2023. second if any members of the public would like to make public comment regarding line item four, please approach the podium. i'm seeing no public comment on the motion. commissioner walker, how do you vote? yes, mr. walker is yes. commissioner benedicto yes. commissioner benedicto is yes. commissioner yanez. yes. commissioner janez is yes. and vice president carter overstone yes. vice president carter overstone is yes. you have four yeses. line item five chief's report discussion weekly crime chans and public safety concerns provide an overview of offenses, incidents or events occurring in san francisco have an impact on public safety commission discussion on unplanned events and activities that chief describes will be limited to determining whether to calendar for a future meeting. chief scott, thank you so much. thank you, sergeant youngblood. good evening, vice president carter overstone commission executive director henderson and the public going to start off this week's report with just a general overview of crime part

one crime. anyway, serious crime . we are 5% below where we were this time last year. and overall, part one crime that is a difference of roughly 1900 crimes. fewer than this time last year. but the breakdown between property and violent crime still is pretty pronounced with our property crime actually down 5, which is almost 2000 crimes fewer. and our violent crime up 2, which is about 100 and about 100 crimes more than we had this time last year. specific to violent crime, our homicide are even with where they were this time last year, which is a bit of good news considering we've been above where we were this time last year. most of the year our homicide clearance rate is 75. actually, it's a little higher than that because we just made an arrest today of a homicide that occurred on august 29th in the richmond district with the liquor store clerk that was

assaulted by a robber at. and i just want to also say this. i attended a community meeting in that district a week or two ago, and i know the public was asking where we were on that investigation and there were some some questions and comments because we did get information from the public. that's helpful . and i would encourage anybody that has any information on with a homicide or any other unsolved crime in the city of san francisco, please, please forward that information to us. you know, we see a lot of stuff on social media, but it's really helpful when we get information that can help us lead to the identity and ultimately the arrest of individuals and hopefully the prosecution. so i just want to thank the public for their interest in that case and please keep the information coming. so with that, there were no fatal shootings this week. no, no homicides this week. we

had two nonfatal shootings causing injuries to two victims. this week. overall, for the year, another piece of slightly good news, we are down on our shootings. we've been up most of the year. so we're down just 1% on our nonfatal shootings year to date. our homicides with firearms are also down by 4. it's only a difference in one crime, but it's still a reduction. and we'll take it in terms of gun recoveries. we have recovered 823 firearms were seized this year. that's compared to 805 this time last year. so it's a slight increase. our ghost guns as of the 823 112 are ghost guns compared to 115 this time last year. slight decrease a couple of incidents. i want to highlight. there were and some of these were good outcomes as far as arrests, assault on sworn officer in a in the suspect was in a suspected

stolen vehicle. there was an arrest on this case. this was at golden gate and hyde and the tenderloin on september 27th at 138 in the morning, tenderloin and chp officers located a reported stolen vehicle at the location while attempting to detain the suspect in marked vehicles. the suspect rammed the chp vehicle, then attempted to ram the sfpd vehicle. a pursuit was initiated as the vehicle fled and it terminated at the dead end of venice and mcdowell , a suspect was arrested. minor damage to the chp vehicle. thankfully, no other people, no people were were hurt in this incident that resulted in an arrest. there was a incident that happened at shaw's candy on west portal avenue on that same day, 927 at 1:42 p.m. this involved a suspect basic likely that assaulted an elderly worker in the shaw's candy store car.

