especially during the filipino episodes, like, wow, like, i'm proud to be a filipino. >> being able to connect with someone they know on television has been really, really powerful for them. and as a mom, i can tell you that's so important. the social confidence development of our early learners. [♪♪♪]

>> the hon. london breed: good morning, everyone. i'm san francisco mayor london breed, and i want to thank you all for joining us here today to talk about public safety on a whole other level in light of the challenges that our city continues to face. you know, this has been a problem that has persisted in the city for sometime now, and the fact is that things have gotten worse over time, and i want to thank a moment to appreciate our public safety officials today, some of whom you will hear from in a short moment, but thank you to our police chief, bill scott, for being here, our fire chief, jeanine nicholson, our sheriff,

paul miyamoto, our director of public health, dr. grant colfax, our department of public works director, shireen mcspadden, and our district supervisor, ahsha safai. in recent months, we've not only seen a rising number of criminal behavior, especially in the tenderloin that has become far too normal and cannot continue to be tolerated. all of our workers, our residents, and everyone who

visits our city should feel safe no matter what part of town they're in, and i know that san francisco is a compassionate city. we are a city that prides ourselves on second chances and rehabilitation, but we're not a city where anything goes. our compassion should not be mistaken for weakness or indifference. today, we're announcing a series of public safety initiatives to create a city that is safe and turns the tide on what we have recently seen in san francisco. and to be clear, what i'm proposing today, and what i will be proposing in the future will make a lot of people uncomfortable, but i don't care. at the end of the day, the safety of the people of san francisco is the most important thing to me, and we are past

the point where what we see is even remotely acceptable. the first of these initiatives is the tenderloin emergency plan, which is already underway. during covid, we showed what this city can do when we unify our efforts and we work together collaboratively. tlou our emergency action, we protected the health of the city, and san francisco was a national model for addressing covid. we saved lives. and let me say this: the tenderloin needs an emergency response, period. i spent a lot of time going to the tenderloin and have seen what's happening. we made a significant difference, but now, what i see

is far, far worse. while there are still issues of needing to get people off the streets and into housing, and there are also very important urgent safety issues. last week, i met with families from the tenderloin. their stories are heartbreaking. just imagine if you had to walk your kid down the streets of the tenderloin every single day with people shooting up, selling drugs, and because the sidewalks were so packed with people, you had to walk out on the street in incoming traffic on a regular basis. you've got these brand-new playgrounds where you don't even feel comfortable walking your kids to play in them because of everything they see around them, where you don't

feel safe. the unsafe streets, and the dirty streets, and when i say dirty, i mean the feces in the streets that department of public works will clean and have to come back just hours later. we can't keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. we need to be different, to act with urgency, and to be aggressive in countering these problems, and this is why i've directed mary ellen carroll, the director of emergency management, to lead our

multiagency coordination on this effort, bringing the coordination and urgent responses that we brought to covid this year. in essence, a covid command that will be a public safety command that will be specifically targeted at the tenderloin community, and i'm going to have mary ellen carroll walk-through the details of what this means. our priorities are focused on issues of drug dealing, private crime, public drug use, safe passage and accessibility for the people who live and work there, neighborhood cleanliness, housing resources, emergency medical calls, and we will be tackling illegal vending. in the short-term, that means taking actions like fixing the

lights, adding additional lighting in very dark areas, dealing with the trash all over the neighborhood, but it also means coordinating with the police and sheriff's office on felony warrant sweeps, which have led to the arrest of 23 individuals so far with outstanding warrants. these are some of the people who have been holding this neighborhood hostage, and our criminal justice system has a responsibility to hold them accountable. when the police make an arrest, the residents of the tenderloin should not see that same person back on the streets the next day dealing drugs right in front of their neighborhood. the next stage of this plan will roll out next month and continue for at least two months after that. the second stage will continue the progress made earlier on the law enforcement but

interventions and connections of services to people facing evictions and other challenges, but to be clear, we're not giving people choice anymore. we're not just going to walk by and let someone use in public daylight on the streets and give them choice of giving them to the location we have identified them or going to jail. this will involve outreach workers, social workers, police, and community workers working together, offering wraparound services at a new linkage site where people can start treatment, meeting people where they are, being the compassionate city that we are, but not tolerating the mess that we've had to tolerate. the final phase of this project

involves keeping the streets safe for everyone who called the -- who call the tenderloin home, and promoting safety and neighborhood support. this also includes long-term partnerships with community organizations and residents to maintain the improvements made during the crisis operations phase. the key will be to never let the tenderloin go back to what we are seeing today, to not go backward, to move forward, to feel and see a difference. but public safety isn't just about the tenderloin. we know that there are issues all over this city. our second initiative is targeting the illegal vending on our streets that is incentivizing the break ins and robberies like the ones we have

