San Francisco Police Department

SFPD's Ugly History with Pepper Spray

​When San Francisco Police came calling in June of 1995, 37-year-old Aaron Williams probably didn't think it would be his last day on Earth. But as the pet-store-burglary suspect emerged from his house, a dozen officers piled on him. Police pepper-sprayed him, restrained him, and placed him face-d ... More >>

Police Release Sketch of Rape Suspects

Police are looking for two men, one of whom allegedly robbed and raped a woman in her Lombard Street motel on Oct. 28. According to police, the two suspects contacted her though SFredbook, an online website for escorts and masseuses. Both the suspects paid the woman for consensual sex at her motel r ... More >>

Police Looking for Another Sexual Assault Suspect

​Earlier today we warned readers to be on the lookout for two men, one of whom allegedly robbed and raped a woman at gunpoint inside her motel room. A few hours later, police issued a sketch of another man wanted in a separate sexual assault and attempted murder in the Potrero neighborhood. On Nov ... More >>

SF Cops Join LA's Finest In Disputing RAND Study's Findings That Marijuana Clubs Don't Cause Crime

Not the club's fault​What with the company's deep connections to the American war machine, the RAND Corporation isn't exactly a pack of hippies. Which makes it all the more surprising that the policy-think tank released a study this week declaiming that medical marijuana dispensaries cause a ... More >>

Bad Doggy: Pit Bull Charges at SFPD Officer, Shots Fired

maplegirlie/FlickrThis pit bull looks friendly enough, but the breed overall is having some rough news days.​Pit bull advocates will argue that the breed is unfairly mauled by the media, and yesterday's altercation between a pit and a cop in Bernal Heights is only giving the pups more negative pre ... More >>

Kenneth Harding Update: Ten Shots Fired in Six Seconds in Bayview Shooting

SFPD​SFPD released a map today which shows the 10 shots fired in yesterday's Bayview shooting, where police officers shot and killed 19-year-old Kenneth Harding. Harding, who was chased by SFPD officers after he dodged paying his Muni fare, allegedly fired shots at police, who then retaliated wit ... More >>

Street Closures and Traffic Disruptions Due to Firefighter's Funeral

View S.F. Street Closures in a larger map The service for fallen San Francisco fire fighters Vincent Perez and Anthony Valerio will take place at 12:30 at St. Mary's Cathedral, with a funeral procession to follow shortly thereafter. The map above shows the street closures as announced by SFPD. A fu ... More >>

SFPD, On Hook to Release Marijuana Arrest Stats to City Hall, Fails to Do So

Another anonymous, unknown statistic​Running a city is not easy. We get it. It'd be foolish to expect a place as complex and sometimes-provincial as San Francisco to always-smoothly operate, yet occasionally there's a municipal breakdown that defies easy explanation. And, it's quite possible, city ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

What's a Drug Bust Really Worth?

What's It Really Worth?​News that the San Francisco Police Department had seized $11.5 million worth of illegal cannabis in calendar year 2010 set the local sphere of growers, activists, and informed tokers abuzz. That figure is peanuts compared to the SFPD's overall budget of $445 million, and no ... More >>

Police Bust Careless Drivers in Pedestrian Sting

In this pedestrian mecca, it seems incongruous that drivers would be so oblivious to pedestrians walking in the crosswalk.But they are. And that made these police officers' job easy. The San Francisco Police Department ran a sting operation posing as pedestrians at Grove and Divisadero Streets Wedn ... More >>

Food Fight Turns Nasty; Police Called

Call the cops...​All things being equal, a food fight at a grocery store is a more pleasant call than a rock fight at the quarry or whatever might be flung back and forth at the wastewater treatment plant. But it was the former that drew police to the Safeway on the 4900 block of Mission on Sunday ... More >>

Can You Walk Down San Francisco Streets Toting Booze on New Year's?

As soon as Billy Dee pops the tab, the SFPD is entitled to swoop into action​The answer to that question: Yes. And no. In a no-nonsense public statement issued Wednesday, the San Francisco Police Department announced a "zero-tolerance policy" regarding "public drinking and any other criminal activ ... More >>

DUI Checkpoints Coming Saturday

That's a trick question, by the way...​You can't say the San Francisco Police Department isn't giving drunken motorists a sporting chance. In announcing today's kickoff of a "17-day crackdown" on drunk drivers, it reveals exactly where the weekend's checkpoints will be. The SFPD and other local po ... More >>

