SAN FRANCISCO — As San Francisco tries to bring the year-long crisis in the Tenderloin District under control, the role of the police has been hotly debated. Mayor London Breed has promised more order on the streets and asked for more police money to make it happen.
“We as a city need to take a tougher stance on the conditions that are happening in this particular neighborhood where we have large numbers of families and children and immigrants and people who are businesses just trying to make a living and survive in San Francisco,” Breed told KPIX. “We can do better and we’ll keep trying.”
This now includes stepping up the fight against the district’s sprawling open-air drug market.
“Finally the police, I guess they just gave them the OK because they’ve suddenly made a lot of arrests in the last month,” said Kirk Gordon of Tenderloin. “I saw them blocking st and leading these drug dealers to different corners.”
It’s not Gordon’s imagination.
“Extra bags,” said a San Francisco police officer, combing through a bag confiscated from an arrest for alleged drug dealing. “More fentanyl.”
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It’s a typical bust of a six-man undercover team launched in late November. And just days later, more arrests on the same corner. There are new rules. A uniformed officer has to be on hand, but that doesn’t stop them. By early April, the department’s Tenderloin Station had made 217 arrests, exceeding last year’s total by more than 50%.
“We have seized three times the amount of drugs since the beginning of the year compared to last year,” said Captain Sergio Chin of the Tenderloin Station.
“Since I took office, we’ve billed almost twice as many cases as we did last year,” said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
Jenkins began her tenure by coming to this neighborhood and promising action against drug trafficking. While the busts really are old-fashioned police work, they do meet challenges. A complaint was filed against an officer alleging that Latinos were being unfairly targeted. Officers say they simply target fentanyl and problematic corners.
As for prosecutors, their drug arrest cases are just reaching the courtrooms, and the first two ended in hung juries.
“The defense that was offered in both of those cases was that the defendant was a victim of human trafficking and that’s why they were selling narcotics,” Jenkins said. “This is a new topic. When I was handling drug trafficking cases five years ago, there were no allegations of anyone being trafficked, so we need to adapt quickly.”
Back on the street, it’s not hard to find those who say the increased presence alone — at least on their corner — is long overdue.
“We’ve tried calling the police many times,” said Jessica, a travel agency owner. “Sometimes they come, sometimes they don’t. At the moment it’s really better if the police are on the street. I’d rather have the police on the street. That’s better.”
But similar to the complaints Urban Alchemy unarmed safety ambassadors only partially patrol the neighborhood, the police cannot be everywhere at once.
“They moved them all the way to Post Street,” noted Tony Kushmaul. “So they move them from block to block or they move them around the block.”
“Even if the vendors move and engage in other criminal activities,” Deputy Police Commissioner David Lazar promised, “we will keep an eye on them and their activities wherever they go.”
“We’re not going to have any more luck clawing our way out of this crisis by arresting street dealers than any previous administration of this country or that country,” said District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston. “If you haven’t addressed the underlying causes and reasons people are out there and taking action, you’re only moving people when you have an investor in the community.”
So the police make more arrests and take on a wave of drug dealers while residents watch and see what they can get.
“Police need to create more walking routes, you know,” Gordon said of what he’d like to see from SFPD. “Walk around. At least scare these guys.”
Wilson Walker