seen at stores and small businesses throughout the city. and you know what's the sad reality before i was even an elected official, everybody knew whatever they stole for cell phones, laptops, anything you steel in the city, you take it down to the tenderloin, and there's somebody waiting to give you cash for these items. i want you to know, these are not just victimless crimes, and these are not just property crimes. we're seeing stolen vehicles, physical violence, and the use of weapons. today, i'm introducing legislation to disincentivize theft by making the resale of stolen goods on the street more difficult. it will mandate highly visible

posting of approved vendor permits to make it simple and easy for inspectors for proof at any time and if they can't produce it, we will take action. it will allow the department of public works to associate with law enforcement. if there is a need to move an individual who's not complaint and the ability to confiscate goods. these are basic but important actions, and i want to thank supervisor safai for cosponsoring this legislation. we also need know that we need to give our officers more tools to effectively do their jobs. in 2019, the board of supervisors passed a law that effectively limited officers'

use of camera feeds for certain situations. for what happened in union square, they could not. when there were multiple robbery crews hitting multiple stores, they could not access those cameras, which is ridiculous. think about that. you're in an incident of severe looting, aurofficers are not able to use that other jurisdictions -- our officers are not able to use something that other jurisdictions use. we need amendments to clarify that officers are allowed to access these cameras when needed to address critical public safety issues. there is a balance to be had, i know, but right now, if our officers cannot use cameras

during a mass looting event, then that policy is out of balance. we are actively working on those amendments, with plans to introduce it in january, and my hope is that the board will support changes. lastly, we're increasingly asking our police department to do more. they're working overtime to address these challenges, including responding to the rash number of retail thefts, and expanding a number of deployments through our tourism deployment plan so when come here and support our economy, they feel safe, and they want to return, and we change the narrative about what people say about san francisco. and focusing on auto burglaries

to make significant arrests on prolific crews. they've done all of this -- our officers are committed to doing the work, and they're committed to keeping us safe, but everything they've been doing over the recent months and everything we've going to ask of them in the coming months before we pass a new budget is going to require more overtime funding, and it's going to require more police officers. my budget office is currently working with the san francisco police department and the chief

to understand what the needs will be to get us through 2022, and i will introduce a supplemental to ask this board for the resources that we need so that the deployment that exists now will not end after the holidays. the deployment that we're starting in this city needs to be permanent. as we are preparing for our budget, we will ensure these resources occur, including academy classes and overtime, are in place as part of the budget, and i will introduce that as part of that budget in may, but we cannot wait to continue some of those actions now. some of those actions are underway immediately, while others require significant action and legislation, and there will be more work on this front. taken together, they can make a

real difference on our streets and on our city. i want to recognize our police officers and their commitments. vacations have been cancelled, time off has been cancelled. it's been all hands on deck, and at the end of the day, what has made the most significant difference to address public safety is, yes, we've made investments in social service programs, yes, we pushed for reforms to our criminal justice system. we will continue to do that, but when a line is crossed, people have to be held accountable for the crimes they commit in our city, and that's where our police officers have been critically important to our ability to do so. thank you to sheriff miyamoto who has been a real partner, and i'm looking forward to working more with allowing our

sheriff's departments to work off duty. at the end of the day, i know this sounds like a lot of different things. i know this sounds like more and more promises that may not materialize, but i want each and every person in this city to know this work, and what we are going to do to turnaround how people feel in san francisco is the most important thing to me. this is a city that has a population of under 1 million

people but has a $12 billion budget. the people of this city have been extremely generous with providing us the resources to make a difference. and now, the priorities we need to make must be to protect them. when you are in a room full of people, i would say probably anywhere between 90 and 95% of folks could raise their hand and say that either their car has been broken into or they've been a victim in some capacity or another. that is not okay. that is not acceptable, and it's time that the reign of criminals is over.

