• Representatives for the California force are currently on a recruitment drive, visiting four Texas colleges 
• It comes after the police department had funding cut, causing them to pay out high amounts of overtime 
• San Francisco is currently experiencing high numbers of homelessness and open drug use 

San Francisco is trying to recruit cops from Texas as it faces a shortage of officers, after businessman Marc Benioff slammed the city’s homeless and drug problems.

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is visiting four Texas university campuses throughout the month as part of a new recruitment drive. 

Candidates from outside of the state of California will take a written test, a physical ability test and an interview to see if they make they cut.

A police spokesperson told the San Francisco Standard that the number of estimated applications this year is 2,104, nearly a 20 percent increase from 1,756 last year.  

The recruitment push comes as the department faces staffing issues, causing them to pay out high amounts of overtime. 

Representatives for the California force are currently on a recruitment drive, visiting four Universities in Texas As part of the move, the SFPD are visiting four Universities, with the poster for Sam Houston State seen here The four Texan universities are Texas Southern University, Sam Houston State University, Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi

The Standard reported that between 2017 and 2022, cops spent $88.9 million more on its employees, despite working fewer hours. 

The four Texan universities are Texas Southern University, Sam Houston State University, Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. 

Following widespread calls for reforms that swept the national following the murder of George Floyd, the department in the California city had their funding cut. 

Mayor London Breed was one of the first to openly speak out in support of defunding the police.

During a July 2020 press conference, Breed said: ‘We chose to change how this city and how this country treats our young Black men.’

Breed announced $120 million would be cut from the police and sheriff’s departments to reinvest in programs that help black and brown communities.

The following year, Breed u-turned on the decision and increased the police budget as the city faced a rampant rise in property crime and looting. 

At the time, she said: ‘More aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant with all the bulls*** that has destroyed our city.’

Mayor London Breed speaks during the celebration of the 9th Annual Chinatown Night Out in San Francisco, California, United States on September 6, 2023 Latest figures up until Sunday show that there have been more homicides so far this year, than the whole of last year

Last year the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a $50 million increase in SFPD’s budget.

Latest figures up until Sunday show that there have been more homicides so far this year than the whole of last year. 

So far, there have been 40 murders in the city in 2023, while there was just 36 last year. 

Likewise, the number of robberies in the city is also higher now than for the whole of last year, with 1,989 reported incidents this year, compared to just 1,704 last year.  

The number of total crimes this year is also closely catching up with last years full total, with 36,573 crimes committed this year, compared to 37,674 in 2022.

It comes after Salesforce Inc. CEO Marc Benioff said that he had pushed officials in the city to clean the place up before the company’s annual conference. 

AI convention Dreamforce, which draws 40,000 people from around the world according to the company, was held in the city last week. 

During a press event on Wednesday, Benioff said: ‘We put a lot of pressure on the city this year. It looks great. It’s very safe right now. We’re moving in the right direction.’

Benioff, 58, held the event at the Moscone Center, which is in an area that is currently facing issues including homelessness, crime and open air drug markets, according to Kron4.

Benioff also posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: ‘San Francisco has been incredibly clean, beautiful, and safe for the last 3 days of Dreamforce.

‘It is great that the city is able to put its best foot forward for this major event that brings in 40K people from around the world, and $80M to the economy.

‘It is important to ask why the city cannot be this clean and safe every single day?’

Salesforce Inc. CEO Marc Benioff, pictured here, said he had pushed officials in the beleaguered California city to clean the place up The AI convention, which draws 40,000 people from around the world according to the company, was held in the city over the past few days

Benioff had previously warned that the company could pull the large scale convention from the city due to the ongoing problems it is facing.

He told The San Francisco Chronicle: ‘If this Dreamforce is impacted by the current situation with homelessness and drug use it may be the last Dreamforce.’

Mayor London Breed responded to Benioff’s claim that Dreamforce made the city’s transformation possible.

She told ABC7 News: ‘It’s not just because of Dreamforce. There are other conventions. This is what we do for every convention that comes to SF.

‘My pushback is San Francisco changing. Things are getting better.’

Despite this, Mayor Breed did concede that some areas of the city, particularly the Tenderloin and South of Market, did still present challenges. 

The city has struggled for years with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses, and is on pace for its deadliest year yet.

