A captain who was formerly in charge of the Mission police station, which oversees neighborhoods including the Castro, is set to take over again.

Captain Greg Corrales, 61, said that his new assignment would begin November 14.

"It was a wonderful experience," said Corrales of the period from 2002 to 2004, when he previously oversaw the station. "I hated to leave."

Since leaving Mission Station, Corrales has overseen the police department's traffic company.

He said his top priority is "to make sure the Mission District is safe" for residents, merchants, and visitors. Besides the Castro, the district includes three other neighborhoods: Central Mission, Noe Valley, and Lower 24th Street.

Corrales will trade places with Captain Stephen Tacchini, who has been at the station since June 2008 and will oversee the traffic company.

One area of concern in the city in recent years has been safety during Halloween, especially in the Castro. Ten people were injured during a 2006 shooting. Beginning in 2007, the city stopped holding the street party.

Corrales, who is straight and has been with the San Francisco Police Department for 40 years, said that he's expecting Halloween night in the Castro this year to be "pretty much the way it has been the last two years."

He said that the Castro "has been returned to the residents," following previous years when the neighborhood was "overwhelmed by lookie-loos" who came in and took over.

The streets will remain open, and Castro residents will be able to celebrate Halloween "in their own fashion," said Corrales.

David Perry, the coordinator for the city's Home for Halloween campaign, said there would be a "significant" police presence in the Castro.

"The days of 200,000 people having a street party in the Castro are over, and they're not coming back," said Perry.

Leadership team

Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who represents the district that includes the Castro, said that he's eager to work with Corrales again.

The openly gay Dufty said the captain is "looking to assemble a leadership team with a strong LGBT presence, which is important to me."

Asked about Dufty's comment, Corrales said, "I'm in a tough spot, because I've requested some personnel to be transferred to Mission, but I don't want to blow the thing by lobbying too much or putting the command staff in a spot. I've made requests and I'll see if they're honored."

Lieutenant Lea Militello, an out lesbian who's president of the police department's Pride Alliance, has worked with Corrales in the past and said that Corrales asked her to work at the Mission Station.

"I love working with him, and I would love the opportunity to work with him again," said Militello, who's currently the night watch lieutenant in the city's Tenderloin district.

Corrales said that Police Chief George Gasc—n, who took over the SFPD this summer, "is really going to make a difference, and I really look forward to working with the community to make sure the police services they receive in the Mission District are the police services they expect and deserve."

Corrales said that his salary at Mission station would be the same as his current salary. City controller data indicate that in 2008 Corrales was paid a total of roughly $188,000.

Responding to requests for information on why Tacchini was being replaced, Sergeant Wilfred Williams, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, said, "We haven't put out anything publicly in terms of where the captains will be reassigned to" and indicated that he couldn't confirm the move.

Praise from community

Steve Adams, president of the Merchants of Upper Market and Castro, said he liked Tacchini's community outreach efforts and will miss the captain, but said Corrales is "great to work with."

Adams said Coralles is "a law and order man" who works well with beat officers.

Since Corrales has worked with the community before, "he knows what he's getting into," said Adams.

Sergeant Chuck Limbert, who is Mission Station's LGBT liaison and has worked with Corrales before, said he's looking forward to working with Corrales again and said the captain has been "a full supporter of the LGBT community."

"He's been out and met with the different community organizations," said Limbert of Corrales's previous time at Mission Station. "He's come out into the bars with me ... He's easy with the community and tough on crime. He's going to be an asset for everyone in the Mission District."

As for why Gasc—n is moving Corrales in to Mission Station, Limbert said that Gasc—n met with all his district captains and "decided he was going to move people around based on their abilities and how they related to the community. This is his team now."

Tacchini's departure

Tacchini said that he didn't get an explanation for his moving, "I was just told it was part of the reorganization."

Asked about working with the Castro community, Tacchini said, "It's really been a great opportunity for me to work with people who really like getting involved in issues." He said everyone from merchants to neighborhood watch groups participate "in trying to make positive changes."

He also had high praise for Mission Station officers.

"I can't speak highly enough about the men and women in Mission Station," said Tacchini. "... The Mission District is probably the most challenging police district in the city. They meet that challenge every day," despite not having the resources some police departments have.

Tacchini said that crime reports indicate that this year violent crime in the Mission District is down as much as 21 percent, and homicides are down by 83 percent.

Earlier misgivings

Corrales appeared to have won people over in the district despite some initial misgivings.

In 2002, when Corrales was previously assigned to Mission Station, Castro and Mission residents had been concerned about him being in the position.

At the time, longtime San Francisco residents and advocates of medical marijuana remembered him as the cop who raided medical marijuana advocate Dennis Peron's Market Street Cannabis BuyerÕs Club in August 1996 and conducted "sweeps" on Polk Street in the 1980s.

In 2002, Corrales said that his previous dealings with medical marijuana were before voters approved Proposition 215 in November 1996. That measure exempts patients who possess or grow marijuana for medical treatment recommended by a physician from criminal laws.

Also in 2002, Corrales declined to call the Polk Street operation a sweep and said that former police chief Con Murphy had given him a mandate to deal with drug sales in the Polk Street area.

In a profile of Corrales in the San Francisco Examiner after the 1996 raid, the paper reported that Corrales had accumulated 110 citizen complaints in the 1970s and 1980s, and was also the target of 10 separate lawsuits alleging abuse. The city paid $100,000 to settle four of them, according to the paper.

In 2003, Corrales and other police officials were indicted on charges connected to the Fajitagate scandal, which started with a fight involving three off-duty San Francisco police officers. Charges against Corrales and others were dropped, and this week he said that he had also been determined to be "factually innocent, which is a huge distinction."