it happens when we are less tolerance of all the bullshit that has destroyed our city. we are going to turn this around, and this is the most important thing for me and i know leaders of public safety in this city at this time. with that, i'd like to introduce our police chief, bill scott. [applause] >> thank you, mayor. good morning. let me start with this. the people in our city who have been impacted by crime, by quality of life issues such as open air drug usage, street vending, some of our issues with unhoused population that lead to trash on the streets and needles on the street and

things like that, these things have to change. now from a policing perspective, let me tell you what you can expect from the san francisco police department. first of all, enforcement of drug dealing and drug dealing offenses. it's little consequence that we've arrested 600 people in the tenderloin alone this year. it's little consolation when you're still seeing drug dealers on your block day in and day out. it's little consolation when we seize four times as much fentanyl as we did last year, and we still see open air drug use happening day in and day

out. and here's the point to all of this. we will continue to make arrests, and we will make more arrests, but there are areas in this city that need constant 24-hour patrol while we make those arrests. this is what i'm hearing over and over and over again, and i thank the mayor and our elected officials who are here with us for introducing the line because this police department will draw the line, but we need the resources to do it. and let me go in a little bit more detail how this works, because i'm going to speak about our officers. they're asked to go in and do their job, make an arrest.

they're in the station, writing reports, booking evidence. that has to be done. while they're doing that, that corner, nobody is there, and when that's happening, we can't afford to have a neighborhood where that happens. i've been out with those officers. i've walked those blocks with them. they make an arrest, they're out in the field. 30 minutes later, i go back, and it's like they've never been there. there are places in this city where we need constant police presence. and let me be very clear what i'm saying. i'm not saying unconstitutional arrests, i'm not saying

brutalizing or excessive police force. i'm saying we need to be out there, and that takes time, that takes money, and that takes resources. when i ask an officer, what do you need to do your job, the answer is usually two things: we need enough people to do our jobs the which we've been asked to do it, and we need to be supported when we do our jobs the right way. as your chief of police, that's what i'm asking for. i'm asking for the resources to do our job like we need to do, and i'm asking for support for our officers when you ask them to do the job the way they should do it. police departments all across this country are facing hiring challenges. this city is no exception. we need to have an environment in this city where people want to come to work here and be

police officers. that doesn't happen without support, and mayor breed, thank you for your support on this. we need the public support, they need my support, and they deserve that if we're asking them to do a very difficult job. so i'm going to go into a little bit more detail before i introduce mary ellen carroll to the microphone. open air drug deals, open air drug dealing, we need consequences. listen, i'm here to talk about what we can control, we, the san francisco police department can control. but when we are using drugs, and some of people that i'm talking about, they have substance addiction issues, they need medical assistance to get through those issues. we have to be compassionate about that, but being

compassionate about that doesn't mean we turn a blind's eye to what's happening on the street. the criminal just system has changed. a decade ago, possession of a small amount of heroin or crack cocaine would land you in jail with a felony, but it doesn't mean we can't be compassionate. it doesn't mean we can't rely on medical and health care resource to have a balance of health care treatment and enforcement. we've struggled with that, i'll be the first to admit it, but that day is no more. we will engage, we will engage consistently, we will offer up services. the city and the mayor and everybody standing here in front of you are working on a plan to do just that in the very, very near future, but at the end of the day, at the end

of all of this, people will not be allowed to smoke meth, to smoke fentanyl, to inject heroin in their arms in public spaces, and it's very important that we are consistent and that we sustain this effort because to do it for two weeks is not going to help us long-term, and again, it takes resources, it takes a commitment, and it takes a desire to sustain this effort. this department will own its shortcomings. we're not a perfect department, even though we try to be that. but i can say one thing, that the commitment is there. given the resources, we know we can have better outcomes than what we've seen, and we can have consistent outcomes.

we want to be held accountable for those outcomes, i want to be held accountable, but we need the resources, no doubt about it. using technology -- i've been doing this job for almost 33 years now. if we can't use the technology we have in a way that protects civil liberties but still protects the crime and the criminal issues that have been disclosed, then why do we have it. if you are the victim of a violence crime or the owner or a store keeper that had your store looted, it's little consolation to say, yeah, we can get the video after you've been victimized. yeah, there's value do it, but we need to do better.

we have to do better. and lastly, we've seen what happened in our city on union square on november 19. it's not the first time it's happened, but we saw the nature of it happening, and we saw it happen every where else. i'm here to tell you that that increased deployment made and continues to make a difference. again, seeing it with my own eyes, walking it with officers. and i've seen it all over the city, but in union square, after the world was set on edge with what they saw, the people that have to go there and work every day, the people that have to take transportation to go there, the people that want to go there and shop, that have to look over their shoulder,

worried that 50 people are going to run in the shop with knives or guns or hammers or whatever they have to run in the shop, it matters to them, so we need to sustain this effort. so you have our commitment. i want to thank our elected officials for supporting this effort. chief nicholson, fire chief, sheriff miyamoto, and many others, dr. colfax, and others.

