Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he will double the number of California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers deployed in a joint operation in San Francisco, while authorizing targeted increases in police forces to improve public safety and stop fentanyl trafficking.
The increase in officers will be aimed at conducting targeted surges with law enforcement partners to combat crime and further crack down on the fentanyl crisis affecting San Francisco.
Personnel assigned to the expanded operation are expected to include some of the more than 100 new CHP officers scheduled to graduate from the CHP Academy this week, as well as active officers within the Golden Gate Division.
“The CHP’s recent results in San Francisco are nothing short of extraordinary: In just six weeks, agency workers seized enough fentanyl to potentially kill the city nearly three times over, multiple firearms, and stolen property,” Newsom said.
“Today, I am authorizing a 100 percent increase in staff to bolster the impact of this proven operation, as well as authorizing targeted surges to crack down on crime in the city. Working alongside our local, state, and federal partners, we are committed to cleaning up San Francisco’s streets,” he stressed.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said that in order to be successful in the long term, this work must be sustained and expanded at the local, state and federal levels.
For San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Chief Bill Scott, “Our residents, business owners and visitors to our city deserve to feel safe and we are making progress in disrupting the drug markets that are causing so much misery on our streets.”
He said that by working in collaboration with CHP, they have seized an unprecedented amount of fentanyl and other deadly narcotics in recent weeks, and he looks forward to building on that success.
In addition to doubling the number of uniformed officers assigned to this operation in the city, as part of today’s announcement, the Governor also authorized CHP to work with local law enforcement partners to conduct anti-crime surges in key crime hotspots across the city.
The joint task force's operations, which will not be announced, are expected to target illicit drugs and weapons and lead to the arrest of drug traffickers and others involved in various types of criminal activities.
Separately, Newsom ordered the California National Guard — CalGuard — to increase personnel in San Francisco to facilitate the development of the city’s strategic plan that will address the challenges of open-air drug markets and the broader effects those markets have on San Francisco.
Additionally, CalGuard has been directed to identify ways to further increase staffing in San Francisco in support of the Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program.
Since the joint law enforcement operation began on May 1, 2023, the CHP has seized 8.1 kilograms of fentanyl and made 115 felony and misdemeanor arrests in and around the Tenderloin.
You may be interested in: CHP seizes enough fentanyl in San Francisco to kill more than 2 million people
