Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council

Elements of Effective Community Policing of the Haight-Ashbury

January 2010

“Police strategies and tactics must be driven by accurate, timely and reliable information supplied by current and emerging technologies and supported by the Department's systematic engagement of all of San Francisco's diverse neighborhoods.” (The SFPD Vision Statement) 

Introduction

The Haight-Ashbury is a residential neighborhood of more than 20,000 people. The overwhelming majority neither shop nor live on Haight Street. While Haight Street draws some 10,000 visitors a day in summer, is host to the second largest street fair in San Francisco and is also a regional destination of specialty retail shops , it itself has more residential uses than commercial. Indeed, often times events occurring off Haight street itself, in Golden Gate Park, for example, effect conditions on Haight Street. Any attempt to define the neighborhood’s primary policing needs as being determined by Haight Street misses the needs of the residents of the neighborhood and would therefore be doomed to be an expensive failure in the allocation of scarce public resources contradicting the stated mission of the SFPD to manage “our resources in a careful, efficient and effective manner” ( SFPD Mission Statement).

Elements of Effective Community Policing in the Haight-Ashbury

It is the policy of the SFPD to establish “Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving (COPPS) as an integral part of district station policing” ( Department General Order, 3.11). Applying this policy to the Haight-Ashbury would have to place the policing of Haight Street in the context of the community policing needs of the entire neighborhood.

Below is a list of four primary elements that would make up an effective and comprehensive “community policing” effort in the Haight-Ashbury in the opinion of the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Council. The order of presentation of these elements does not indicate primacy of subject as all four, combined, must be part of any successful effort.

HAIGHT STREET

What happens on Haight Street rarely stays on Haight Street, and oftentimes doesn’t even start on Haight Street.

The need is for constant, predictable, visible and persistent patrols on Haight Street, Page Street and Waller Street from Stanyan to Baker. Additionally, the Panhandle must be viewed as an integral part of the policing of Haight Street as the two are linked by both residents and visitors. Foot patrols should be maximized on Haight Street while regular bicycle patrols should be the primary means used in the Panhandle. Regular car patrols can be used to supplement foot patrols for Page and Waller streets.

Care should be taken by the SFPD to pay particular attention to the area around Park Station itself, especially the area around the intersection of Haight and Stanyan, as it is a heavily used pedestrian, transit and automobile corridor with major retailers – McDonald’s, Amoeba and the proposed Whole Foods - joining the Alvord Lake, Children Playground, and Golden Gate Park pedestrian entrance creating a complex mix of tourist, visitor, shopper and resident users. Community attempts to smooth out these complex interactions through more police presence and various traffic calming proposals should be supported by Park Station. 

GOLDEN GATE PARK

No neighborhood is more directly linked to activities in Golden Gate Park (GGP) than is the Haight-Ashbury. The eastern end of GGP is the location of several large public events from the Aids Walk and Bay to Breakers to Opera in the Park; Kezar Stadium and Pavilion host both school and professional sporting events, including major cross town high school rivalries and the AAA Turkey Day Championship. These events impact the neighborhood and add to the complex mix on Haight Street. All too often co-ordination between Park Station, Recreation and Parks Department, event sponsors, and the neighborhood are poor to barely adequate.

An effective community policing program in the Haight-Ashbury must emphasize participation and planning between police, event sponsors , Recreation and Parks and SFMTA to manage and minimize neighborhood impacts of major events in GGP.

COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS

The Haight-Ashbury has an incredible array of social, health and service institutions located in the neighborhood. From UCSF and St Mary’s, to USF, the Urban School, the French American School, John Adams Community College, three SFUSD primary schools, scores of residential social services, three childcare facilities and several board and care facilities the Haight Ashbury has a daytime population of staff and visitors to these intuitions that more than doubles the size of the neighborhood on work days. This huge community institutional base creates both special needs and special challenges for the institutions themselves, police and the neighborhood.

For example there needs to be police presence at pick up and drop off times at the neighborhood’s schools with particular attention paid pedestrian and parking issues at day care and primary schools.

Any successful community policing program in the Haight-Ashbury must have Park Station “at the table” with these intuitions in an ongoing and predictable manner. Park Station should view these neighborhood based institutions as potential resources in dealing with the special needs of certain populations. The old saying that “when you need a friend it is too late to make a friend” obtains here. Park station should be leaning forward in making friends of these community institutions and their neighbors.

EARTHQUAKE PREAREDINESS

The Haight-Ashbury, given its location next to GGP, its concentration of major hospitals its large numbers of schools and social services and its possible large number of tourists (depending on the time of year) will have a particularly difficult set of challenges unlike many residential neighborhoods in the event of a major earthquake. GGP is a major Citywide resource as a place to temporarily house homeless earthquake victims. St Mary’s and UCSF will have special demands placed upon them. The neighborhood’s schools and residential social services may well have populations with special needs unable to be met in place. The official plan of San Francisco is that we are all to be on “our own” for “the first 72 hours”.

While the SFFD is the official “lead agency” in an earthquake, Park Station must have a plan and that plan should involve residents, merchants and our “community institutions”. Park Station along with the SFFD should take the lead in letting its community partners know what its capability and needs are in an earthquake. The sooner we know the sooner we will be able to plan a neighborhood emergency response plan which includes Park Station and a realistic appraisal of our needs for the first 72 hours during which we will be on our own.

Conclusion

These four elements of an effective community policing plan can address the general needs of our neighborhood and also, if augmented by additional discussions and suggestions from the community, guide the very special needs of any block in our neighborhood. HANC calls upon Park Station to begin the “systematic engagement” of the neighbored in the creation of the Haight Ashbury Comprehensive Community Policing Plan based upon these, or other, community suggestions.