More than 849 people are expected to die of drug overdoses in 2023, on pace to exceed the current record of 720 deaths in 2020

In the first five months of 2023, preliminary reports show there were 346 overdose deaths in the city – an increase of more than 40 percent from the same period in 2022.

Latest figures show that overdose deaths are continuing to rise, soaring in August with an additional 84 deaths, 66 involving fentanyl.  

Economists have warned the city is spiraling into an ‘urban doom loop’ – a vicious circle of interconnected trends and forces that send cities into economic and social ruin.

Over the past few months, dozens of retailers announced they would be vacating the downtown area of the city.

Drug addicts and the homeless congregate in the Tenderloin District of the California city Open drug use is now common in the city, something which the police are cracking down on San Francisco Police have attempted to shut down open-air drugs markets in the hard-hit Tenderloin and SoMa areas of the city. Pictured: 64-year-old Deliada Valdez who has been homeless for four years is seen in Tenderloin District of San Francisco, California, United States on August 28, 2023

Retail stalwart Old Navy announced they would be shuttering their flagship store in the area last month, becoming the latest chain to exit the city.

Nordstrom also announced they would be closing all of their locations in the city.

The company said that due to the ‘changing dynamics’ of San Francisco it would be shuttering all remaining stores in the next few months.

In April, Whole Foods announced it was closing all their locations, with Anthropologie and Office Depot having also made the same decisions.

High theft has proved a problem in the area recently, with a Walgreens in the city center resolving to chaining their freezers to stop shoplifters.

A map reveals the major businesses which have left, or plan to leave, San Francisco in recent months

A disturbing recent report showed 95 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the COVID pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent.

Out of 203 retailers open in 2019 in the city’s Union Square area, just 107 are still operating, a drop of 47 percent in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.

One Target store in the city has been forced to lock up more of its products to stave off thieves.

An employee at the location previously said it was being robbed as often as ‘every ten minutes.’

Video footage of another Target has been shared on social media and shows large quantities of their stock now behind barriers.

The post San Francisco tries to recruit cops from TEXAS because it faces scarcity of a whole lot of officers and enterprise leaders like Salesforce’s Marc Benioff slam town’s widespread homelessness and drug use appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Garrett Anken enjoys his career and finds it rewarding. But he’s made decisions that many of his Gen Z peers haven’t.

Anken, 24, works as an apprentice plumber at Peterson Mechanical in Sonoma, a heating, ventilation and air conditioning company that serves Napa, Marin, Solano and four other counties in the Bay Area.

“I enjoy being active and seeing something positive come out of it because essentially we’re helping (people),” Anken said. “If we go into hospitals and run water, gas or oxygen lines that people use, it’s helpful for them. So it’s almost like a reward at the end. I have a good feeling afterwards.”

But Anken’s interest in craft trades isn’t common today among either the blue-collar Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) or the younger end of Millennials, who were born between 1981 and 1996.

The reasons seem to lie in a long-held stigma that white-collar jobs are preferable to blue-collar careers. That message is driven by a number of factors, including little promotion of craft careers; a lack of outreach opportunities for young workers who did not grow up in this environment; and parental pressure to get a four-year college degree.

“A lot of people go to four-year school and then go back into debt,” Anken said. “You earn money while you go to school and you get all the benefits.”

Anken is a member of UA Local 38 Plumbers, Steamfitters & HVAC/Refrigeration, which currently represents about 2,500 members in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties, according to its website.

More money, more opportunities

The theory that chasing a college degree gives students a head start on entering the white-collar workforce better than manual workers isn’t necessarily true, a Sonoma County executive found out.

Amy Christopherson Bolton, President of Christopherson Builders, made $48,000 a year from her first job after graduating with a master’s degree in science. She thought that was a pretty good starting salary.

“People I knew who became plumbers and[other jobs]made $65,000 to $70,000 a year,” she said. “So all those years that I spent in school started at a much lower price.

“Another thing about the trades is that they offer a really nice kind of low-barrier entry way to become your own boss and start your own business,” added Bolton. “If you work in a typical white-collar job, starting your own business is this huge, scary, and expensive task.”

fruits of his labour

Zach Brandner, President and CEO of Peterson Mechanical, grew up in a largely family-run business and worked in the field from an early age before leaving to take the suit-and-tie route and become a mechanical engineer.