when the officers arrived and bystanders had detained the suspect. and we were again grateful to have the assistance of the public on this case. officers from taraval station responded to the 100 block of west portal avenue regarding an assault in progress. the investigation determined that a male suspect had assaulted the victim without provocation and caused her to fall to the sidewalk. took a coworker of the victim, ran to the aid of the assaulted victim and was also assaulted by the suspect as the suspect pushed the coworker into her retail establishment while inside the store, the suspect assaulted an additional victim in an elderly female customer, which caused her to fall to the ground during the salt work at a nearby business witnessed the victims being attacked and ran to their aid. the witness held the suspect to prevent him from further assaulting victims, but was also assaulted by the suspect, which caused him to release his hold suspect fled from the store, but was followed by additional witnesses and bystander who detained him as

the officers arrived, they observed the suspect being detained. officers developed probable cause based on the investigation and arrested the 39 year old suspect, but transported him to the san francisco county jail, where he was booked for four counts of assault, likely to produce great bodily injury and elder abuse. three victims were treated and released by the medics at scene, and one victim was transported to the hospital for non life threatening injuries. again thank you to the members of the public who bravely intervened. i would just caution members of the public to please do that carefully and safely, but we definitely appreciate people looking out for their neighbors and without them, the arrests would not have been as quick as it was. there was a assault and attempted murder at the on the 600 block of powell on 928 september 28th at 3:48 p.m, officers responded to a burglary

call, which was then upgraded to a verbal dispute between the victim. the victim and a neighbor. the victim advised that the neighbor broke into her apartment and trashed it. the suspect then confronted the victim inside her apartment and attacked the victim with a hammer. the also the subject also swung a knife toward the victim, but did not make contact. the victim was treated at scene. officers arrive and arrested the suspect. there were a couple of other very good arrests here. but in the interest of time, i just want to say that out to the public, please keep the engagement and the information coming in. our officers or doing some good work out there, working with the public to try to hold people accountable when they commit crimes. and we will continue to do that at as far as the other issues for the week, we had one hit and run collision which resulted in a fatality. this one was a high profile because there

was a hit and run and then that victim was then hit by an oncoming cruise. self-driving vehicle, an and transported to the hospital. the victim was and later succumbed to her injuries. the driver of the initial hit and run vehicle is still outstanding in this case is under investigation. so again, if you have any information about this case, (415)!a575-444. there were no driving weekends, events this past weekend. and this week is fleet week. so we have a lot of our armed forces personnel in the city enjoying the city fleet week is all about preparation, though. so there's a lot of exercises between the public safety departments, the state and the coast guard and others during fleet week and it's all about being prepared for big events when they occur and working together. so i want to thank you, thank the members of the armed services who are here in our city. the department

of emergency management, who really plays a huge role in coordinating fleet week. and we hope that people, when they're out this weekend, be safe, be vigilant. if you see something, please report it. and the blue angels, which is a huge attraction, will draw a lot of people this weekend. the last thing is senator feinstein, services are tomorrow. she was lying in state in city hall today. the san francisco police department, the san francisco sheriff's office, the fire department along with members of the senator, staff, all stood in in formation as her coffin was carried into city hall today. so, again, we will be deployed as far as the security for that service tomorrow. and we want to make sure as much as we can that the senator is given the appropriate sendoff with the respect and dignity that she deserves with the service that

she has put in to this city and this county and our nation. so that is it for my reports. chief, thank you for the report . just wanted to follow up on on our conversation action and action on on the preemptive preemptive use of spike strips after the commission on clara ified. what was always true that that officers are permitted to use spike strips preemptively. you noted that you might issue additional guidance on that. and i just wanted to ask you if that guidance has been issued. it it has been issued. it was issued as promised. the commission meeting was on wednesday. it was issued that friday. okay. thank you. thank you. and then i think i saw that supervisor melgar called a hearing on the state of the workplace for women at sfpd . i don't know if that hearing is yet to be scheduled, but i would just ask that any if there is a response, a letter to the

to the board of supervisors or any other kind of documents or correspondence, if that could be shared with the commission. an this is an issue that's also of interest to me. i think you remember, chief, i invited the maureen mcgoff to come speak to the commission on how to increase its recruitment of women officers and would just love to be kept abreast of whatever correspondence there is between the department and the board. i'd last i just wanted to i try not to do this every week, but i want to check in on the state of our push to arrest drug users and just wanted to check in if the staffing is the same and if you do have the updated arrest numbers. yes, the staffing is the same and i do actually have the arrest numbers . staffing is the same as it was from the last police commission.

