San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
CHP hit for drug arrests in traffic stops
Critics of cops making traffic stops for minor infractions, in an effort to investigate motorists for more serious crimes, have denounced the California Highway Patrol for its apparent use of the technique in San Francisco to help make drug busts — at a time the city is moving away from pretextual stops.
But there was no indication from the mayor’s office or Board of Supervisors that the CHP’s efforts in the battle against open-air drug dealing in the city are unwelcome.
“When we first saw the CHP coming in, that was our fear — that they would do an end-run around our local policies and laws,” said Sara Shortt, coordinator for the Treatment on Demand Coalition. “And the second thing we feared was that this operation would cast a huge net and a lot of people would get arrested who had nothing to do with the fentanyl crisis. I don’t think making stops like this is really going to solve the problem.”
The coalition has released a statement denouncing law enforcement approaches to the city’s drug crisis, calling instead for more voluntary rehabilitation services.
The San Francisco Police Commission voted in January to limit local officers from making pretextual stops, pointing to data showing that such stops seldom prevent crime and disproportionately target people of color. The policy is still being refined in conjunction with the department and the police union and isn’t being enforced.
CHP officers told The Chronicle that they pull people over for minor infractions such as broken taillights or overly tinted windows, and may then find cause to investigate more serious offenses. CHP officials later said these are not pretexual stops.
Regardless, the CHP’s actions are resulting in more drug arrests. The agency presented 12 narcotics arrests to the San
Francisco District Attorney’s Office in May — more than the total number presented over the previous 12 months combined.
In the six weeks since a coordinated federal, state and local push began on May 1 to clamp down on San Francisco’s raging drug crisis, the CHP has seized 5.5 kilos of drugs and made 92 felony and misdemeanor arrests for alleged crimes involving guns and fentanyl — the main narcotic being targeted — among other charges such as domestic abuse and driving under the influence, the governor’s office reported.
Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents the South of Market area being focused on along with the Tenderloin, said he welcomed the CHP’s action because it’s getting results. “The CHP has independent authority and right now, if they’re showing progress on getting drug dealers off the streets, I’m for it,” Dorsey said. “My only ask is — can we have more?”
San Francisco defines pretextual stops as occurring “when a member conducts a traffic stop as a pretext to investigate whether the person stopped is engaged in criminal activity unrelated to the traffic violation.”
The city’s proposed policy prohibits nine kinds of low-level traffic stops and limits how drivers may be questioned and searched.
CHP spokesperson Jaime Coffee said the agency’s patrols are not practicing what pretexual stop opponents object to, but rather are making “traffic stops when the officer has reasonable suspicion or probable cause that a traffic violation has occurred.” And then, “while conducting the traffic stop, officers may develop probable cause that a more serious crime has been committed,” Coffee said.
That’s splitting hairs, say those pushing for the police policy change in San Francisco. And they are unhappy that the CHP is doing the stops.
Phelicia Jones, an activist pushing for the Police Commission’s policy change, said pretexual techniques lead to racial profiling, and “I can’t say what the CHP should be doing instead of those traffic stops, but they should be talking to the community and in particular the Black community about it.
“Don’t you think you should do a town hall meeting and talk to us about how you’re going to proceed in our town so those of us who are concerned can ask questions?” said Jones, founder of Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin called the examination of CHP’s technique “a sideshow … not something worth getting into,” especially considering that the city has no jurisdiction in the matter.
San Francisco has its policies and the state has its policies, and when it comes to traffic stops they don’t govern each other.
“Pretext or no pretext stops, they are more of presence… and I really feel that their visual presence has been important,” he said. “I mean no disrespect to our local officers, but they are much more present and much more active than my local San Francisco Police Department in that area.”
Mayor London Breed didn’t weigh in specifically on the traffic-stop issue, but said in a Twitter post Thursday that the CHP has been useful in combating drug trafficking. City police have increased “fentanyl seizures by 170% year over year,” she said, and “CHP’s work to get fentanyl off the street expands on this work and helps support SFPD.”
Tracy McCray, president of the Police Officers Association, also called the CHP stops “not an issue.”
“Their primary focus is traffic enforcement, and they’re good at it,” she said. “We are too. But unfortunately, we have a police commission that wants to write policies and they don’t have any understanding of what we do. They’re trying to create a problem when there wasn’t one.”
Federal and local officials say it appears most of the pushers being apprehended in the month-old dragnet have been from out of town. That matters to those working and living in the core drug trafficking areas of town, such as the Tenderloin, who mostly just want the problem solved, by whatever legal means necessary.
“Look, I don’t hear a lot of people in the neighborhood talking about” pretexual stops, said Mark Yatabe, bartender at the Shovels bar on Turk Street. “It’s more in the media and the talking heads. What I care about is they go after big dealers. The whole effort is a good thing, but I’m convinced that most of all we need the long term solutions — treatment, housing, getting the mentally ill off the streets. It’s not a short-term problem.”
Bruce Penn stopped bicycling through the Tenderloin for a moment last week to watch a CHP team arrest a suspected drunken driver on Larkin Street.
“I think they’re doing a pretty good job, and they should keep doing what they’re doing,” he said. “I’ve seen a big difference around here in the past month.”
Reach Kevin Fagan: kfagan@ sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @KevinChron