"The SFPD bus that had a 24/7 presence at the 16th Street BART plaza has been removed. "It used to be right here, I really liked that it was nice and clean and it's too early to say if it's going to continue like this," said Rodrigo Lopez, President of the Mission Street Vendors Association. The police command bus was deployed to the Mission neighborhood in March to deter illegal vending operations and open-air drug use, promising SFPD officers 24/7 in this hotspot."
""With the command, we feel like we had a tool, we had someone close to us in case something happened," he said. "So, if the bad actors showed up, they see the command and they would think twice before doing something." Mission Station Captain Sean Perdomo confirmed they spent 44% of their monthly overtime budget on the bus. Now business owners in the area are wondering what the plan is."
""What I want is accountability for the conditions on our streets, and accountability for the folks who are destroying themselves on our streets, and people who are doing things they shouldn't be doing on our streets." In a statement, SFPD says they are beginning a new strategy to address crime in the area by removing the bus and replacing it with more officers "in the alleyways and in front of schools.""
The SFPD mobile command unit that had a 24/7 presence at the 16th Street BART plaza has been removed after six months. The bus was deployed in March to deter illegal vending and open-air drug use and provided a visible police presence in the hotspot. Local vendors and business owners expressed concern that removal will worsen conditions and said the bus acted as a deterrent and rapid response tool. Mission Station Captain Sean Perdomo confirmed 44% of the monthly overtime budget went to staffing the bus. SFPD says a new strategy will deploy more officers in alleyways and in front of schools after community meetings.
Read at ABC7 San Francisco
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]