San Francisco Mayor London Breed seeks federal aid to mitigate crime surge
San Francisco Police Officers Association's Lt. Tracy McCray joined 'America's Newsroom' to discuss the spiraling crime surge in the city as the police department battles significant staffing shortages.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed is taking drastic measures to battle the city's spiraling crime crisis, seeking federal assistance as it continues to endure streets ridden with drugs, violence, and homelessness.
The mayor has ironically been known by her critics as a ‘defund the police’ advocate, but as her police department faces steep staffing hurdles amid the surmounting drug epidemic, she sought federal assistance to relieve the city of its years-long challenges.
"The scale of the problem is beyond our local capacity," she wrote in a partnership plea to U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey in a March letter, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
As a result, she has garnered fierce scrutiny from her pro-police critics who have called her out for her pivoting on the issue.
San Francisco Police Officers Association's Lt. Tracy McCray is one of those critics, who called out the San Francisco mayor for "hating" law enforcement while noting that officers are a critical key in curbing the city's issues.
"If you want… to have a police department, you want morale to be good. You want people here to do this job, and unfortunately, yes, you need us to do this job," McCray said during "America's Newsroom" Monday. "Stop hating what you need. Obviously, no one else is going to go and deal with this problem but the police."
"You throw everything on us. So you know what? Stop criticizing us. Stop trying to break us down because… you need us to deal with it," she continued.
FILE - San Francisco Mayor London Breed speaks during a briefing outside City Hall in San Francisco on Dec. 1, 2021. The mayor of San Francisco announced a legal state of emergency Thursday, July 28, 2022, over the growing number of monkeypox cases. The declaration allows officials to mobilize personnel and cut through red tape to get ahead of a public health crisis all too reminiscent of the AIDS epidemic that devastated San Francisco in the 1980s. ((AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File))
Breed's letter placed great emphasis on curbing San Francisco's "open-air drug market" as fentanyl-related overdoses continue to soar.
"We need additional and ongoing support from the Department of Justice to arrest and prosecute drug dealers so residents, families, and workers feel safe in their neighborhoods," she wrote.
"Hopefully it's not too little too late," McCray said in response. "You recognize that you have a problem. You need to move forward. We want to move forward. Obviously, everyone knows about our staffing crisis, so this is no secret."
"And believe me, you want to call the DOJ to help you with this problem before you have to call in the National Guard because you don't have a police force," she continued.
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According to city data, the San Francisco Police Department is understaffed by a whopping 541 officers.
An audit of state records even revealed the San Francisco Police Department hired dozens of either unqualified or undocumented officers to tackle the surmounting shortage, according to a report published back in March.
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Within the last seven years, there were 45 officers in the Bay Area who were missing critical information in their hiring records like fingerprints, proof of citizenship, graduation records, and incomplete psychological exams and background checks.
But McCray warned the police department cannot be the "cheaper alternative" to productive city policy, urging leaders to take action and invest in "other alternatives."
"Pull yourself up by the bootstraps," McCray said. "I get people need a helping hand, but damn, how much? Do we just give them everything? You got to earn some of these things in life, so either get with it or you know what? Step aside and I guess we'll just come in and keep trying to fix the problem."
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Breed pledged to bolster public safety and enhance policing during her state of the city address this year, while also vowing to curb the city's drug epidemic.
Between January and February of this year alone, there were 131 accidental drug overdose deaths, according to the San Francisco office of the chief medical examiner.
"San Francisco's a beautiful city. I want you to come here. I want everyone to come here and visit, but you can't do that, if you got to keep stepping over people shooting drugs in their neck, toes, God knows where else in their body, no one wants to see that," McCray said.