to get into his vehicle and go to his home, where he had food and alcohol, according to the records. The caller did not know whether the SUV was a police vehicle but said it did not appear to be.
It’s unclear from the records if the friend of the 911 caller was also at the bar or whether Kneuker also asked the friend to go home with him.
An SFPD spokesperson said they could not confirm whether the incident sparked an internal investigation or even took place. The spokesperson said there was no incident report related to the 911 call.
Department policy bars officers from consuming alcohol in uniform, whether on or off duty. Similar to state law, the policy also bars officers from drinking and driving a department vehicle.
The spokesperson said Kneuker was not on duty in the early morning hours of Aug. 15 but was not able to confirm whether he worked on Aug. 14 as of publication time.
When contacted by The Standard, the 911 caller, who was only identified by their first name in records, said they would have to think over whether they wanted to comment on the incident. The caller said there was an ongoing investigation but did not specify by whom.
Kneuker is a San Francisco native who was hired by the department in late 2009, department records show. He served as vice president of the San Francisco Asian Peace Officers Association from 2015 through 2022, according to tax filings by the nonprofit as well as its website. He lost a race to become president of the association last December, the group shared on its Facebook.
Kneuker is currently assigned as a patrol supervisor at Southern Station. He has worked as a member of the SFPD Hostage Negotiation Team and as a terrorism liaison officer coordinator for Southern Station.
Kneuker is a public-facing officer who has weighed in on department policy changes through his role as a union representative, including the new restrictions on pretextual stops, and has volunteered to help families in need.
In January 2016, Knueker was among a group of officers who helped a mother and her autistic son pay for a hotel room after they arrived in San Francisco following their eviction in another city.
Kneuker also helped organize monthly police officer visits to UCSF Children’s Hospital and, at one point, had become “a favorite with the kids,” according to a 2012 San Francisco Police Officers Association newsletter.
But Kneuker has not only made headlines for his generosity. In 2015, he was also among the officers sued over the arrest of a deputy public defender who tried to intervene in officers detaining her client at the Hall of Justice. The suit was eventually unsuccessful.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify a statement made by an SFPD spokesperson.