Results tagged “sfpd”

Assuming the seat vacated by Theresa Sparks, who stepped down to become human rights commissioner, former Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer was sworn in yesterday as the City's first second openly gay male police commissioner. Hammer was approved by a unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, and will serve the remainder of Sparks' term which ends April 30, 2011.

On Halloween night of the first year that the Halloween kibosh began in the Castro, 2007, KRON 4 provided this coverage from the scene. There is an amusing bit with a very drunk woman face-down in the street, as well one indignant nun who would like everyone to know (perhaps including the police) that "this is our neighborhood!" (meaning the gays'). For more on what went down in 2006, see this article here.

Via B.K.: "Just witnessed on 21: young teen girl snatches something outa the hands of a lady and runs off the bus. The lady, screaming, runs after the girl. This never happens, but we all see the little thief run right into 3 SWAT team looking cops who were standing around drinking coffee (no donuts). They have her on the ground in a sec. What did she steal? The lady's iPhone. Overhear guy saying his friend steals about two a day & that purses are so 1990's. All victims sit close to the door. So obviously, the lesson is, if you're gonna use your iPhone on the bus, carry a gun too =)"

We've always wondered whether BART was as likely a terror target as the New York City subway system, and always suspected that no, it isn't. But you may have noticed some stepped up security patrols on trains, complete with bomb sniffing dogs, the likes of which we haven't seen since around October/November 2001.

Police arrested two suspects a few hours after three men were shot at Papa Potrero's Pizza at 24th Street and Potrero Ave around 4 p.m. yesterday afternoon. Two of the men died from their wounds, and the third victim is reported as not having life-threatening injuries.

We're receiving a report of cops cracking down on cyclists running red lights and issuing tickets. The report comes from near Zuni at Van Ness and Market, and multiple cyclists have received citations in the last hour or two. Perhaps another way of beefing up the revenues of the SFPD, or a new phase in Gascon's quality-of-life campaign. Be wary out there, bikers! Traffic laws apply to you too!

Former SF pot club owner Kenneth Hayes (pictured here in 1999), whose Sixth Street dispensary, the Harm Reduction Center, was raided by federal agents in 2002, was sentenced to six months of home confinement today by a federal judge. Hayes' co-defendent, Oakland marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal got probation, despite a federal law stating that he should get at least five years in prison for supplying Hayes with his pot. Both men existed in murky legal territory, having worked with local authorities to set up their businesses and believing they were acting within the law -- just not the federal one.

Early this morning, at around 3 a.m. on Kearny and Market, a street robbery occurred, resulting in an exciting police chase throughout the streets of San Francisco. According to CBS 5/BCN, "a vehicle pursuit of the suspects was initiated, which continued until Illinois and Cesar Chavez streets. The suspect vehicle was involved in a collision, and officers were able to make arrests." Our guess is that the criminals thought they could evade the fuzz by heading over the Bay Bridge. Which is currently closed. Oops.

According to ActionNewsSF, "Tendernob standoff now has Hyde closed Sutter-Geary & Post closed Polk-Leavenworth." Please adjust your route home as you see fit.

People are crying foul after SFPD had the unmitigated gall to hand out citations to people boozing it up in Dolores Park. Drinking alcohol in San Francisco parks, as most of you know, is verboten. No matter how many shows at Amnesia you've attended. No matter how often you prattle on about the salted caramel at Bi-Rite Ice Cream Shoppe. No matter how age-inappropriate your haircut and attire is. Drinking in public is illegal.

Today, San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon will announce a newfangled way to help stop crime. It's called Text-A-Tip, and it will allow you to do just that, text a tip anonymously to the SFPD. According to NBC Bay Area, "Text-a-Tip is currently being used by police in 40 states." Whoj is magically landed in San Francisco is anybody's guess. (Oh wait, you don't have to guess. It's because of Chief Gascon, who believes in silly little things like technology and THE FUTURE.) But the best place to use Text-A-Tip, it seems, is on Muni. Police Lt. James Miller, NBC Bay Area goes on to report, "told commissioners at a recent meeting that the program will be especially helpful for Muni passengers who want to report a crime without drawing attention to themselves." So, the next time teen thugs are mugging someone while everybody looks on, please take a picture of said thugs (provided they have picture-receiving capabilities) and send it to Text-a-Tip. (We'll update as soon as we get a police agency ID number. Which, yeah, would be helpful.)

