Between Nov. 9 and 11, San Francisco saw a 50 percent surge in police calls from residents reporting drug-related activity, according to city open data presented on a new website, 911sf.org. The spike appears concentrated in the Tenderloin and neighboring South of Market neighborhoods. Many dispatch notes were tagged with terms like “drug” or “dealer,” marking a sharp uptick in localized drug-related reports.
In addition to tracking real-time dispatch, 911sf.org calculates real-time response times from police and ranks police station districts on a rolling 48-hour basis. The website’s developer, who spoke with The Voice but wishes to maintain anonymity, recently noticed a “wobble” in the rate for drug calls, including both to 911 and non-emergency calls to police. On Nov. 3, calls were down to 34. On Nov. 10, it hit 81. The normal rates seen previously “were around 50-60,” according to the developer.
We’ve reached out to San Francisco Police and the mayor’s office for comment. Yesterday, Mayor Daniel Lurie showcased a new “sobering center” at 444 Sixth Street to complement a new policy to arrest those using drugs in public and vector them to mandatory counseling and treatment, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Mike Ege contributed to this report.