Latest news with #SFPD
CBS News
a day ago
- CBS News
San Francisco police arrest 25, seize drugs in one-day Tenderloin operation
Police in San Francisco said they arrested more than two dozen people, along with seizing drugs and an illegal firearm, following a recent one-day operation in the city's Tenderloin. In a statement Wednesday, the department released details about Tuesday's action, which involved officers from multiple units and deputies from the San Francisco Sheriff's Office. "Our officers are relentlessly going after illegal drug activity in our neighborhoods, including the Tenderloin," acting police chief Paul Yep said in a statement. "Every day, we're seizing large amounts of deadly narcotics and helping improve conditions on our streets. The message is getting out that this activity is not tolerated in San Francisco." Police said officers and deputies conducted buy-bust operations along Sixth Street, the 700 block of Golden Gate Avenue, along with Grove and Hyde streets. Officers seized fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine base, heroin and an illegal firearm and made several arrests. Another group of officers, including the Fugitive Enforcement Recovery Team, made additional arrests for outstanding warrants and other drug-related charges, police said. In total, 25 arrests were made and 380 grams of narcotics were seized. "We will be relentless in our work dismantling drug markets," Mayor Daniel Lurie said on social media Wednesday following the operation. Last night @SFPD and @SheriffSF made 25 arrests and seized fentanyl, other narcotics, and a firearm during a buy-bust operation. We will be relentless in our work dismantling drug markets. — Daniel Lurie 丹尼爾·羅偉 (@DanielLurie) June 18, 2025 Police did not release the names of those arrested. Officers said Tuesday's action is part of the department's Drug Market Agency Coordination Center, a multi-agency task force targeting drug sales and use in the city's Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods. Previous enforcement actions have focused on the areas of 7th and Mission streets and United Nations Plaza. Police said enforcement efforts this year have expanded along the Sixth Street corridor in SoMa and the Mission District. Anyone with additional information about the investigation is asked to contact SFPD at 415-575-4444 or to text TIP411, beginning the message with "SFPD".
San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Failed vision': S.F. citizen body slams city, police for lack of progress on Vision Zero
A scathing new report asserted that 'critical failures' in traffic enforcement by San Francisco police in recent years have made city streets more dangerous, contributing to the city's failure to reach its goal of having zero traffic deaths by 2024 — which instead became the deadliest year in at least two decades. The 43-page report from the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury, a 19-member body of citizens that the city empanels each year, found that while SFMTA has implemented several engineering strategies to make streets safer, the sharp drop-off in traffic tickets 'has increased risks to all road users.' 'There's a sense of lawlessness on the city streets, due to the almost complete lack of enforcement in recent years,' jury chairperson Michael Carboy said in a statement. In 2024, ticket numbers rose slightly, but were still only near 2020 levels — 'when nobody was on the streets,' in the words of Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who has put pressure on SFPD to ramp up enforcement. Meanwhile, the number of traffic fatalities in San Francisco hit a high last year. The jury wrote that it was 'unclear if the high fatalities of 2024 are an outlier or a warning of what is to come.' The number of people severely injured in car crashes was also up last year, though still below pre-pandemic levels. San Francisco is not alone when it comes to increased traffic fatalities or decreased enforcement. The New York Times reported in 2023 that traffic deaths began rising in the U.S. around 2014, while they continued to fall in other wealthy countries. And in 2024, the Times reported that traffic enforcement fell across U.S. cities spanning a variety of enforcement strategies and regardless of police staffing. The Times also pointed to several societal changes contributing to more dangerous streets. Those included vehicles becoming heavier, larger and more powerful, the use of smartphones by distracted drivers and pedestrians and even the uniquely American pervasiveness of automatic transmissions, which require less attentiveness from drivers. For its part, SFPD has previously pointed to staffing shortages, increased paperwork thanks to a 2015 state law and pandemic-related changes as reasons behind the drop, though traffic unit commander Nicole Jones said in the December hearing that these factors alone could not fully explain the decline, the Chronicle previously reported. The decline in staffing from 2016 to 2022 was modest (13%) in comparison to the decline in traffic tickets (95%). In the traffic unit specifically, staffing dropped 30% over the same period, according to SFPD. The civil grand jury agreed, saying that the decline instead 'reflects a deeper cultural issue within SFPD: traffic enforcement is not prioritized or expected by leadership, and officers face no accountability for neglecting it.' 'Just like trends in crime, trends in traffic deaths and severe injuries are a police responsibility and a meaningful indicator of police effectiveness,' it said, calling for 'clear enforcement goals.' SFPD spokesperson Paulina Henderson pointed to the uptick in tickets issued so far this year as evidence of several new traffic enforcement strategies, including placing high-visibility officers at select intersections to deter bad behavior and training officers on other units to use lidar for speed detection. 'SFPD is committed to continuing increasing enforcement in the months and years to come,' Henderson said. The report did not pin all the blame on SFPD. While the jury praised SFMTA's efforts to make streets safer, including interventions like daylighting, turn restrictions, protected bike lanes and speed limit changes, it said the agency could be more efficient and proactive, rather than reacting to tragedies. Marta Lindsey, the communications director of WalkSF, a pedestrian advocacy group, said that she hopes the report inspires the city and the mayor to recommit to Vision Zero, which expired as an official policy in 2024. In her view, the findings highlight that street safety 'isn't just a one agency problem' to be shouldered by SFPD or SFMTA alone. The failure to reach zero traffic deaths 'isn't Vision Zero's fault,' she said. 'It's a failure of the execution.' The grand jury agreed. 'At the end of the Vision Zero decade, San Francisco needs to redouble its efforts to make meaningful progress on street safety,' Investigation Committee Chair Katherine Blumberg said in a statement.