During a VIP tour of San Francisco's Historic Tenderloin District, new San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón was rendered flummoxed -- especially after a drug deal went down right before his very eyes. (Whoops.) Anyway, his main goal for San Francisco? To "make San Francisco the safest largest city in America." How will Gascón accomplish this feat of metropolitan comfort? reports, "He said he hopes to make the 'first cut' on reorganizing the department within 90 days. To do so, he will dispatch detectives, most of whom now work at the Hall of Justice, to district stations. He also intends to combine the patrol and investigations functions, which are now headed by separate deputy chiefs, under a single operations command." He will also hold public meetings where city's district stations will "be questioned about crime trends."

After City Attorney Dennis Herrera asked the city to shutdown Heaven Mini Theatre for performing lapdances without the proper permits (not to mention allowing prostitution inside its doors, just like every other SF hoochie-coochie establishment), the club owner is crying foul. Peter Lambertson claims that his North Beach club is being targeted since they're not playing ball with supposed SFPD blackmailing tactics and city-sanctioned kickback requests.

San Francisco's newest beacon of hope, George Gascón, starts his first day as the city's police chief, forcing journalists throughout the Bay Area to learn how to use the accent mark feature. What are Gascón's plans for hotheaded San Francisco? Well, according to , he wants to "implementing CompStat, a statistics-driven computer program that will help determine crime trends and deployment; improving the homicide clearance rate by sending some detectives to work at district stations; improving ties with the community; changing the way officers are disciplined; and requiring that sergeants give their officers daily missions." In related news, Gascón (who is here sans contract) might not be here for long, since the more desirable LA police chief gig has recently become available.

A heroin smuggling ring that involved transporting hundreds of kilos at a time hidden in train engines and compartments has been busted up by federal authorities, as announced yesterday by Acting U.S. Attorney Larry Brown. The heroin operation first came to the attention via two undercover cops in SF's Tenderloin, who ultimately helped trace the drugs back to Michoacan, Mexico, from whence they were smuggled in trains through Southern California, up the Central Valley, and ultimately being sold in SF, Oakland and East Palo Alto. The operation, codenamed "Operation City Commuter," uncovered 200kg of the good stuff and $670,000 in cash, and the whole ring was estimated at over $17M. So remember to take pity when you see those smack kids (who all have dogs, by the way) asking for change: their heroin just got a lot more expensive.

Streetsblog SF reported today that SFPD has issued a rare press release for the hit and run involving cyclist Andrew Bennett and his 4-year-old son while riding a bike with a tandem extension, which occurred at 18th and Valencia on July 1st. Bennett fractured his spine, but his son was not injured.

According to first word on the scene, this morning’s BART delays were due to an underground pursuit. It seems police officers chasing a suspect on the tracks between the 16th street and Civic Center stations lead to system-wide delays. Nail-biting! Power on the tracks were shutdown temporarily to let the fuzz safely run after the rapscallions. No word yet as to why the chase was all about. SFAppeal goes on to report that "as of 7:45, service had resumed, but BART anticipates delays in excess of 20 minutes for lines that pass through the Mission-Civic Center set of stops."

We all laughed at Deborah Perez. We all chuckled when she (and her batshit insane lawyers) held a press conference at the SF Chronicle building to announce, among other things, that Perez helped write the Zodiac Killer's letters, stitch his masks, and go with him on his murder sojourns. We chortled when she said that her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, was the famous killer. We were all, 'duuuude, what?' when claims came out that Perez might have thought at one time that she was JFK's biological daughter.

Dragging someone new into the force, Mayor Gavin Newsom went all the way to Phoenix, Arizona to get our new chief of police. The dramatically accent-marked George Gascón, who was the police chief of Mesa, will replace retiring Heather Fong. Defending his decision to go outside the police force to find a new top cop, Mayor Newsom told SF Chron, "I know going outside is a risk ... But he is a nuts-and-bolts-type of chief, a cop's cop and very active in community policing." A few of the goals Newsom has in store for the new chief? Using some sort of computerized high-tech super system for "spotting crime trends," increasing "the crime clearance rate," and bolstering the "morale of rank-and-file officers."

