Carla Lee Hurley and Kirk Yin, 2 bilingual and community-oriented police officers, promoted to Captains in SFPD

SAN FRANCISCO — Two bilingual and community-minded Chinese American police officers, Carla Lee Hurley and Kirk Yin, have been recently promoted to the rank of Captain in the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), serving as Southern Station Captain and Night Captain respectively. Lee Hurley becomes the highest-ranking Chinese and Asian American woman police officer currently in the department. 

Lee Hurley has long been regarded as an experienced and outstanding investigator during her 22-year career in the SFPD. She has made numerous arrests of suspects in all types of criminal cases, including a number of anti-Asian violent incidents where victims were mostly monolingual Chinese-speaking elderly women, and the high-profile assault case where Paul Pelosi, former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, was assaulted by a suspect who broke into his home in 2022.

Carla Lee Hurley third highest-ranking Chinese American woman officer in the history of SFPD

Lee Hurley is the third highest-ranking Chinese American woman officer in the history of the San Francisco Police Department. Heather Fong, who joined the police force in 1977 and served as Police Chief from 2004 to 2009, was the first woman to lead the City's police department and the first Asian American woman to head a major metropolitan city police force in the United States.

Sandy Tong, who was promoted to Deputy Chief in the SFPD around the same time as Fong, is the second highest-ranking Chinese American woman officer in the department. Tong retired in 2012.

During the past 14 years since Tong retired, no Chinese American woman officer has been promoted to serve on the Command Staff. For the past 20 years, no Chinese American woman served as Station Captain in the SFPD until Lee Hurley was promoted and assigned to Southern Police Station on April 26, 2026.

The SFPD’s first female Police Chief Fong was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1994 and served as the Central Police Station Captain. Sandy Tong was assigned to serve as Richmond Police Station Captain in 2002.

More than 20 years later, Lee Hurley followed in the footsteps of Fong and Tong becoming the third Chinese American woman Station Captain in April 2026 in the history of the SFPD.

Prior to the promotion to Captain, Lee Hurley spent most of her time in the Investigation Bureau at the SFPD. When she was a Lieutenant, Lee Hurley was once assigned to the Park Police Station and later to the Robbery Detail at the Investigation Bureau.

Previously Lee Hurley also served at the Tenderloin and Bayview Stations, where she investigated cases. Her Chinese language skills helped her fully communicate with many monolingual elderly Chinese victims of robberies and assaults, leading to successful arrests.

Among the anti-Asian violent incidents she investigated, Lee Hurley recalled arresting a suspect involved in five or six separate cases of assaulting ethnic Chinese victims. Apparently that suspect targeted Chinese victims. "But it is always difficult to charge or prove anyone of hate crime under current laws," said Lee Hurley.

Lee Hurley born in Hong Kong and speaks fluent Cantonese

Lee Hurley was born in Hong Kong and came to the United States at age two with her mother and three older brothers. Her father stayed in Hong Kong. Her mother raised four children as a single parent in the United States.

After Lee Hurley and her mom and older brothers immigrated to the U.S., they first joined an uncle in Washington State and lived there for four years. Her mother preferred living in a community with a larger Chinese population and decided to move to San Francisco where another uncle resided. At that time, Lee Hurley was six years old and her mom was 52.

"My mom didn't speak English. She worked as a seamstress to make for a living and raise her four children. My mom was incredible," Lee Hurley said. "My mom rented a house. We lived in the City’s Sunset District. We all went to public schools and took buses to school."

Three years later, Lee Hurley's mother bought a car and learned to drive at an older age to take her children to and from school. Lee Hurley grew up in the Sunset District until she was 18.

After graduating from Lowell High School, Lee Hurley enrolled at San Francisco State University and majored in Business Administration. She first worked at a cafe in the Nordstrom Department Store Chain and was recruited internally to join its Loss Prevention Unit as a security team member.

Lee Hurley performed very well in the unit and was promoted all the way to the top as its regional manager, overseeing 16 stores in Northern California. She worked at Nordstrom for a total of 11 years.

In fact, Lee Hurley hadn't considered a career in law enforcement at all before she submitted her application to the SFPD. Her job at Nordstrom required her to make arrests of individuals who violated store rules, such as shoplifting and stealing money inside the stores. She would detain them until police officers arrived for further investigation.

That was how Lee Hurley got to know police officers and many of them encouraged her to join the SFPD. Then she considered it and submitted her application in 2001.

In recent years, following the pandemic, the SFPD has been short of over 500 police officers. But back in 2001, when the SFPD froze hiring, the situation was very different.

"It took three years for me to be hired by the SFPD," said Lee Hurley. After joining the SFPD, she became even more excited and passionate about being a police officer and the nature of the job. "It is very rewarding to help many victims."

But her mom was disappointed to see Lee Hurley leave a good job which she had worked very hard to earn the promotion to management. Her mom also worried that it was dangerous to be a police officer. "I assured my mom that it was a team effort and many officers would respond if anything happened," said Lee Hurley who understood her mom's concerns.

Lee Hurley joined the SFPD in 2004 when Heather Fong was appointed to lead the police department.