we can do it when we do it together, and we have the support and the resources to get us there. so thank you, and with that, i'd like to introduce mary ellen carroll, the director of our department of emergency management. [applause] >> thank you, chief scott, and thank you mayor breed. emergency management provides coordination in times of crisis, and today, as you've heard, there's no more significant crisis than what's happening in our streets and especially in the tenderloin. during the pandemic, san

francisco demonstrated what can happen when we work together. at the mayor's direction, the department is going to collaborate with our community partners. over the next few months, the team will implement a multiphase assessment approach. the first phase is already underway. through meetings with community stakeholders and residents, we have developed an understanding of the challenges that we have

to address. enforcement and the disruption of criminal activity to guarantee safe passage in our community. during this phase, social workers, clinicians, community partners, and resources will work in concert to offer wraparound services at a new temporary linkage site. when it's established, it will allow services, and at the same

time, as you heard, law enforcement will be present in the community. our response will operate with the same level of urgency, coordination, and focus that was so successful during our first against the pandemic. the final face of our interventions will focus on transitioning to a sustained operation that will help keep the streets safe and accessible for all who call tenderloin home. this phase will include long-term partnerships with our community or with community organizations and residents to maintain the improvements that we will achieve during this crisis operation response. the tenderloin is home to

families, local businesses, nonprofits, immigrants, seniors, and young professionals who all deserve a safe and healthy place to call home. last week, as the mayor spoke, we met with the first group of san franciscans, and they demanded that the city take action so that they no longer have to live in fear in their neighborhood. through our effort, the city will stand with mothers who want their children to get safely to and from home and school and the playgrounds and the parks. we will stand with merchants and neighbors, and i want to

thank mayor breed for her leadership, and at this time, we will introduce our sheriff, paul miyamoto. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. these recent incidents, this recent uptick, all of the things that have been discussed here by all of the previous speakers, have created a citywide public safety concern that the san francisco sheriff's office is prepared to continue with the solution and provide services and support necessary to make sure that our collective efforts are not just a flash in the pan, are not just a temporary solution, but something that is long-term and sustainable. i think it's very important to recognize that we have city leadership here, just as with the pandemic, the city

leadership is here to address the problem of safety and public safety and as a public safety official, as an elected law enforcement public safety official, i am very grateful for the collaboration and the coordination not just between the electeds and our city government in addressing these concerns. we are going to be redeploying services that we have in place to help address the immediate concerns in the hope of creating a model to be sustainable over the long-term. our staff will be working them,

and we have over 800 [indiscernible] we will continue to do so in this new model to address these concerns, to finally say no to some of these problem that's we face, and our support that we provide is compassionate mitigation of these challenges. we don't just work as law enforcement deputies in the street, we don't just work in the justice system with justice involved persons, but we're there with them for long period of times, in the health care facilities. we establish relationships, and relationships we hope to leverage in reaching out to people and making sure that they have support and access to services, as mary ellen

mentioned, as the chief mentioned, as the mayor mentioned. our commitment is what you get from us at the sheriff's office, and in collaboration with the rest of city leadership, we look forward to this. our staff members, people that have been dedicated to public safety for their careers, it was mentioned by the chief that a lot of us are working overtime. we're understaffed, we're underutilized, and we're working overtime to get things done. the commitment that we have here, we have to make sure we

have what we need. thank you, madam mayor. >> the hon. london breed: thank you. that was a lot of information to process, and we'll be providing additional information through our communications team, and at this time, are there any questions? question? [indiscernible] . >> well, that can be answered

in two parts. first, we have to stop what's going on, with the understanding that there's a possibility that it's going to displace somewhere else. in the area of the tenderloin, we sort of know where those are. we have to still be present in order to not let the problem repopulate as soon as we leave. i wish we could be everywhere in the city, but there are a lot of areas that need our attention. when we're out there, the people aren't selling drugs

where we are. they see where we are, and they wait for us to leave. but if we're on the next block, or we go to the next block with them, we've -- you've got to understand what we're dealing with. this is a very transitory drug market. people who want to sell drugs, they know there's going to be plenty of demand, and we have to disrupt all of that, while at the same time, we have to predict where they're going to go next, and we have to be waiting on them. this is a humbling experience, difficult experience, but it

can be done. so resources, and understand that we have to do what we say and say what we mean. we're not going to arrest everybody in one day, we can go there and make 20 arrests right now, and there's going to be 20 other people that come right behind them, and we realize that. that's why we've got to be there when they come, so that's part of the strategy. [indiscernible] . >> the hon. london breed: well, i think at the end of the day, the arrests will be made by the police department, with the hope that our district attorney will prosecute those cases.

