After 2 Raids, SF Police Say They’ll Follow Drug Markets From Block to Block

After two late-night San Francisco police raids in recent days targeting drug users and dealers in public places, Police Chief Bill Scott said his officers will follow the problem where it’s the worst.

The raids netted nearly 90 arrests combined — most of them for non-drug-related violations — at Jefferson Square Park and the BART plaza at 16th and Mission streets. Both locations have had more people selling and using drugs as police cracked down on the Tenderloin, raising criticism from some residents and elected officials that the issue was merely being shuffled from one area to another.

Scott acknowledged the shifting nature of the issue but said the SFPD’s plan is to be consistent in arrests from neighborhood to neighborhood.

“Our strategy is to go where the problem is and try to prevent the problem from becoming a bigger problem,” he said at a Thursday evening public safety town hall meeting. “We cannot allow what happened in the Tenderloin to happen anywhere else in the city, where we had 20, 30, 40 drug dealers on multiple corners just having their way.”

The comments come over a week after 84 people were arrested in the raid at Jefferson Square Park in the Western Addition. Most of those were cited for loitering, according to Police Department data, and only three were arrested on suspicion of dealing drugs.

Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, whose district borders the park, called the operation “pretty amazing” at Thursday’s town hall.

The raid at 16th and Mission streets on Wednesday night only resulted in four arrests and the seizure of 28.5 grams of narcotics, according to the SFPD.

The two raids are part of a multi-agency effort between the Sheriff’s Department, the Police Department and the Department of Public Works.

But the operation’s efficacy — and the SFPD’s overall block-by-block approach to drug market enforcement — has raised concerns. Supervisor Jackie Fielder said this week that she plans to call a hearing at next week’s Board of Supervisors meeting to reassess the city’s approach. She is urging the use of Zurich’s “Four Pillars Strategy,” which makes use of law enforcement, drug prevention, treatment and harm reduction.

“People have been displaced because of enforcement actions around the city to the Mission. And [residents] want to see people get help and connected to treatment. They want to see the end of public drug use,” Fielder told KQED. “That’s why I’m calling for this hearing because we can’t take a neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach. That’s exactly how we got here. We need something comprehensive so that we’re not continuing this cat-and-mouse game.”

The Jefferson Square Park raid came after “a lot of people” who were selling or doing drugs in the Tenderloin and SoMa neighborhoods moved following pressure from law enforcement, Scott said last week.

“It just became untenable,” he said then.

Scott said increased coordination between departments, including the district attorney’s office, is part of the reason why some areas have gotten under control over the years and has helped the city deal with those who are displaced.

“The city’s coordination is better than it’s been in probably ever with all of us working together,” he said.

Scott also credited District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ office for its part in prosecuting offenders.

“These cases are being prosecuted. When they go to jury trials, her and her team are getting jury verdicts,” he said Thursday. “It sends a message that we’re not going to tolerate this in our city,”

In 2021, San Francisco had only three felony convictions for drug dealing cases, Jenkins said at Thursday’s town hall.

“We are up to about 70% of our convictions for drug dealing that are felonies,” she said. “We are not backing down.”