Gary Scott Holland Charged With Murder of Kathleen Horan

Is this Gary Scott Holland?​On the very day the San Francisco Police Department blamed a man impersonating a utility worker for lying his way into Kathleen Horan's apartment and murdering her, they made an arrest in the case. Gary Scott Holland, 43, is charged with murder in the death of Horan, a ... More >>

Armed Robber Cleans Out Sunglass Hut

Does this alleged armed sunglass thief ring a bell? ​Earlier today, we reported on a ballsy thief who returned, twice, to the same gas station to filch sunglasses. Turns out, however, he was just the opening act. Police are seeking a gun-toting robber who barged into the Sunglass Hut at 2327 Marke ... More >>

Mysterious Potential Homicide in the Mission

​Police are investigating a death in the 2000 block of Mission as a potential homicide -- and with good reason. An unknown male caller alerted police to the death in the potential victim's residence at around 11:35 p.m. last night. SFPD officers discovered a white woman in her 20s in the unit ment ... More >>

Cops Announce Meth Bust -- Via Twitter

justice.govTweet this...​In an interesting confluence of tweeting and tweaking, cops at the SFPD Northern Station announced a meth bust -- via Twitter. "plainclothes officers made a great drug bust, got a half-pound of meth and over 5 grand off of two dealers, on the 100 block of fell," reads th ... More >>

Towed S.F. Cars Sold Before Owners Properly Notified, Report Claims

Seriously...​SFPD Records Said Dept. Was Holding 80,000 Impounded Cars. For Real. AutoReturn, the company contracted by San Francisco to tow cars, sold 56 vehicles at auction before giving owners a full chance to pay their fines, according to a new Controller's audit.According to the report, betwe ... More >>

Philip DiMartino's Murderer: Hispanic Man With Cut Hand?

Does the description of Philip DiMartino's potential killer ring a bell?​San Francisco Police are appealing to the public to help them capture the person who stabbed 36-year-old marketing executive Philip DiMartino to death. A possible description has been released of the murderer, though it's a b ... More >>

Public's Help Sought in Tenderloin Hit-and-Run

​If you were standing at the corner of Hyde and Golden Gate at 5:04 a.m. on July 28 -- and there must be some of you -- then the San Francisco Police are begging for your help. At around that time, a relatively new, silver four-door vehicle believed to possibly be an Oldsmobile barreled through th ... More >>

Baylinks: Safety Tips, Beach Bummer, iPorn

Sand, sun ... sewage? ​SFPD warns late night walkers to put away their Blackberry [SF Appeal]Plan to hit the beach this coming sunny weekend? Maybe you should think twice [SF Gate]AIDS medication may become more affordable [CBS5]

Video of Baby Carriage-Pushing Woman's Rough Arrest Triggers S.F. Police Probe

​A video of San Francisco Police either throwing or pushing a profanity-spewing, baby carriage-pushing woman to the pavement during her Sunday arrest has led to a probe of the officer involved. The footage was posted briefly on YouTube before being removed. You can see the video after the jump, ho ... More >>

Seriously?? Two More Vehicles Torched Last Night

nhtroopers.orgTwice last night​When fans jump onto the fields of play during baseball games, television crews typically point their cameras towards the sky, scoreboard or something anything else. This is done to discourage future knuckleheads -- who realize they won't get any media attention -- fr ... More >>

D.A. Kamala Harris Appoints Iran-Contra Prosecutor to Handle S.F. Criminal Cop Scandal

John Keker, who went after Iran-Contra defendant Oliver North (pictured), will soon be looking into the SFPD.​District Attorney Kamala Harris announced today that she will appoint a high-powered private attorney to review the growing scandal over her office's failure to disclose the criminal backg ... More >>

Cops Bid Adieu to Scandal-Plagued Drug Lab

Sorry, kids. The San Francisco Police Department is getting out of the drug business.​San Francisco Police employees will stop doing drugs, Chief George Gascon today announced. No, really. The department's drug lab -- site of a massive scandal involving narcotics-skimming tech Deborah Madden -- wi ... More >>

San Francisco's Marijuana Arrest Totals Getting Higher

Put out that joint, mister...​What's that smell in the air, wafting from bus stops, parks, and most any street corner? It's evidence of a cavalier attitude regarding open-air cannabis consumption: This is San Francisco, after all -- feel free to puff away freely. Or, maybe not. According to statis ... More >>

Officer-Involved Shooting in Bayview

View Larger MapThe San Francisco Police Department fired off a terse press release in the wee hours this morning, informing the world at large that officers were involved in a shooting late last night in Bayview. At around 10:49, "at the dead end of Reardon Road near Kiska Road," plainclothes police ... More >>

