Davis Aurini: Davis speaking.

Albie Esparza: Hi, this is Albie Esparza from San Francisco Police, how are you?

Aurini: Not doing too badly, yourself?

Esparza: Good. You left a message and so we're trying to see what it is that we can help you with.

Aurini: Yes, just give me a second, here.

Aurini: Alright, so I'm just trying to reset my brain right now.

Aurini: Davis Aurini, I'm a freelance writer/journalist/filmmaker.

Aurini: Could I just confirm you name again, as to who I'm speaking to?

Esparza: [UNKNOWN WORD] Esparza, what can we help you with?

Aurini: I’m calling about an incident which occurred in your district on the 26th of August.

It was to a Ms. Sarkeesian. She's a prominent cultural critic and she received a number of death threats over Twitter,

which wind [sic] up driving her out of her own home.

This has been reported quite a bit through the gaming media, as well as in other mainstream sources like the L.A. Times and the UK's Telegraph.

Esparza: I'm very familiar with the case - or with the incident.

There's nothing- there's no record of anything occuring on the 28th of August.

I've been reach her for the past two days.

Aurini: So she n-

Esparza: So, if you have a way to contact this person and ask them for a case number, we would appreciate that.

There's no record from our dispatch center, that I called and asked.

There's no record of any report being taken.

I saw her tweet that says "authorities." I need to make sure that she reported to the San Francisco police and how she did it, because there's no record.

Aurini: Okay, thank you. I just have a couple of other questions about how you typically deal with these cases, if you don't mind.

She said that the officers told her she should stop doing her cultural commentary if she was receiving threats.

Is this the sort of thing that you would say to a victim of harassment?

Esparza: No, but that's hearsay, so it's third-party information, so I'm not going to speculate on whether or not that was said.

But, we wouldn't say that to someone who's filing a report.

Aurini: Would that possibly be disciplinary action if an officer were to say such a thing?

Esparza: We're not going to talk about hypothetical situations because it's hearsay.

Aurini: Understood.

Esparza: There's no record of that incident occurring, and so I'm not going to speculate. And therefore, it's inapproprate to make comments on that.

Aurini: Understood.

I have some colleagues that have received harassment in other districts,

and the police there recommended that they not respond to it or discuss it online once the investigation has begun.

Is that your department's policy, and if not, what advice would you give to somebody that was receiving threats?

Esparza: Well, if someone receives a threat - we're talking specifically online or via text messaging or Twitter and e-mails, that type of stuff -

it's important to document it. So they should somehow save either a text message or an e-mail or a tweet.

If they can capture that and bring it to the police station as evidence, that would be booked.

It's very important that they document it, as long as they can do so safely.

But, it's very imporant because, again, if they don't do it and this continues, you never know what could happen, right?

So, at least document it. If the department has any leads we will do our best, because we take it seriously when someone makes threats against someone's life.

So we would ask that they file a report. Bring the evidence so we can initiate an investigation.

Aurini: Alright, and I guess just one final question.

Would your department handle online harassment, or is this the sort of thing that you would pass on to the F.B.I. or somebody else?

Esparza: Well, it certainly depends on the nature; what the threat says.

Typically, if it's just threats, our department would handle it.

If it's anything more significant, as far as maybe local domestic terorrism, that type of stuff, it would go to FBI or federal agents.

But typically, the city would handle these types of incidents.

Aurini: Okay, so if it was an online anonymous account - we don't know who the person is, they just create a fake account to send death threats -

would you possibly pass that on, because it's not a local- it's not a domestic violence thing between a local couple?

Esparza: We would certainly investigate it. If we feel that it's something that's probably on a larger scale, we would share it with our regional partners or even federal agents.

But, every case is individual and unique and different.

But, typically if it's something that seems more significant, then yes, it would be shared among our law inforcement partners.

Aurini: Okay.

You said you were trying to get a hold of Ms. Sarkeesian because you've never heard of it.

You would like the case number that she received if she reported it as she claims? That is correct?

Esparza: Right, so I do have a report where Ms. Sarkeesian was a victim of threats as well, but this was back in March of this year [2014].

So that's the only record I found, but there's nothing as of yet from August 20 or 29th.

Aurini: Okay, well I was just going to say as part of my ongoing investigation-

Esparza: Yeah, because of the thing that it says on her tweet, she reported to authorities.

But, there are multiple police agencies in San Francisco, so I want to make sure that she reported to the San Francisco Police.

And, I did call the local precinct where she lives, they don't have any records of an investigation with her name currently.

Aurini: So, this is-

Esparza: And like I said, the only thing that came up in my system was a case from March of this year.

Aurini: Okay, so you are the public representation person for the entire San Francisco area - all of the districts within?

Esparza: San Francisco Police Department, yes.

Aurini: Okay, I think that's all of my questions.

Thank you very much, you've been very informative and I hope you have a good day.

Esparza: You too, sir. Take care.

Aurini: Goodbye.

Esparza: Alright, bye.

Aurini: Well, there you have it, folks.

There was a report back in March that she was being harassased.

There has been no reports - that they are aware of - happening in August.

And, they would actually like to get a hold of her and find out about this case number.

And, they do seem to take death threats fairly seriously.

There you have it. Support us on the Sarkeesian Effect.

Okay, this just cost me some long-distance minutes, alright?

But, actually doing a documentary, there's [sic] a lot more work that we need to do. There's [sic] a lot of people we need to go talk to.

Unlike some of the prominent figures I've mentioned who've agreed to be in the documentary already,

a lot of these people are private. A lot of these people work in, for instance, game development.

And, if they simply write a blog post about this, or if they show up on my podcast talking about what they know,

then that's not an authoritative source, and that can be construed as harassment, even though it's not.

So with making the documentary, however - as an official, respected source that will go on Wikipedia, that will go on IMDb -

at this point, they can claim harassment if they are fired, because we will be investigating all of their claims as well and confirming their claims.

There were a couple of bits of this video censored, because you don't need to know where Anita lives.

That's not relevant information to this.

But the relevant information is that she apparently has not contacted the local police department.

Help us look into this more. Support our documentary.