CHP to rejoin police saturation of violent neighborhoods

By Pat Murphy

September 1, 2006

San Francisco public safety officials yesterday decided to reintroduce California Highway Patrol (CHP) assistance in violence wracked neighborhoods with continued local police saturation among other measures to stem homicides.

Mayor Newsom detailed City violence suppression efforts following the 1:00 p.m. City Hall meeting.

"The meeting today focused on what has been working and what needs to be strengthened and what needs to be enhanced," Newsom said in a 3:30 p.m. press briefing.

"We will continue our saturation efforts for another two weeks. This is not a redeployment effort as it has been in times of the past.

"Saturation means... we are extending hours and we are increasing the number of personnel in these... hotspots. We're not moving (police) bodies out of Chinatown or out of the Sunset or out of the Richmond. We're just extending the investment in certain hotspots.

"We are going to continue our camera surveillance efforts notably in Housing Authority sites... by substantially increasing the number of cameras - this comes from the community. This is by no means top down decision making from Room 200 at City Hall."

New measures to streamline communication between City agencies and community members are being initiated, the mayor added.

"We are going to substantially improve our information sharing between Juvenile Probation, Adult Probation, the Police Department, and the rank and file out in community out in the streets.

"We are going to reintroduce Operation Impact which was our collaborative... with the California Highway Patrol in concentrated areas."

Newsom chided the media for not attending various site locations of youth response to new social support City Programs.

"It is so frustrating when you go out and do eight site visits and no one shows up (from the media), Newsom told the Sentinel.

"Now you guys show up when we were meeting on these things and notably building these collaboratives. It creates a perception that is not reality.

"That being said, there is a reality that there are too many violent crimes occurring in this City and in the Bay Area and in this county.

"It's not an excuse. We've got to figure it out, we've got to do better, and we're going to do better."

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