>> good afternoon everyone, i'm san francisco mayor london breed and i'm joined here today with commissioner shawn dureof the california highway patrol, major (indiscernible) national guard. our district attorney, brook jenkins, our police chief bill scott, and president of the board of supervisors aaron

peskin as well as a representative on behalf of sheriff miyamoto. he are here to talk about the partnership that will be established between the state and our federal law enforcement agencies. let me begin by expressing my appreciation to governor gavin newsom for answering the call for taking on this problem head on and his willingness to be a partner in the work that he knows we need to do. as a former mayor of san francisco and someone who grew up in the city, he understands the value of partnership and also understands the value of san francisco as it relates to entire state. here locally, we have been doing i think a extraordinary job between our police department and our district attorney's office. they have been working hand in hand as partners to help us

address the many challenges around public safety, but more specifically, the challenges related to this fentanyl crisis, which includes the large number of people who have died from overdose deaths, as well as the open air drug dealing, the violence associated with this, and how it impacted the tenderloin and soma communities considerably. time and time again, we have you know, reached out for resources to try and get support and the fact that this is finally happening and it is something that is never happened before will be significant for our city and will send a strong message to those who are perpetrating these crimes that are holding communities hostage, that we will do everything we can to work together to make sure that there is accountability. some of the challenges that

have recently been highlighted that you may not be aware of, just this past tuesday, the san francisco police department made an arrest of someone who five kilos of fentanyl, and just today our district attorney announced the charges associated with that arrest, and the point i want to make is, this is something that was not happening previously, and the fact that our district attorney and our police chief are working hand in hand and just between january and march this past quarter, the amount of drugs seized was over 150 percent from even last quarter, demonstrates to the public that we are doing everything we can. we are making the arrests, we are bringing charges, we are being aggressive as we possibly can to hold people

accountable and i want to appreciate the leadership of our district attorney brook jenkins and leadership of bill scott and the teams that they represent, because it does take a village, it does take partnership and now that partnership is expanding. expanding on a state-wide level. so, we are appreciative to have our state representative here to talk about some specifics of what they plan to do, but we will not provide all of the details of what we plan to do to the public, just the basics. we know when this plan was first mentioned when the governor came to san francisco with the attorney general and they did a walk in the tenderloin, they heard the pleas and cries of the community asking for help, asking for something different. this is something different and i'm looking forward to a real change in our city. separately from what we plan to do around law enforcement,

people have consistently tried to say really horrible things about san francisco and the challenges around safety, and i say like any other major city, we have our challenges, but there are so many other wonderful things happening in san francisco right now. just this morning i was out at mlk middle school with kids who were scooting and biking to school and i was at fort mason with a number of high school leaders who all are public school students who are thinking about ways to change the future. all over the city, there are communities coming together for various reasons and loving and enjoying our parks and open space,b the public schools, the warriors will be playing tonight and the championship and concerts and activities and we just hosted one of the biggest conferences here over 40,000 participant desnded upon san francisco and many had a really

great experience and there opponent i'm making is, it is time for us to write our own narrative about what san francisco is, because we live it and breathe it every single day, and part of adding to the value of our amazing city will be the fact that we will continue around our reforms and the work we need to do and the criminal justice world, but there will and must be accountability associated with that. with that, to talk a little bit more about the plans, is commissioner shawn dere of the california highway patrol. >> thank you madam mayor, good afternoon everyone. my name is shawn, the commissioner of the california highway patrol. the chp has a mutual interest insuring the safety of california communities and we are committed to collaborating with partners here in san francisco. under the direction and leadership of

governor gavin newsom and mayor breed, state agencies partnered with city officials and we have identified specific action items we can take immediately to improve the current issues in san francisco. beginning may 1, next monday, the chp will deploy officers to work side by side with san francisco police officers to enhance public safety within the city, with a focus on specified high crime areas. this will be accomplished through three main objectives at the highway patrol. first, we'll assist the san francisco police department increasing uniformed officer in spirfck area with intend to deter and disrupt criminal activity. second, provide specialized training to sfpd officers to assist those officers in the ability to detect, deter and prevent drug and alcohol related crimes, and finally, we will use the highway patrol existing resources from our specialized

