Residents Urge Tenderloin-Focused Police Lines, Raise Safety and Use-of-Force Concerns

The San Francisco Police Commission held its first community meeting on the department’s proposed district-station boundary changes for the Tenderloin, where SFPD and the controller’s office presented a draft map and a data-driven analysis and then heard more than an hour of public comment.

City officials framed the session as the opening of a 90-day public comment period. Chief Greg Serrano told the audience the draft is a “starting point” and that boundary changes would not reduce the citywide number of officers: “No police district is going to lose police officers, and no police district is going to get additional police officers at the expense of another station,” Serrano said. The department said any reassignment would alter which captain officers report to, not how officers are deployed day to day.

Captain Jason Cherness described the Tenderloin’s makeup—about 25,000 residents and roughly 3,500 children—and walked through the draft border shifts, which would move parts of the east boundary toward Powell Street and extend the southern boundary along Market toward Mission Street. The controller’s project manager, Randy McClure, summarized the methodology used to build the proposed maps, including calls-for-service data, geography, population, and operational considerations drawn together by an outside consultant.

Most of the meeting was public comment. Speakers fell into two broad camps: those who support expanding the Tenderloin district to include nearby residential blocks (several tenant leaders and community groups urged moving boundaries to Polk or Geary to keep drug markets and repeat offenders inside a single precinct), and those who warned that adding large commercial sites such as Westfield Mall could dilute police attention from residents and SRO (single-room-occupancy) buildings.

“My son was murdered. We have unsolved homicides. When are we going to stop this?” said Paulette Brown, a Tenderloin resident, who urged faster resolution of violent crimes and more responsive patrols. Multiple tenants and managers described long police response times and urged more foot patrols and resources from SFPD.

Speakers also raised use-of-force and civil-rights concerns. Several commenters pressed the commission and the department for information about a widely shared video of an officer’s interaction with Beau Frierson, a man who uses a wheelchair. Wayne Hayes and a family member said the man was injured and remain hospitalized; Carla Johnson, director of the Mayor’s Office on Disability, said the matter is under investigation by internal affairs and the Office of Citizen Complaints and urged a public statement from the department acknowledging the investigation. “It’s very disturbing to see a person with a disability treated this way,” Johnson said.

Advocates and former commissioners asked that any increase in officer presence be paired with additional crisis-intervention and disability-sensitivity training. “If officers who killed one man were not crisis-intervention trained, shouldn’t all officers who interact with the public be trained?” Mira Ingram, a former commissioner, asked.

Several tenants and neighborhood organizations — including the Central City SRO Collaborative and neighborhood resident associations — handed the commission maps and petitions backing an alternative that would pull Gary Street and Polk into the Tenderloin district to reduce the ability of offenders to “jump” precinct boundaries. Supporters said concentrating responsibility in one precinct would simplify enforcement and improve response consistency; the chief cautioned that including Civic Center or the Federal Building would add demonstration-related resource demands.

Commissioners thanked the crowd and reiterated the draft nature of the map. No vote on the redistricting proposal was taken at the meeting; commissioners said the department and consultants will consider the public input during the 90-day comment period. A motion to adjourn was made, seconded, and approved by voice vote.

The commission indicated additional community meetings are scheduled — including sessions at Northern Station, Southern Station and at Bayview — and said a decision on final lines is targeted for March; the department and controller’s office will post presentations and accept written comments during the comment period.