But life away from construction sites was not for him.

“From an architectural engineering perspective, you put these buildings and plans on paper and then you leave your office,” he said. “And you have no idea if they were built or what it looks like.”

Brandner returned to Peterson 15 years ago in an administrative role, which also required him to be out in the field at times.

“I wanted more interaction and I wanted to see the tangible results of my work,” he said.

Brandner took over as President and CEO last summer.

Although Brandner now runs the company, he still knows first-hand what is happening in the field and still visits construction sites. He said he feels most comfortable in the construction industry and its culture.

“I think it’s because I grew up in it,” he said. “It goes back to that family theme.”

Brandner sees little interest in manual trades among younger employees today if they did not grow up in this environment.

“It’s kind of been brewing for Millennials, and now it’s picking up again for Gen Z,” Brandner said. “It just seems to be overlooked. College is advertised just as well as where you go to make a living.”

Research Oriented Solutions

Peter Tateishi, CEO of the Sacramento-based, California arm of the Associated General Contractors advocacy group, is to find out why someone chooses a four-year college degree over a trade.

“What we see as the biggest obstacle for Gen Z is the influencers around them, which at this point means Millennials and Gen X,” Tateishi said, “and even Boomer parents who still think that a four.” -Year-end must be the direction for their children to lead healthy, sustainable lives.”

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A big turnout of family and friends – with special recognition for David Nguyen.

San Francisco Sheriff’s Deputies saluting pictures of David Nguyen, a 28-year-old Alameda County Sheriff’s recruit who was killed on Interstate 580 in Oakland as he drove home to San Francisco after a day of training.

“Just seeing the community get together for a cause, for my brother, that keeps me going,” said David’s sister Barbara. She was there to speak along with a number of others, including the San Francisco Sheriff, to honor Nguyen Wednesday night where he was so close to graduating at City College of San Francisco.

RELATED: Slain Alameda Co. Sheriff recruit honored, casket transported to Colma funeral home

Alan Wong is a trustee at City College of San Francisco who served alongside Nguyen in the National Guard.

“With the support of David’s teachers, I’m moving forward with a proposal to have City College confer him an honorary degree in liberal arts and sciences to help him and his family complete his academic degree at City College,” said Wong.
Nguyen was just one unit away from a degree. His girlfriend Shanice Vaughn read a journal of his where he vowed to do better in school.

RELATED: ‘We were like best friends’: Sister of slain Alameda Co. Sheriff recruit shares memories of his life

“My solution is to enter City College with a completely different mindset. The mindset to learn, progress, and most of all not cheat myself out of an education again,” said Vaughn.

David’s family and friends are still struggling with his loss but were happy to share David’s memories on cold city evening, with his mother, who has been hit particularly hard.

Barbara says she will remember the good times.

VIDEO: Alameda Co. Sheriff’s recruit fatally shot while driving home from work on I-580 in Oakland

“He took care of me at a very young age and he would force me to do everything with him either working out, Boy Scouts, all these things. I didn’t really appreciate it when I was younger but when I look back on it now, man he was a great big brother,” says Nguyen.

Deputies tell us there is still a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of David’s killer. As of right now, no arrests have been made.

If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

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A recruit from the California Sheriff’s Department who was killed Tuesday in a freeway shootout in Oakland has been identified, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.

David Nguyen, 28, was off duty when he was shot dead while driving home from the academy, authorities said. He was supposed to graduate in February.

Investigators have not yet determined if Nguyen was the target of the shooting.

“I don’t understand why anyone would choose to use their gun, probably for nothing,” the Alameda County Sheriff’s Sheriff said. JD Nelson told FOX 2 about the Bay Area. He called Nguyen “popular” and “highly motivated”.

Nguyen’s family and girlfriend were “dismayed” by his killing, FOX 2 reported.

After Nguyen was shot near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toll booth, his vehicle crashed into a guardrail. According to FOX 2, he was taken to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

‘HISTORICAL’ 346 OFFICERS SHOOTED IN THE PERFORMANCE OF DUTY IN 2021: NATIONAL FRATERNAL POLICE ORDER

“In loving memory of Recruit David V. Nguyen of the 172nd Academy of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a Twitter post along with photos of Nguyen.