and accountability is not always jail time. it's some sort of punishment that's appropriate to the crime. when we talk about criminal justice reform, maybe it's someone in their first offense. do we think they should just be let out and the charges dismissed? no. there could be a layer of community service or things that they're required to do as a result of committing that crime, and currently, there are challenges with accountability, and my hope is that the d.a., who we are definitely trying to work with, will hold the people that the police arrest accountability. we will, in every single instance of arrest, put together a report that is clear, that makes it clear in terms of what was actually done, and what the specific offense is.

and our hope is that in light of everything that's being done, that the maximum charges in every one of these cases are what the d.a. goes after. there are things that we want to do to reform this system, this is an industry. the car break-ins, the theft and the looting, it's not only how many are happening, it's how violent they're becoming. [indiscernible]. >> the hon. london breed: i have conversations with him regularly about everything that happens in the city related to

charges that we hope he will impose. we have a relationship where we have conversations about many of those things, but as you know, he is an independently elected official, and at the end of the day, you need to ask him what he plans to do. [indiscernible] . >> the hon. london breed: so i will say that, you know, when we talk about the number of stabbings, the number of shootings, the number of physical assaults that are occurring, unfortunately, our ambassadors and all of these other great services that we have, they're not equipped to handle those things. and in fact, some of them have put themselves in harm's way because of it.

so too many people are crossing a line, and it's time for us to make a change, and that's where law enforcement comes in. [indiscernible] . >> the hon. london breed: to be clear, when those funds from the police department were redirected specifically to serve the african american community, there were no cuts to the number of officers that we had in the department. there was really a goal of, you know, making some transformative changes with law enforcement and make it go clear that we are going to invest in people to avoid them even being involved with the criminal justice system in the first place but also make it clear to the criminal justice system that we are going to reform to help those that are

disproportionately affected. an investment is necessary as a result of it. [indiscernible] . >> the hon. london breed: so part of what's in the plan is giving the opportunity -- say, for example, department of public works, they are the enforcement leg of some of the illegal vending, but at the same time, we need to open the

door to collaboration. we are still working on building that trust, and i think, unfortunately, we do have people who, under no circumstances, are they willing to work with our police officers. and from my perspective at this point, it's important that we have nonprofit agencies and people that are nonsafety personnel, we need them to develop relationships with the people who need to protect our city because ultimately -- and i'll tell you an example of one of our persons who was out there, working to be that voice, and sadly, he was stabbed. so we have those situations that occur, and ultimately, when the crime occurred, then

everyone wants help. is we have been putting in action with all of the decisions that they've been making, and what we're seeing in terms of our use of force cases this is where we are and this is what we need to do. >> we have a united group on our incident management team on

how to approach these problems, but what we've been doing the last few weeks is sitting down, negotiating a solution, and moving forward, and that is part of the approach. we'll be reviewing on an every single day what our operation plan is for that day and then looking at what will happen the day before. this allows us to be agile, it allows us to adjust. we have to be successful. we are coming to the table with a set of tools and tactics, and if it doesn't work, we will sit down again, and we will adjust. [indiscernible]

. >> so the balance with the drug usage, particularly when we're dealing with people that are addicted, we can't ignore what our health officials are telling us what works. i would venture to say that the vast majority of the people that we're talking about have some sort of substance use disorder. what we're going to put into place, what director carroll has talked about, we have to listen to the science and the experts, but at the same time, we can't just allow people to

use on the streets. if we're constantly talking to people and getting them to the right locations, we should given them an opportunity to do it. we ask someone on the street, if they want to go services, skm they say yes, and we see them on the streets again, we're not asking again. then, it becomes enforcement. possession, use, those are misdemeanors, so the law still allows them to be cited out. let's say they're cited out, and a third time in the same day, the law allows us to ask for a detention based on the

likelihood that the offenses will continue. all of those processes that i talked about will be put in place. we have to be consistent, and it goes back to what i was saying, and i'll say it again, it takes resources. when we're not on the streets, we see the activity that we're trying to address, and can't address it if we're not there, so while we're in the process of enforcing, we have to replace those officers are officers that are constantly in the streets in some of the most challenging areas, and that's been a tremendous struggle because i'm telling you, if you go, and you've seen this in action, it's a revolving door.

the consistency of deployment along with compassion, offering services, giving people a chance to engage in those services, but we have to be consistent. you're smoking crack on our streets, you're smoking meth, no, that's not going to happen. we're going to engage. you may not be arrested the first time, but we're going to engage. we have to rely on what works from a clinical perspective, but that has to be balanced, and it's not an easy solution. >> that's all we have. thank you. thank you.

all right. >> president cohen: