Police Try New Methods To Curb Crime In SF Haight
http://cbs5.com/crime/haight.street.problems.2.1360786.html
Dec 9, 2009
People across the country associate hippies and flower power with San
Francisco's Haight District. But for people who live and work in the
area, that image is far different than the current reality.
Residents say they are more likely to see late night fights, or
threatening groups of inebriates and drifters looking for drugs.
"In the 35 years that I've lived here, on the whole, its gotten
better, but things have gotten worse during the past year," said
resident Arthur Evans. "People on the street are no longer
inconvenient, they're becoming dangerous, especially at night time.
That's what worries me and my neighbors."
San Francisco police are out in force, trying a new approach to the
neighborhood's problems. Captain Teresa Barrett, the new head of the
Park Station, and Commander Jim Dudley, will try a pilot program in
the Haight.
"We're researching in our work groups. Were looking at other police
departments in other towns across the country and 'saying how have
they addressed this problem'," said Bartlett. "The site-lie law has
actually been in place in Tacoma, and now it has gone to Berkeley.
They set up specific laws and regulations that you can't just be
sitting, laying on the sidewalk."
The Haight program to prevent people from camping out on the
sidewalks, if successful, could expand city-wide to deal with street-problems.
"It's a form of trespassing, or blocking the sidewalk, where we can
actually get people into services," said Dudley. "We're still at the
brainstorming stages, and looking into the other programs and how they work."
The officers pint out that not all of the Haight's problems are with
scruffy young transients. In fact, they just busted a van of pot
dealers from Oregon who didn't fit the local stereotype. Meanwhile,
residents praise the new approach to everyday problems, at least by
the police.
"My morale is lifted by support from our local police. My morale is
not lifted by what I see from the politicians at City Hall," said
Evans. "I think the mayor, who lives just a couple blocks up the
street here, should come down sometime and talk to the shopkeepers
here and the ordinary people. But the truth of the matter is there
are more sightings of Gerry Garcia on Haight Street than Gavin
Newsom. Mr. Mayor please come down here and look at the situation."
The situation has changed a lot since 1967, and the summer of love.
.
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