police commission meeting. and while you get the arrest numbers , just to make sure i have it right, the staffing is, if i recall, eight officers and a sergeant that do four, ten hour days. then another crew that does is makes it a seven day week. so fills in the other three days doing, i guess, a total of 30 hours. and then there's a night crew in the tenderloin that spends some unspecified percentage of their time arresting drug users. is that right? that is correct. and there are other there are other resources that are working. the tenderloin, we have a team of officers, i believe it's four, who spend the majority of their time with fugitive recovery efforts, people with warrants. most of those warrants are narcotics related warrants, but not limited to that. also are our narcotics unit spends the majority of their work working these cases in the tenderloin and soma. those are our investigators that do the

narcotics investigations. so those resources are pretty consistent. those personnel are pretty consistent. and if we need to surge resources, depending on what the issue of the day is, we also do that as well. and sorry, just to clarify, the narcotics unit, they're not only working on the drug users, they're working on investigating drug dealers as well. right. most almost all of their work is drug dealers. the narcotics unit. okay. it's all in. but for purposes of my question, i'm just want to just be able to tease out what we're spending on on arresting drug users specifically me. and let me let me clarify then the 1 in 8 that works, the pretty much the day shift, they work some swing type of hours, but pretty much the day shift their primary focus is the users is the night . one and eight. they do a combination because there's a lot going on at night. so they

arrest some users, but a lot of their work is actually drug dealers and other things, other crimes. they arrest robbery suspects. they've arrest, assault, suspect. so just kind of depends on what's going on in the area that they're assigned to. and they're also so occasionally officers when they're not assigned permanently, but we have details that come in when the one and eight are off in the daytime to work. the assigned area that we're focused in. so that's not a permanent assignment, but we do do that as well. okay, great. thanks and so to be clear then, is there another 1 in 8 crew that does is the other three days of the week that the primary one and eight crew can't cover or. no, not permanently. that's where the other crew comes in, depending on what's going on in the city to relieve to fill that gap. but that's not a permanent assignment. understood okay. thank you. that's helpful. and then and then do you have the arrest numbers today? yes i do. in

terms of drug users, since may 29th and these are for health and safety code. 11 three 5011 five 5011 377 and 11 364 there have been 582 total arrests since this since may 29th. and of those, do we know how many have accepted services? i don't know. i know at least one has, but. well, last time there were actually two. the number was 467 . last i asked you and two of the 467 had accepted services. yeah. so some of these cases are being well, the people that have engaged with our service providers, they don't at least one of the ones you mentioned, it wasn't that they accepted service at the time of the arrest, but case management follow up, i'm told that they did finally accept services. so

but everybody is offered it. okay. thank you. that's that's helpful. and then i think, was it august that we had the record all time record for fentanyl overdoses? i'm not sure. okay. i think i think we made a tied our all time record. i guess i'll just i'll ask you again when do you think these resource his these substantial resources we're expending arresting drug users could be better used elsewhere for example investigating and arresting drug dealers or doing the kind of blocking and tackling policing that we're just not doing right now, like traffic enforcement and foot patrols. at what point do we say this investment? it has not been a success. yes. and we have to now put the resources where they're actually going to improve people's lives. well i don't let me devil's i think about three questions there, so i'll try to make sure i don't miss any. i don't believe that

it's. a fair statement to say that this is not working, because what we don't know is how many of those people who were arrested may have overdosed . what i do know is with these efforts and most of this is in the tent. well, all of this is in the tenderloin. we've had 81 reversals, actually, 139 are reversed. no, 81 reversed. of people who were owed an and if those officers weren't out there engaging with this population of people who can say whether those people will still be around. so i don't believe that that's a fair and accurate depiction of the situation. an and say it's not working. we don't that number may be substantially higher if we weren't doing this. we don't know that. and it's hard to measure what you prevent

