SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) — San Francisco’s mayor needs vacationers, native residents, and employees alike to really feel “welcome” within the metropolis.
Mayor London Breed introduced on Monday that she is sending extra neighborhood ambassadors and civilian police division personnel onto the streets so as to add a “layer of security” to San Francisco.
“As a part of Mayor Breed’s plans to ramp up public security efforts to help town’s financial
restoration, ambassadors have already been deployed within the Mid-Market, Tenderloin,
Downtown, and vacationer areas,” the Mayor’s Workplace wrote.
The growth will add as much as 150 new ambassadors and attendants. They are going to be a mixture of Mid-Market/Tenderloin Security Ambassadors, orange-jacketed SF Welcome Ambassadors, BART service attendants, and retired cops serving as SFPD Neighborhood Ambassadors.
San Francisco has come below scrutiny for its homeless encampments, open-air drug customers, and a perceived lack of public security. Over the weekend, the U.Okay. Every day Mail printed an article titled, “Ghost-town San Francisco” with pictures displaying downtown streets. The Every day Mail described San Francisco as a “woke metropolis” that’s “notorious for homelessness, public drug-taking and severe crime.”
Breed stated town has been brainstorming “artistic” methods to make the streets really feel extra “optimistic and welcoming.”
“Situations within the Mission have been unacceptable for fairly a while. We’ve got been working
to revive a wholesome environment within the neighborhood whereas working onerous to not additional punish
folks for being poor,” stated District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “Putting this proper steadiness
isn’t at all times simple.”
The mayor and the Workplace of Financial and Workforce Improvement stated the ambassadors will assist to learn San Francisco’s financial restoration post-pandemic. The ambassadors program gives, “a visual presence and level of contact for folks and guests navigating our downtown and core, and in supporting our workers as they return to the workplace,” stated Kate Sofis, government director of EWD.
Extra ambassadors and transit station attendants anticipated to be deployed inside the subsequent six weeks.
“We’re working every single day to enhance security on this Metropolis,” Breed stated. “San Francisco has a big police staffing scarcity, so we have to be extra artistic in ways in which ship a optimistic and welcoming expertise on our avenue and whereas additionally making certain our sworn
officers can do their jobs. By deploying extra ambassadors and hiring extra employees who can do
help work for our officers out within the area, we will higher reply to residents, employees, and
guests who need our metropolis to be cleaner and safer.”
Police Chief Invoice Scott stated public security goes past imposing legal guidelines and making arrests.
“It additionally means artistic options that almost all successfully and effectively cut back neighborhood harms whereas partaking with, and constructing relationships with, our various communities. The ambassador program is a good instance of how we’ve taken neighborhood enter and collaborated with Mayor Breed to implement progressive, non-traditional policing options and techniques to boost the security of San Francisco and cut back neighborhood harms,” Scott stated.
Presently, town has allotted funding for over 250 ambassadors. The growth will part in as hiring and deployment permits.