Later Tuesday, employees from the sheriff’s office and the California Highway Patrol lined up and saluted his flag-draped coffin as it was loaded into a coroner’s van at an Oakland hospital.

“Our deputies have just loaded the body of our young police academy recruit for a law enforcement procession from Highland Hospital to our Coroner’s Bureau,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a statement shared with video on Twitter on Tuesday. “We are heartbroken and disturbed by this senseless act of gun violence.”

Alameda County Sheriff’s Office recruit David Nguyen was shot dead Tuesday while driving home from the training center.
(Alameda County Sheriff’s Office)

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U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, representing the Bay Area, tweeted Wednesday, “God bless this @ACSOSheriffs recruit who was murdered near the Bay Bridge last night. Peace be with his family. And hopefully the thunder of justice will come to his killer soon.”

Fox News’ Dom Calicchio contributed to this report.

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OAKLAND (CBS SF) — The Alameda County Sheriff’s Department held a procession Friday afternoon to honor the memory of the deputy recruit who was killed in a freeway shootout in Oakland earlier this month.

Chopper 5 flew overhead while the body of recruit David Nguyen was being transported from the Alameda County Coroner’s Office to a funeral home in Colma.

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The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office also released information about the procession on its Twitter account, noting that Nguyen’s family was present.

Today our command staff honored Sheriff Recruit David Nguyen and supported his family as he was transported to a Colma morgue by our Coroner’s Bureau in the city of Oakland. Services for Recruit Nguyen will be held on Monday, January 24, 2022. Further information follows. pic.twitter.com/zWwDYsBUeu

— Alameda County Sheriff (@ACSOSheriffs) January 14, 2022

Authorities identified Nguyen on the highway the day after the deadly shooting. The fatal incident, which claimed Nguyen’s life, occurred late afternoon on January 4 on the westbound approach to the Bay Bridge.

Nguyen was escorted to his home in San Francisco after a day of training with the 172nd Academy class. He was driving his car — a black Prius — on the westbound I-580 connecting ramp to westbound I-80 in Oakland around 4:30 p.m. when he was shot by an unknown assailant.

The car veered to the left and crashed into a guardrail. First responders saw that Nguyen, the driver and only occupant of the vehicle, had been shot.

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Nguyen was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland where he succumbed to his injuries, the CHP said.

Although he was not initially identified, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department confirmed Tuesday night that the man killed was a young academy recruit.

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Charity Foundation opened an account with the Police Credit Union in Nguyen’s honor. All donations go to his family to help at this critical time of need. Donations can be made in person at a local Police Credit Union branch or by mail using the following account information:

The Police Credit Union
Alameda County Sheriff’s Charitable Foundation
In memory of David Nguyen
2550 Irving St
San Francisco, CA 94122

The sheriff’s office said services for Nguyen will be held on Monday, January 24.

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The Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Association has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for Nguyen’s death.

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Posted: Mar 8, 2021 / 8:40 AM EST
/ Updated: March 8, 2021 / 8:40 a.m. EST

DURHAM, NC (WNCN) – Bobby Ferrel has owned Green Horizon One Hour Heating and Air in Durham for 13 years. An agonizing topic has moved on during this time – the shortage of skilled workers.

“There was a huge trade gap for 20 to 30 years that people didn’t trade,” Ferrel said. “Now it’s impossible to find good help.”

Ferrel has taken a step to combat the problem by creating a scholarship fund for students on the HVAC program at Durham Tech. The aim is to impart the basic knowledge to them in the classroom and then to transfer them to an apprenticeship.

Frank Rivera, a manager at Green Horizon, oversees the program. Growing up in the industry, he wants to inspire others as he was inspired himself.

“That’s what we hope to be – be the mentor to others. It doesn’t matter if you’re in school or you’re 50 or 60 years old looking for a new career, ”said Rivera.

When asked how many skilled technicians he could hire in a single day, Ferrel was quick to respond by saying, “Five, that would increase our workforce by 25 percent.”

He also emphasized the pay – $ 15 an hour to start out as a helper – with skilled technicians making $ 100,000 or more. In addition, no university degree is required.

“We put a high school diploma as a requirement, but honestly we’d be entertaining people who didn’t graduate from high school.”

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