In a move that will hopefully quiet critics who say that cops ignore the crime-ridden Tenderloin, the SFPD along with the Sheriff's Department and California State Parole Agents conducted a five-hour sweep of the Tenderloin on Wednesday that resulted in 44 arrests. The operation, part of the department's Interrupt, Predict, and Organize (IPO) strategy, was launched due to the large number of wanted parolees believed to be in the area.

Everyone knows that much of the Tenderloin is, on a typical weekday, an open-air drug market, an insane asylum, a gathering place for the indigent, and one gigantic halfway house. But it turns out the SFPD knows it too! They arrested 13 people on parole violations, 29 on felony charges or warrants, and 15 on misdemeanor charges or warrants. This must have required a number of vans.

The department's Violence Reduction Team led the operation.

[BCN/Appeal]