units to provide investigative support to develop crimial cases that disrupt illegal narcotic traffic. the chp mission is provide the highest level of safety, service, and security to the people of california. we are proud to stand with the california national guard, the california department of justice, the san francisco police department, and the san francisco district attorney's office in a collaborative effort to address these public safety issues. i'm happy to turn it over to major general matt beavers. >> matt beaver of the cal guard and what i want to do up front is spell out rumor, the california national guard presence in this is not boots on the ground in san francisco. the support that we will provide really consists of very talented and dedicated soldiers and airman that do essentially criminal analyst work

and that is taking a look at all the information that we-gets generated by law enforcement agencies, taking that information, senticizing it and into actionable information we can map, cartel networks inside and outside the city, understand those networks build a common picture of and dismantle the network. we have 14 or 15 folks working on the ground today supporting the northern california high intensity drug traffic area and we have proven success in the area. in san diego, dug traffic area where we support, in the last month in march alone, all most $50 million of fentanyl seizures that our soldiers and airman supported so we can do it in san diego and intend to do the same work here in your city. with that i'll be fallowed by district attorney brook

jenkins. >> good afternoon. i first want to say thank you to governor gavin newsom as well as general beavers from the national guard as well as commissioner dere from the california highway patrol for offering their assistance with tackling the open air drug market in san francisco that chief scott and our departments have both been working vigiously to address the last 9 months together. what we know is that this is not a problem that is easily solved and the more support and collaboration that we have allows us to address this problem more expeditiously so i'm very excited about the prospckt of this collaboration and this new partnership. this was an opportunity that at least from the vantage point of the national guard that was offered to my office about a year or two ago and declined. that was not in the best interest of san francisco. what is in the best

interest of san francisco and particularly communities like the tenderloin and south of market, they deserve to make sure that they get to walk down the street without the situation that we currently see. an additional benefit of this collaboration is how it will assist us in the prosecution of these cases. more recently, we have experienced many criminal defendants in narcotic dealing are asserting a umhooen trafficking defense. it requires significant evidence on our part in order to robut that defense so i'm excited at the prospect of having additional resources to be able to dispel the notion that people are not here dealing drugs of their own accord, because that is clearly what is happening. today we announced charges against an individual as the mayor pointed

out in possession of 5 kilos of fentanyl that can kill more then this entire city. that individual we argue should be detained based on the public safety risk he presents and the judge at this point agreed to that. we are moving the ball forward in trying to keep san francisco safe and as i said, this part nership will only allow us to do that on a higher level and at this time, i will bring up police chief bill scott. >> thank you district attorney jinken. i like to start by thanking our mayor london breed and thachck governor newsom and all the partners here today. as well as our board of supervisor president aaron peskin who's here with us today and is a supporter of making our city a safe city. i will fill in some of the blanks with some of what you heard

here. the tenderloin and the epicenter of the crisis with fentanyl is a very small area, about a square mile. generally. about a square mile. san francisco police officers have made 269 arrests in a very small area in the course of 4 months. think about your own community and think about a 10 block radius where you live and think about 269 drug dealers dealing poison on the street taken from your community. that is what the people who live and work in the tenderloin have to deal with day in and day out and that has to stop. our police officers have confisicated 39,000 grams of fentanyl year to date. a conversion is about 85 pounds of fentanyl. that's a

lot of death and destruction. think about it for a second. that is higher then what we have seen this time last year. we are working very hard as a city to address these issues, but it is not enough and that is why we have partners here. that is why we have commissioner dere and general beavers and their respective organizations here to help us and we need the help. i want to make a few things very clear, this city is committed to policing the right way, to policing with dignity and respect. to respecting the people who live work here and respecting the people who commit crimes here and our partners are here to enhance that. nothing short, nothing more, nothing less. they will enhance the values of

