SF Mayor Breed deploys sheriff as emergency unit to tackle drug crisis
The San Francisco sheriff unveiled plans Thursday to deploy an emergency team in the Tenderloin and SoMa this month to arrest drug dealers and compel people using drugs into treatment, stepping up a controversial effort by Mayor London Breed to confront the city’s fentanyl crisis.
The unit consists of 130 deputies, deployed in squads of eight and working on overtime for six months, starting at the end of June. The department would not say how many squads would be on the streets at any given time, citing a need to protect operational security.
State and local law enforcement agencies citywide have already stepped up enforcement against people dealing and using drugs. The sheriff's department said Thursday that it tracked 58 arrests from multiple agencies under six health and safety codes related to public intoxication and drug possession in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods since May 30. All but one were also arrested for more serious crimes, the department said.
Under the new deployment, deputies will arrest people selling drugs to eradicate open-air dealing, and help people using drugs into treatment, said Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, flanked by dozens of deputies and city officials at a Thursday morning news conference outside City Hall. In some cases, they will arrest people on the streets who are struggling with addiction and breaking laws. Miyamoto said the goal is to get them into services and treatment.
“In many cases, individuals suffering from drug addiction only seek help when they hit their lowest point, and the sad truth for many is that the low point is incarceration. When we remove the low point, we may be doing more harm than good by allowing them to continue,” he said.
“We are not advocating for harsher punishments or increased incarceration for those struggling with harmful choices,” he said. “While it’s an unpopular stance to take -- arresting and putting people in jail -- it can be a critical gateway to help the needs and needs to be a part of the multi-pronged approach.”
“Jails do not need to be about punishment. They can be a place of compassion and accountability,” he said to applause from other officials.
While some city residents and business owners welcome enforcement, criminal justice advocates and public health experts have slammed the approach of coerced treatment, citing research showing it is ineffective in getting people diagnosed with addiction into recovery, as well as harmful, with short jail stays leading to a higher risk of post-release overdoses. People who study the issue and treat people with substance use disorder said the city should invest instead in interventions proven elsewhere to save lives, such as supervised drug consumption sites.
Of the 58 people arrested for breaking public intoxication or drug possession laws over the past week, 25 were Latinos, 23 white, nine Black and one American Indian. Just over half self-reported as homeless, 24% reported residences outside the country, 21% were San Francisco residents and the remaining 2% unknown, the sheriff's department said.
Miyamoto said jail inmates have access to medical, mental health and drug treatment run by the city’s health department. But Public Defender Crystal Carpino last week was critical of incarceration results, saying her clients often are “suffering a pretty wild detox on their own” in custody, which can delay court appearances.
Separately from the new sheriff's squads, S.F. police are implementing Breed’s similar new “Intoxication Detention pilot program” – in which officers arrest and cite people on drugs who are causing self-harm or violence under public intoxication laws. Those arrested are jailed for a few hours and offered drug treatment upon release. If they’re arrested three times, they face criminal charges or diversion into treatment through an alternate court.
Police Chief Bill Scott told the Chronicle on Thursday that the department has devoted eight officers and a sergeant to the effort.
“We have to turn around in our city the mindset that if I have a substance disorder I can just go to any public sidewalk and public place and use,” Scott said.
The mayor's office said that of the 25 individuals arrested in the first week under that S.F. effort, none accepted drug treatment after release. For now such arrestees are being taken to jail, pending opening of a new, not-yet-confirmed detention location planned by the mayor, officials said.
The city’s pilot program will be managed by police and the emergency management and health departments in a new, joint command center the city plans to set up Monday on Market Street near the Civic Center, to tackle drug activity.
The sheriff said his new deployment will provide prisoner transport wagons for police, and support compliance of criminal defendants released from jail on ankle monitors and plainclothes service deputies serving warrants.
The new push is being undertaken as both the police and sheriff struggle with understaffing and unfilled vacant positions. Miyamoto acknowledged Thursday that the deployment would strain his department, which is currently staffed at 76% of its positions. Scott, in an interview with The Chronicle on Thursday, justified the priority on drug misdemeanors saying that people's lives were on the line.
Miyamoto was joined Thursday by Scott, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, Emergency Department Director Mary Ellen Carroll and San Francisco Supervisors Matt Dorsey, Joel Engardio, Ahsha Safaí and Catherine Stefani. Breed was not present because of scheduling conflicts, her office said.
Supervisor Dean Preston, who represents the Tenderloin, tweeted this week that arresting and jailing drug users “repeats the failed war on drugs and it does serious harm.” He expressed outrage that officials would support such approaches, instead proposing non-police public safety interventions. Preston was not available to comment Thursday on the sheriff's newly detailed plans.
San Franciscans across the political spectrum agree the city is facing a crisis: More than 200 people already died from overdoses in the city this year, with a 41% increase in the first three months compared to the same time period in 2022. But many do not agree on the solutions.
Experts and critics argue criminalizing addiction will only make a public health crisis worse by driving drug users to secret, more risky behavior. They point to research out this week that showed increased overdoses occurring near where drug arrests occurred. But the mayor and law enforcement leaders, supported by some advocates for abstinence, say accountability is needed. They highlight examples of people who gained sobriety through the criminal justice system.
And Scott emphasized Thursday: “We're not trying to drive this indoors, what we're trying to do is change behavior.”
People who use drugs or work with those who do say harm reduction keeps people alive until they are able or ready to access treatment, and the city has too few treatment beds on demand to serve the unhoused population struggling with mental illness and addiction.
They argue the city must invest more in proven solutions. Last year, Breed opened an unofficial supervised drug consumption site in an aid center where staff reversed more than 300 overdoses. Overdoses rose after the center closed.
“Are we really giving people options? Are we genuinely funding services that people need?” said Curtis Bradford, a Tenderloin community activist who is in recovery. “Enforcement is very limited in its capacity to help people change. Forcing people into treatment doesn’t work.”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