CBS News
3 days ago
- CBS News
The Pink Triangle, a San Francisco Pride Month symbol, vandalized
The Pink Triangle that goes up during San Francisco Pride Month was vandalized on Tuesday, San Francisco Police said. Police said that around 12:30 p.m., police responded to Christmas Tree Point Road for a report of vandalism. When officers arrived, they found a man who was defacing the memorial. Police said he tried to run away but was arrested not long after. Police identified the suspect as 19-year-old Lester Bamacajeronimo. The Pink Triangle returns doing Pride Month and represents the insignia that Nazis gave to people they suspected were homosexuals. "With the Pink Triangle, we're just trying to remember what happened and how it ties into Pride," said founder Patrick Carney in a previous interview with KPIX. "Part of celebrating and appreciating any Pride is knowing where you've been. And this is it, this Pink Triangle. So, we have to have it here for Pride. Especially with what's happening in Washington. It really is more important than ever this year." San Francisco Police said they found evidence of vandalism tools and seized them, and that charges are pending. "San Francisco's Pink Triangle is a powerful symbol of our city's commitment to supporting LGBT rights and commemorates to victims of the past. We stand united with our LGBT community for this month and every month as we continue the fight for equality."
CBS News
3 days ago
- CBS News
San Francisco's "Vision Zero" failing, more SFPD traffic enforcement needed, grand jury says
A new report released by the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury finds the city's "Vision Zero" program, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths, is falling far short of its goal. The report, titled "Failed Vision: Revamping the Roadmap to Safer Streets", was released on Tuesday. Implemented in 2014, the Vision Zero program sought to eliminate all traffic fatalities in the city in 10 years. A decade later, 2024 was the deadliest year on the city's roadways since 2007. Jurors found while the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has implemented a range of measures increasing safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, the San Francisco Police Department has drastically reduced its enforcement of traffic laws since the program was implemented a decade ago. "There's a sense of lawlessness on the city streets, due to the almost complete lack of enforcement in recent years," foreperson Michael Carboy said in a statement. "This report highlights how excessive speeding and reckless driving of a few increases risks to everyone—pedestrians, bicyclists and other people in cars." The report found the number of traffic citations issued by SFPD dropped by 95%, from more than 120,000 in 2014 to a little over 4,000 in 2022, before increasing to 15,500 last year. "Through numerous interviews, the Jury found that the primary reason for the stunning drop in citations is that police leadership does not prioritize traffic enforcement and does not hold officers accountable for performing what has historically been a part of an officer's day-to-day job. Over time, this lack of prioritization and accountability has metastasized into a seemingly broad acceptance within the SFPD culture that traffic enforcement is not a valued part of an officer's job. The result is the virtual abdication by SFPD of its essential role in keeping our streets safe," the report said. The jurors also found the department has outdated technology for issuing traffic citations, leading officers to issue handwritten tickets and wasting staff time. Jurors issued several recommendations to SFPD including urging the police chief to implement more stringent traffic enforcement and to expedite the deployment of improved technology for issuing citations and reporting crashes. The police department is also being urged to implement a training program to educate officers about the toll of traffic collisions, the importance of enforcement and the highest-risk violations of the traffic code. The grand jury also issued recommendations to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to improve its planning on traffic safety measures and to adopt an "area-based" approach rather than focus on individual intersections or corridors. In addition, the jury also called for the SFMTA to develop a new street safety education campaign for all road users, which includes working with the San Francisco Unified School District on materials aimed at children.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
Crash flips taxi on its roof in San Francisco
(KRON) — A Friday morning vehicle collision flipped a Flywheel taxi on its roof in San Francisco. Man keyed several cars, fled in vehicle with no plates: Walnut Creek PD The San Francisco Police Department said its officers responded to the incident at 10:28 a.m. in the area of Fell Street and Van Ness Avenue. SFPD located the driver of the vehicle along with three passengers at the scene, and provided treatment until medics arrived. At this time, San Francisco PD do not believe drugs or alcohol played a role. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. Anyone with information on the case is encouraged to call the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text TIP411, starting the message with 'SFPD.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