this city. most of us who live here and work here, the mayor has lead the charge, the district charge brook jenkins, myself, chief lazar from san francisco police department here, supervisor peskin, all most every public official in this city have heard over and over again that this has to stop. people are fed up with, we are fed up with it, and our attention needs to be on the people who are causing the problems. not only each other. our attention needs to be on the drug dealers that are making all this happen and that is exactly where our focus will be. we know this isn't a san francisco alone problem, we know that these people who deal drugs in our streets have tentacles in other cities, and other states, and perhaps in other countries and we have to do everything we can

to bring every resource to bear to identify every piece of these networks that are killing people in our city and we have to dismantle them, and that is exactly what we intend to do. whether it be da jenkins and straight prosecution or whether be federal prosecution, we will do what we need to do to make this problem better. because together, we are stronger. i want to again thank all the partners for being here. i know there is a lot of questions and i think at least the general questions have been answered. what is it national guard role, what is chp role? we are blessed to have a leader who pulled this all together in the mayor and we'll do everything we can to work together to solve this problem and with that, i will open it up for questions. >> [unable to hear

speaker] >> we seize crack cocaine, powder crack, meth, we see a garden variety, but when you look at the medical examiners reporting of the last couple years and this year is no exception, what is leading the charge and killing people thin city is fentanyl by far, it isn't even close. that is why we focused on fentanyl, because that is what is literally kills us now and we'll continue to focus on that. but we do make arrests and seizures for all the other illicit drugs as well. >> (indiscernible) when you talk about cartel, how does that factor into what we see on the streets? >> i think it is appropriate place to start. the drugs that come to our cities across the state, not independent of each city, it is not independent of

each county, it is fundamentally transnational organizations that bring narcotics into the state and city, so if we start from there and look through that prism it gives a good jumping off point to do the tough analytical work to determine who those folks are, and understand the network and their associations and go after dismantling them. thank you. >> [unable to hear speaker] >> yes, ma'am, just the mere presence of the officers being with the sfpd officers we believe will help deter criminal activity. the officers are trained in crim 2348 apprehension and take action if they see it and make appropriate arrests. we are not coming in here to take over, the highway

patrol will supplement san francisco efforts and we'll complement them in the efforts. >> (indiscernible) >> that is a fair question and i think we are early in this. we are having discussions we measure the success of it and those are things we'll establish in the days to come. >> the most immediate measure of success is we have to see a change in the streets. you heard me say we have to see a change in the streets. when people-i was out there last night, 10 o'clock last night, there were people visiting our city from lands far away that for a short second before our officers cleared it could not walk down it the sidewalks. that has to change. >> (indiscernible) >> arrest stutistics tell a story and we'll keep reporting those statistics

because it is public interest and people want to see we are working and doing something about the problem, but if i came and told you-told you 269, if i told you a thousand and walked out the building and still saw drug dealing on the streets that probably would not matter to you. if you had to see that every day, you probably don't care about statistics we bring before you so we have to see a change in the streets and see a change in behavior more importantly. it isn't okay to do what people are doing and not okay not only to deal drugs on the streets but to use drugs on the streets. if anybody thinks that's okay, it's not. >> (indiscernible) >> these things take time but we expect to see immediate changes. here's the realty and our officers see it every day and many of you see it

every day-when we deploy large amounts of officers in areas in the tenderloin or anywhere in the city the problem tends to go away while we are there. that isn't the long-term solution because sometimes that is unsustainable but temporarily that will go away. we want to disrupt this behavior. we want to make it difficult for people to come in the city and county and do what they've been doing, dealing drugs. the longer term plan as many speakers said today, there is a-there is dismantling the organizations bringing these drugs to our streets. there's prosecutions both state and federal prosecutions and at the end of all this, what we want to see is some of these organizations go away and be dismantled. that is a sign of success, because when that happens you won't see what you see right now on our streets.

