The Police Commission appointed Mr. Zisser Interim Executive Director in March 2022. Mr. Zisser previously served as Chief of Staff at CPRA, beginning in February 2021. Mr. Zisser has spent nearly his entire career in civil rights and police oversight.
Mr. Zisser was the City Council-appointed Independent Police Auditor in San Jose, where he led the independent civilian oversight agency tasked with reviewing San Jose Police Department’s Internal Affairs investigations of citizen complaints alleging officer misconduct. As IPA, Mr. Zisser also issued policy recommendations and conducted extensive community outreach.
Mr. Zisser has also worked as an Assistant District Attorney in the Independent Investigations Bureau (“IIB”) of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, where he investigated officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths., and as an independent consultant on jail and police reform, independent civilian oversight, and civil rights investigations.
Following a clerkship with a federal judge in Memphis and a human rights fellowship in Washington, DC, Mr. Zisser started his legal career as a civil rights attorney, including more than five years at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, where conducted “pattern or practice” investigations and compliance monitoring of correctional agencies, state psychiatric facilities, statewide mental health systems, and educational institutions.
Mr. Zisser earned his B.A. at UC Berkeley and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.