. the other part of this is, is in my professional opinion, you know, there's two sides to this market. there's the supply and there's the demand, and then there's everything in between with all the people who are involved. but aren't suppliers and aren't users. but they're involved in this in this market . and we have to we have to address all of it. and we're constantly and consistently looking for better ways. the engagement with our social services, with this particular operation is really, i think, going very well in terms of the collaboration and coordination on and we'll see where that leads today is october the fourth. there's a service that's starting today called tenderloin , where officers and others will be able to actually call people and people who are on the streets using intoxicated if they're willing to go to

services. some of those people will will go and this is a nonprofit that will pick them up and take them and take them to services. so that's a hopefully we'll get us further down the road with people who are accepting help. the point that i'm trying to make without being too long winded here is i don't think it's a fair statement to say it's not working. what we do know is we've arrested over 500 people or whatever the number i just read, i think it's 500 or so people and those people were interrupted from using drugs on the street or being highly intoxicate, dated. you walk around the city, so i'm sure you see the same things that we all see. and i know you've gone on ride alongs. i would invite you to go out there with us. i've been out there all hours of the night and people are in bad shape and there's nobody out there but the police to deal with this. nobody. so when we engage and we arrest the person that's using fentanyl, because most of this is fentanyl arrest or somebody who can't get up off the sidewalk because they're so

intoxicated, i don't think it's fair to say that that's a failure because the person didn't accept service, because the people are dying on our streets and we have to engage with people. and again, i invite anybody who wants to take a crack at this with a better idea to join us. all right. thanks, chief. i won't i won't belabor it, but there are there is a better idea to it was, i think, published in 2021. the san francisco police department, the da's office and other experts sat on a blue ribbon ribbon panel. commission came up with eight recommendations for how to address a crisis like this. and we've just decided not to follow our own advice, i suppose i will i will say you want to you want to if you want to respond. i was going to try to close it out. but if you want to respond, please, you can have the last word. okay no, no, it's not about the last word. i just you know, because i was here, i sat

on in some of those discussions with the people that drafted that report. and i don't think that's an accurate statement that some of those things weren't attempted to be put in place. i don't think that document is the answer. i think there are some things in there that are good. but but here's here's my criticism of that document. yeah, there is a couple of lines about the role of the police department. there are a couple of lines. and that's a problem because, you know, for those people that say, you know, this is not a criminal justice issue, this is not a police issue, i think is a grave mistake. we have to work with all these other service providers, public health, social service providers and we all have a little bit of a stake in this, some more than others. but i've been critical of that since day one. you know, work with us, not against us. and, you know, if policing is not the answer, then let's try something else. but in the meantime, as i said,

when i'm out there at 2:00 in the morning and our officers are out there at 2:00 in the morning, i have yet to see any of those folks who are listed in that paper out there. i've yet to see that. okay. except for the police department, the paper does outline a clear role for the department to play, including kind of clear consequences for people who sell drugs. but thank you for that, chief commissioner walker. thank you. thank you, chief, for your report. and thank thank the department for all the work that you're doing out there to this issue of. your policies and your the current department commitment to the tenderloin. and i want to commend what we're doing, because i do think i agree with you. i think it's working. i spend a lot of time in the tenderloin. i walk, i walk through south of market and tenderloin all the time. it is

much better, especially those hot zones, the seventh and mission. i mean, it's a moving target and everything is connected. the users are right in there with the dealers and you know, it's really clear to me that you need to sort of address everything all at once. i will also point out that there's no other equivalent authority. and if we're going to wait around for people to willingly get into recovery from fentanyl, we'll be having the same conversation in 20 years with less people on the street because they've overdosed. so i appreciate that the serious ness that you're giving the issue, i also was going to bring up the issue of the report on the department's lack. it's specifically around lactation areas in some of the stations and i know i've been working with supervisor melgar's office for the last few months, working on recruiting women into the force. our our conversations

have led us to really move forward some ideas around child care close to the stations. this is another issue that's of real importance, not just to women, but to, i think, everyone in the department. so anything we can do to prioritize this, i think that there's money coming even from the governor's office to aim at recruiting folks into the department. and certainly updating these lactation areas is really going to be important, especially around overtime, that we're wanting people to do so. so i want to support that. but and again, i've been in in conversation with supervisor melgar's office about this. so we will be working together more closely. anything i can do to help, chief thank you, commissioner. and i know that was one of vice president oberstar's questions. if i can just add, we are if vice president if you care, if you can agendize that we can give an update on that. actually i'm