In the early days in SFPD, Lee Hurley worked at Tenderloin Station and handled drug-related cases. That experience helped her gain investigation skills and paved her path for becoming a veteran investigator in the SFPD. 

In addition to her administrative duties as a Station Captain and commanding officer at the Southern Police Station, Carla Lee Hurley always finds time to patrol the streets, meet with community members and police officers, and respond to crime scenes. She would also volunteer to serve as an interpreter in Chinese language when she hears the calls for Chinese translators on police radios.

Based on her own experience working in the SFPD, Lee Hurley encourages men and women to apply. "This is the job that AI (Artificial Intelligence) cannot replace. I have no regrets. I have learned so much. I have met so many people," said Lee Hurley.

Lee Hurley highlighted the significant improvements in the SFPD's working environment for officers. "There are so many avenues for officers to pursue within the police department. The department is so good at making everything fair now. It starts from the very first day. Those doors are open for you, no matter your race."

Presently Lee Hurley is one of the only three Chinese American Police Captains in the SFPD: Kevin Lee at Richmond Station and Kirk Yin as a Night Captain. She hopes future assignments will give her more opportunities to serve at stations overseeing Asian neighborhoods where she has roots, language, and cultural understanding.

Carla Lee Hurley achieves a perfect score of 1,000 ranked #1 in Captain exam, Kirk Yin ranked #4

Both Lee Hurley and Yin are graduates of Lowell High School in San Francisco. They attended Lowell High in the same year, but they didn't know each other in the school until they met years later in the SFPD when Yin served as Lee Hurley's training officer.

Both officers bring valuable bilingual skills to the department. Lee Hurley, originally from Hong Kong, speaks Cantonese, while Yin is one of the few officers fluent in Mandarin. Yin joined the department in 2000, followed by Lee Hurley in 2004.

Additionally, both have demonstrated exceptional performance on the department's promotional examinations. In the most recent Captain promotional test, Lee Hurley achieved a perfect score of 1,000, ranking first, while Yin ranked fourth. Years prior, Yin also ranked number one on his Lieutenant promotional exam.

Yin always performed well on all SFPD examinations including in the police academy. He was the valedictorian of his academy class. He believed extensive preparation and actual working experience in police work—including patrol, investigations, and community policing—would be very helpful for all promotional tests.

Yin praised Lee Hurley as a "hard working and courageous" police officer. He remembered Lee Hurley finished field training and was assigned to Ingleside Station where Yin also served as a training officer for new graduates from the police academy.

"I was a senior officer and took her out," Yin recalled. "On our first shift, I pointed out a wanted subject and Carla ran out of our car and arrested her."

When Yin was a young officer in 2000 to 2009 as a Police Sergeant, he volunteered with other Chinese American officers to patrol Visitacion Valley and San Bruno Avenue business corridor, which are two neighborhoods in the southeast region with large Chinese immigrant communities and anti-Asian violent incidents occurring.

Yin is thankful for the new assignment as a Night Captain responsible for supervising the entire city during the overnight hours, usually between 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. "I am honored that my superiors have trusted me with this immense reasonability. I supervise all 10 district stations and the San Francisco International Airport (SFO), and respond to critical calls or high liability situations," said Yin.

Immediately before the promotion, Yin served at the Richmond Station as a Lieutenant. Previously Yin was the Officer-in-Charge of the Hostage Negotiation Team in the SFPD. He also created and led the SFO Airport Bureau’s Incident Response Team for active attacker response situations. He served at Central, Bayview, Ingleside, and Taraval Stations as a patrol officer, Sergeant, or Lieutenant with extensive experience in field operations. 

Yin born in San Francisco and speaks fluent Mandarin

Yin is a son of first-generation parents from Taiwan and was born in San Francisco. His parents owned a restaurant in the Richmond District where he grew up helping them at the restaurant.

Being a police officer was his childhood dream, stemming from knowing police officers who were patrons of his parents' restaurant.

While growing up in the Richmond District, Yin remembered those police officers as very nice and kind to him when he was a young boy. They invited him to ride in their patrol cars. As a result, he got to know police work starting when he was a child.

Yin did very well in school and enrolled at UC Berkeley after graduating from Lowell High School. He submitted his application to the SFPD after working for three years at the global accounting firm Ernst & Young and was officially hired as a police officer in 2000.

Yin has almost 26 years of service with the SFPD. Just like on Day 1 when he first joined the SFPD, Yin still loves being a police officer and has never considered changing his career.

"I can’t think of a more rewarding career for myself – to help the community and be a servant leader to my officers," said Yin. "I have served in four of our Department’s five bureaus, so I have had a diverse experience. I have worked as a community officer, a plainclothes officer, and a housing officer. I have worked undercover on robbery and narcotics operations."

Yin is always proud to serve the Chinese community as a bilingual officer speaking Mandarin. The latest promotion and new assignment is a perfect fit for him.

"And throughout my career, I have used my bilingual abilities and cultural competence to help the Asian community," said Yin. "Serving as a citywide Night Captain, I am able to help the Asian community regardless of location; if it is in the Richmond, Sunset, Chinatown, Visitacion Valley, etc."