>> (indiscernible) >> i can't tell you. i know what the commitment is from these people that are standing here. now we'll do whatever we need to do and the mayor and the governor will get together and decide. we are trying to build this for sustainability. part of that process is putting infrastructure in place or enhancing infrastructure that already exists, so we can sustain the effort. the last thing we want to do is clean the streets up for a week, two weeks, a month and then everybody goes back to their regular way of doing things and it starts all over again. we have to sustain this effort and so that is how we are trying to build this. >> (indiscernible)

>> well, our federal partners are definitely dealing with that and that's a little of what general beavers were talking about with the work they are doing in san diego. this takes partnership. that question the answer to that question is this takes partnership and no one organization that is standing before you can do this alone. people who do this, people deal, people who distribute, people who bring narcotics to any city, they don't care about boarders, they dont care where the county lines or city lines are, all they care about is making money and kill people in the money and we are not smart enough to join together and fight this together then shame on us. i applaud the mayor for asking for this help and applaud all our partners for willing to say, we'll help. we are all impacted by this. thank you. >> how many chp

officers and national guard are there? >> i can have commissioner general beavers answer their parts of the question and then-- >> for the safety of the officers and integ taef of the operation i won't disclose. they are all coming out of the san francisco area. the chp has 75 uniformed officers assigned to the san francisco area. in june we have academy scheduled to graduate and plan to send additional 9 officers so bring up to 84. i will tell you this, the officers that volunteered to work alongside sfpd officers all volunteered for it. they all are from san francisco, they love the community, they want to be there and serve the community so i think that's a important aspect from our viewpoint. >> we have 14 criminal analyst

assigned to the northern california high intensity drug traffic area. those 14 will be assigned a multijurisdictional task force that include the folks up here on the stage today. 14. >> (indiscernible) >> well, i have more concerns about the number of people who are dying from drug overdoses. i have more concerns about the families and the people who are struggling in these various neighborhoods overrun by drug dealers who have increasingly become violent and fight over territory and number other things, so as far as i'm concerned, my plan is part of what's been missing, because this city has been extremely generous with regards to social services. in fact, when you

look at our city budget, the amount of money that we spend for non profits and organizations to help with treatment, to help with second chances and support and resources are mostly in the tenderloin, soma communities and that will not change. we will continue to invest heavily in providing opportunities for people and second chances and all of those things, which is different from what was happening in the 80 . there were hardly alternatives or nobody seemed to care about that, everything is about arrests and lock people up and in fact this is different. this is program services, second chance opportunities and also accountability and what is missing is accountb ability and that's what this is all about. i do want to also mention that measuring of success includes reducing the number of

drugs overdose deaths in this city, which we have seen decline at one point and starting to see a spike and increase and so we want to make sure that we are saving lives in the process of the work we are doing here in our city. >> (indiscernible) >> well, i hope it does and i think that you know, just recently you recall when we declared a state of emergency in the tenderloin, and we set up a link it center which was supposed to be the place we help people and officers had a alternative place to take those struggling with

addiction and it didn't quite work out that way for a number of reasons including challenges with capacity of the police department. ulimately we can't sit back and throw our hands up. we need to be innovative and do everything we can to provide all the resources so that we have the capacity to handle a problem of this magnitude, and as i said earlier, you see the arrests have gone up considerably from the police department in terms of drug arrests, not just for fentanyl but this past weekday meth. you see the da time and time again to charge people in these many many cases so we'll continue to do all we can, but the partnership is going to hopefully make a significant difference. i want the streets to be safe , we all want the streets to be safe and part of that includes all the right programs we are doing but there has to be

accountability attached to this and think this capacity will help us get to a better place. alright. thank you very much.