prepared tonight, but i know it hasn't been agendized, but we can give an update on where we are and we would love to give an update because we do need to. she just did a hearing to we do need to do some work. i don't know if the hearing has been scheduled yet, but we schedule i don't i don't think it's been scheduled yet. i know she announced that she was going to. yeah, she's she's she asked for it to be scheduled specifically just an update like that. so yeah, absolutely. but we can update i'm happy to update the commission as well. commissioner yanez, thank you. acting president carter oberstein. thank you, chief, for your report on i know correlation is not causation, but it is, you know, very clear here that ever since we initiated this policing strategy, there has been an increase in overdose deaths in san francisco or well, there still an increase in overdose deaths. and there was a study that we all discussed that demonstrated that whenever these

policing practices are implemented across the nation, there is this correlation. so i think, you know, there's evidence to demonstrate that this isn't necessarily the most effective strategy. so i'd like to ask what is the outcome? the tangible kind of measure of impact that we're looking for to be able to then, you know, redirect those resources? is there a number, is there a i you know, i'm not sure what what we're looking for because we continue to pour resources forces into this approach. and it's not leading to people getting treatment. and as far as i remember, you know, incarceration does not provide the necessary treatment for people to sustain sobriety once they are released. so is there in those conversations with the people that are coordinating these efforts and outcome in mind? yeah, there is. the goal

is for people to we're talking about the people with the users , the people with substance addiction disorders. the goal is two things. number one is accountability. the accountability is an issue here . but the other thing is, we all want people to get treatment. i mean, treatment is the answer. you know, where you get that treatment and how you get that treatment or whether there is there's research on both sides of the discussion on whether, you know, compelling treatment has an impact or whether it doesn't. i'm not here to argue that one way or another. but what i'm here to say is one of the outcomes that we have to pay attention to is the people who have to live with this day in and day out. and we meet all the time with people that are the most impacted by this. and there is a lot of frustration when people who have to deal with the open air drug use, the use the

intoxication and the impacts of that. it's really demoralizing to people who have to walk through that and step through that. kids can't walk to school without having, you know, escorts and things like that that is one of the things that we're trying to make better. and now that's not necessarily we are going to be cured overnight , right? but we have to change the behavior of it being okay to just do that in in numbers that the last time i went out there at 2:00 in the morning, probably 250 people, you know, that's not okay at and whether the remedy is arrest or treatment or everything in the middle, we got to get to it somehow. but what we're trying to do is let people know that it's not okay. you know, we want you to get help, but we don't have enough rooms in our jails to arrest all those

folks, even if we wanted to. we don't have enough room. so i think we got to do a little bit of it all. has there been progress in formalizing the relationships with those placement facilities? i know you mentioned an organization. i'm not sure who they are, but are these, you know, memory randoms of understanding in place? so that there are options other than incarceration? there no mous with the police department, but that is an ongoing push to have more opportune entities for placement at and there is some bed space in our city and i know that bed space has increased it. it impacts our hospitals as i was did a tour with the psychiatric emergency services e.r. doctor at general last week. this this issue is one of

the things that has our e.r. rooms overflowing. it's this issue at and when people are left out on the streets and they end up in the e.r. rooms, it just causes i'm not a doctor. i don't pretend to be. i'm not saying i just know what i saw and i know what i heard. so there's many reasons to address this issue. and we don't want people to end up in the e.r. room when if we can get them in placement before or it becomes that type of crisis, the users, even when they are arrested, unless they have warrants, they're not getting significant jail time. usually it's a matter of hours. sometimes it's more if it's sobering, they're released. so and that's part of our challenge. well, that is that is a challenge. that's that's a real challenge. but at least there's an opportunity for somebody to reach out to them and an opportunity for case management after