San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
SFPD steps up MidMarket presence with office for cops walking the beat
Police who walk the beat in some of San Francisco’s most visible crime hot spots have a new downtown office in the midst of troubled Market Street.
The MidMarket Foot Beat Office, which San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Police Chief Bill Scott introduced in a Tuesday morning news conference, is on the ground floor of the Proper Hotel at 1100 Market St. between La Bande coffee shop and the Villon restaurant.
The small triangular office has its own entrance and will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily for people to file reports or meet with officers. The office doesn’t have jail cells, so police aren’t calling it a station or sub
station.
Officers who walk their beats in the MidMarket neighborhood and the Tenderloin, Central, Southern and Northern districts — as well as Municipal Transportation Agency officers — are expected to use the new outpost as a mustering spot.
Scott said the office will better integrate the department’s divisions into the area.
“This is another way for us to connect with the community,” he said. “We will have another presence here.”
Neighbors of the office include tech giants Uber and Twitter, as well as new residential developments, but it’s not uncommon to see people selling and injecting drugs or defecating on the streets.
During a visit to the office Tuesday, Breed said she hoped the officers’ increased visibility will “make a big difference” in deterring crime. The mayor added that she’s eager to change the neighborhood’s gritty reality while allowing it to remain a place for people to meet friends, shop and hang out.
“But when they cross the line and commit a crime, we have to do something about it,” Breed said. “I’m beyond frustrated with openair drug deals, people shooting up openly. Those things are a challenge. We deserve better.”
Tires fall off stolen car after driver rams Oakland police vehicles
One of the stranger car chases in recent memory ended Wednesday in Oakland when the tires fell off the vehicle attempting to get away from police.
The incident began shortly after 1 p.m. on the 2200 block of 89th Avenue when Oakland police received calls reporting a man sleeping in his car with a gun. Several police cars responded, including an armored vehicle, but the man apparently remained asleep for nearly an hour and a half despite careful efforts to roust him. When the man awoke, things kicked into high gear. Literally.
The man revved up his car and rammed into police cars before pushing past them and making a getaway, according to an account posted on social media by police spokeswoman Johnna Watson.
The short chase ended outside the Coliseum BART Station at 73rd Avenue and San Leandro Street — where, “ultimately,” Watson said, “his vehicle came to a stop.”
The reason?
“The wheels literally fell off the car — all four wheels,” Watson said in the video. “The tires melted, and the rims broke in half.
“At that time, he surrendered,” Watson said.
The man arrested is in his 20s and has an outstanding criminal warrant from the Department of Corrections, police said. The car had been reported stolen in San Francisco. The gun also was stolen, and the trunk contained stolen goods.
The suspect was not identified.
Former bodybuilding cop in Santa Clara busted for alleged disability scheme
A former Santa Clara police officer who claimed to be disabled but was seen performing rigorous workouts in a Las Vegas gym has been charged with workers’ compensation fraud — the same offense for which his wife, a former sheriff ’s lieutenant, was convicted last year, officials said.
Former Officer Kenneth Henderson, 53, retired from the police force in 2016 and moved to Las Vegas after being injured in 2015 while picking up traffic cones, according to the Santa Clara district attorney’s office. He “continued to present himself as completely disabled,” Deputy District Attorney Vonda Tracey said.
Henderson’s doctor, Tracey said, reported that Henderson appeared to be “like a stroke victim.”
The charges bear a striking similarity to those filed against Mandy Henderson, 41, formerly of the Santa Clara County Sheriff ’s Office. She was arrested in 2018 and convicted last year in connection with making false claims in connection with her own workers’ compensation claim. Like her husband, she was a competitive bodybuilder.
The Hendersons met investigators in 2018 at a Starbucks in Las Vegas, where Mandy Henderson appeared to be disabled, according to prosecutors. But soon afterward, the couple were allegedly photographed in a surveillance video working out vigorously. At that time, Kenneth Henderson was observed climbing a treadmill, using a stairclimbing machine and lifting weights, Tracey said.
Mandy Henderson was sentenced to six months of house arrest and ordered to make repayments. Kenneth Henderson faces imprisonment if convicted.
A call to his attorney was not immediately returned.
Arrest made in S.F. after burglaries hit school robotics club
A 35yearold man is accused of stealing $8,000 worth of electronics and tools from a San Francisco high school robotics team and making off with the loot in two separate burglaries over the past two months.
Police say Carlos Vallecillo of San Francisco burglarized the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts’ Cyberdragons team on Dec. 23 and Jan. 11, stealing equipment financed by student fundraising and donations.
The burglaries included several laptops,
saws, a drill press and handheld power tools, which were taken from a shed in the school’s courtyard at 555 Portola Drive, according to the team’s GoFundMe page.
After the page surpassed its original fundraising goal, team members said the surplus money will be used to find a new “secure and safe” workspace.
The San Francisco Police Department’s Burglary Detail identified Vallecillo as the suspect and arrested him on Jan. 29 near Seventh and Mission streets. He faces two counts of burglary and two counts of receiving stolen property. The nonprofit SOTA Cyberdragons team formed in 2014 as a way to encourage students interested in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — according to the organization’s website.