C.L.A.E.R. Addresses Excessive Police Activity in Visitacion Valley

MEMORANDUM

TO: George Gascon, Chief, San Francisco Police Department
San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education
San Francisco Board of Supervisors

FROM: Sharen Hewitt, Executive Director, C.L.A.E.R Project

RE: Excessive Violence and Police Presence in Visitacion Valley with a Lack of
Matching Mental Health Resources

DATE: September 17, 2009

Last spring, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) made several recommendations for the San Francisco Police Department’s Ingleside Police District. As a result, in April 2009, the Ingleside District entered into Phase 1 Station Implementation of the PERF recommendations, and police activity district increased dramatically.

On 9/17/09 Visitacion Valley residents experienced a number of alarming incidents that need immediate attention from all local agencies, departments, and elected officials. Twice on 9/17/09, following gunshots, the area was effectively shut down by police cars and officers converging in the center of the neighborhood- from the corner of Sunnydale Ave. and Hahn St. to the corner of Sunnydale Ave. and Rey St. The problem is not that the officers were present, because they were responding with the sense of urgency that was appropriate for the situation. The problem was that the neighborhood came under siege with police activity at approximately 3:30pm, while children are getting off the bus from school, and again 6:00pm, when children are getting picked up from various childcare centers, or one of the two Boys and Girls Clubs in the area. As a result of these inopportune times, children and their parents witnessed not one, but two violent situations today. The residual impact of this violence on the children is yet to be determined or even acknowledged, as no mental health resources were directed to the scene during or after either incident.

As this letter is being written, senior citizens living in Britton Courts and Heritage Homes are in desperate need of mental health resources following today’s events. Several seniors that C.L.A.E.R. staff spoke with were scared to leave their homes because of all the police activity and escalating violence. The numerous Latino families living in this area of the neighborhood also expressed a deep need for resources, as the language barrier prevented many of them from understanding the situation happening on the other side of their window. Additionally, several of the families leaving the Sunnydale Avenue Boys and girls Club were visibility shaken.

Additionally, it should be noted that when called C.L.A.E.R. called the Department of Public Health and Mobile Crisis for emergency mental health services for residents, we were denied a promise for mental health workers on the scene due to lack of staff and resources following recent budget cuts. Mobile Crisis put a certain resident we identified on their response list for the night, but only after C.L.A.E.R. had been on the scene acting as the trigger. Until that point there had been no coordinated strategy between mental health resources and the police.

While C.L.A.E.R. understands the serious nature of apprehending someone with a weapon, we have to have find a better way of taking someone into custody that doesn’t involve officers with AK-47’s greeting children stepping off the bus. For the past eight years C.L.A.E.R. has asked for a strategy that is mindful of providing support for people being doubly victimized on crime scenes in violent neighborhoods, specifically children, seniors, and language minorities. When gunshots ring out as our children step off the bus, and residents cower in their apartments as officers stand outside with AK-47s, we must collectively come together as advocates in this glorious city and ask ourselves “what can be done?” How can we support the police while still supporting the mother’s helping their children with math homework amidst blaring sirens?

Early on in this administration, the previous Police Chief was asked to make mental health resources available immediately on the scene of any large crime scene. We ask the same of the new Police Chief, George Gascon. This type of intervention early on in an investigation makes people feel safe and more inclined to participate. C.L.A.E.R. wants to mitigate tension between the police and the community, and level the playing field so the police are able to do their job while not inadvertently estranging themselves from a community they are attempting to protect and serve.