Marine veteran aspires to become San Francisco’s first Fil-Am sheriff

Michael Juan / CONTRIBUTED

SAN FRANCISCO – US Marine Corps veteran Michael Juan, is aspiring to become San Francisco’s first Filipino American sheriff.

A police officer at the University of California San Francisco, who has worked in law enforcement for 10 years throughout San Francisco, Juan is seeking to unseat Paul Miyamoto, the incumbent and California’s first Asian American sheriff.

Juan said he is passionate about serving “our beloved city” and addressing the ongoing issues in public safety, and that becoming San Francisco’s first Fil-Am sheriff would be his “biggest honor.”

He was born and raised in the Excelsior neighborhood of San Francisco and graduated from the School of the Epiphany and Archbishop Riordan High School.

He attended the US Marine Corps Recruit Training, also known as boot camp, at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, Calif.

He served 10 years in the US Marine Corps and was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005, where he received a combat meritorious promotion and several awards while serving in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq.

In 2010, he earned a BA in Criminal Justice, with a minor in Asian American Studies from San Francisco State University.

“While at SFSU, I was highly involved in the student organization, Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE) and was a teaching assistant to highly respected Asian American Studies Professor, Danilo Begonia,” he said.

Juan said he is running for San Francisco Sheriff because he wants “the citizens, employees and visitors of San Francisco to feel safe again”

“I want to address the ongoing issues of open-air drug use, violent crime, property crimes and sideshows,” he said. “Our community needs to feel safe so small businesses and the local economy can thrive.”

Besides combating crimes, Juan plans to improve rehabilitation programs for the jail population and at-risk individuals to reduce recidivism.

“We need to invest in quality mentorship-based programs with the ‘whole person’ approach for the justice involved in order to break the cycle of recidivism,” he said.

He also plans to focus on community engagement, transparency and accountability.

More information about Juan’s campaign is available here.