Deborah Perez, the quite possibly sanity-estranged woman who claimed that the Zodiac Killer was her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, will face police questioning on Wednesday. According to reports, "San Francisco police Lt. Michael Staskos has reportedly received information from forensic experts who say handwriting, psychological and DNA evidence link Perez to her involvement in the Zodiac case." Just what the San Francisco Police Department expects to glean from her is anyone's guess. In addition to dramatically announcing that her father was the man who terrorized the Bay Area in the 70s, Perez could also be former president John F. Kennedy's daughter as well.

First, the good news: Mayor Gavin Newsom picked a new police chief, one that will follow Heather Fong, who announced her retirement last December.

Who knows? Last night the Police Commission nominated three SFPD chief applicants for Mayor Gavin Newsom, who will make the final decision as to who will replace Chief Heather Fong. But the names of the candidates, sadly, will not be revealed -- never ever, most likely. According to Commission President Theresa Sparks, "The names are to be disclosed, probably never," thus making it impossible to photoshop the candidates' heads onto the shot of ANTM's final three at right. Sparks would also not confirm if the chosen three included both external and internal candidates. Now we wait for Newsom to make his

Good news for the gays: Negotiations between the police and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence moved forward last week and after agreeing to a reduction in the number of beer concessions (from 8 to 5), the two parties came to an agreement about Pink Saturday in the Castro. This follows on our earlier report about cops not wanting to agree to beer concessions at all outside of beer gardens, and the Sisters threatening to back out of the event altogether. Pink Saturday, for those who don't know, is the annual drunken block party that happens the Saturday night before Gay Pride on Castro Street, following the Dyke March. This will be the first year it features actual beer concessions, as well as DJs, a "Dyke Landing" and "Fairy Freedom Village," and a performance stage sponsored by 92.7.

Patrick Wolf, who is some sort of British pop star singer, was arrested in San Francisco last night. Thankfully, he Twittered the entire thing for your enjoyment.

The family and friends of Hugues de la Plaza, the 36-year-old French San Francisco resident whose homicide two years ago was wrongly deemed a suicide by SFPD -- until the French authorities came to town and showed them what's up, are continuing their fight to get SFPD to admit they're bumbling idiots.

According to Peter Jamison at , the SF Board of Supervisors plan to serve up a controversial (and, ultimately, benign) resolution that would ask for charges to be dropped against the San Francisco Eight, "a group of allegedly violent former radicals who police say are responsible for the murder of San Francisco Police Sgt. John V. Young in 1971." While it's too soon to figure out exactly which supervisors and how many will stick their name on the thing, supes Eric Mar and Sophie Maxwell are apparently both sponsoring the legislation, with Mar taking the lead. Jamison goes on to report, "The move is sure to stoke anger among police officers, whose union, the San Francisco Police Officers Association, has actively sought prosecution in the case, which had seen little movement for decades before charges were brought against the men two years ago." Please standby for very, very angry declarations from SFPD officers.

Isaac Mckay Randozzi and Dave Schubert, walked past the dollar store on the corner of Mission and 17th, when...

Coming to you from dynamic duo Matier Ross, our favorite platonic couple have word on what retiring San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong will pull in annually after she vacates her position. Ahem:

Crazy-acting, "curvy" lesbians with face tattoos getting arrested at prop 8 protests be damned. We love the SFPD today. Why? Because of this story. See, according to SF Weekly, a "frantic" man flagged down an officer, "beside himself over his lost cat, 'Fluffy.'" And if you love pets like members of your family, you relate to Fluffy's papa. (In fact, you might even lose sleep on a regular basis worrying whether or not your cat may one day runaway, escape while you're on vacation, get lost during a post-earthquake evacuation, or worse. Also, more likely than not, you might be chronically single because of this perfectly natural obsession.) Missing for over a month (no!), the man heard his cat howling from inside an abandon house in the Taraval hood,and the police officer went into action. The SFPD cop, Patrice Scanlan, "phoned Animal Control -- but was informed that the service couldn't spare anyone at the moment. So she called a locksmith, who popped the house's rusted lock," soon thereafter finding the cat cowering "under the oven in an upstairs kitchen" (weep, weep), thus making the world a better place. So, congratulations, SFPD Officer Patrice Scanlan. You are officially an awesome human being for life.

Egads, this sounds awful. In yet another why reason teenagers should be handled with cattle prods and crammed with psychoactives at all times, a man was alleged beaten and robbed by a most vile gaggle of teenagers in the Mission yesterday. According to Mission Mission, here's what happened.