Protesters Sit and Lie On Sidewalk So You Can Do The Same

​As far as protests go, Saturday's sit/lie protest may have been one of the more comfortable the city has ever seen. Protesters squatted up at corners around the city in defiance of the proposed ordinance that would make it illegal to recline, lounge, perch, or otherwise plunk oneself down on the ... More >>

SFPD Fires Dyslexic Cop, Who Sues City for Discrimination

​Being both dyslexic and mayor of San Francisco is apparently no biggie. But according to a civil suit recently filed in San Francisco Superior Court, the city's police department may be a different story. Former officer Joseph Ratti, who says he was fired because he is dyslexic, is suing the city ... More >>

How Much Pot Is Enough (To Get Your Kids Taken Away From You)?

Miraloma Park couple Jon and Yan Ling Rahoi lost more than their freedom and their (sizeable) marijuana stash when the SFPD busted an illegal grow operation at their Cresta Vista Drive home earlier this week. According to the SFPD, the couple was charged with felony child endangerment along with th ... More >>

On Christmas Day, Man Pretends to Be Cop Then Sexually Assaults Prostitute

​Around noon on December 25, the SFPD got a call from a prosititute who said she was assaulted by a man who said he was a cop. She described the man -- a 5'7, 195-pound, balding African-American -- and the 1993 Isuzu Rodeo he was driving, which the cops soon learned was re ... More >>

Patrol Special Officer Sues City, Claiming Mistreatment Because She Is Lesbian

One of the public faces of San Francisco's quasi-public community policing agency, the Patrol Special Police, is suing the city under state anti-discrimination laws, asserting she was subject to unfair treatment because she is a woman and a lesbian.The gloves come off​In a complaint filed this mon ... More >>

Note To the Egg Nog-Sloshed: Get Ready To Get Nailed By Holiday Sobriety Checkpoints

Not just Santa Claus is coming to town this holiday, folks. State, federal and city law via Flikr by McBLG97On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a DUI from the SFPD....​enforcement will be out in force for 17 days starting this weekend to nail your drunk ass if you get behind the ... More >>

S.F. cops may have gone too far in seizing DJ gear at underground parties

Police Seek Driver Who Rammed Parking Control Officer Off the Road

​The San Francisco Police Department is on the lookout for a silver Acura that barreled through a Parking Control Officer's three-wheeled vehicle at around 3:15 this morning and sent the little car -- and the officer within it -- flying. The collision took place at the intersection of Mission and ... More >>

List: How to tell if you're living next to a marijuana grow house

S.F. Investigators Explain Why Hugues de la Plaza's Cause of Death Remains 'Undetermined'

In mid-September, attendees at the annual meeting of the National Association of Medical Examiners got to see a detailed, audio-visual presentation aiming to explain why the bizarre 2007 death of French immigrant Hugues de la Plaza was not ruled a murder -- despite protests of friends, family, a ... More >>

You've Been Stung: As Always, Multitude of Drivers Fail to Stop For Undercover Cops Posing as Pedestrians

​If you had 38 moving violations in the office pool gauging how many miscreants the Ingleside cops would nail in yesterday's big pedestrian sting -- take a bow! You're the big winner! Between 7 a.m. and noon on Wednesday, San Francisco police officers dinged the aforementioned 38 drivers who faile ... More >>

'Text-a-Tip' Program Drags SFPD Into 21st Century. SFPD Web Site? Still Vintage 1994.

The SFPD Web Page induces nostalgia for the 1990s​When Police Chief George Gascon today announces San Francisco cops will soon have the ability to engage in real-time text message conversations with people who have witnessed -- or are witnessing -- a crime, it will be more than a technologically u ... More >>

Just How Many Cars Have Been Torched In the City? Depends On Whom You Ask.

www.lcpstc.org​Yesterday we were apparently the first to notice that the term "Arson" coupled with "vehicle" wasn't an inadvertent repetition on the weekend police report, and wrote a small item about a trio of cars going up in flames. Several hours later, the police told us that, in fact, a quint ... More >>

Man Beaten, Gnawed By Four Robbers -- Who Filch His Sweatshirt

If you wear a sweatshirt like this, the SFPD cannot guarantee your safetyLike "stupid and clever" the line between "heroism and foolishness" is often very fine. A San Francisco man can ponder that after he chose to fight off a quartet of would-be robbers Tuesday morning and lost his shirt -- literal ... More >>

Love Given Bad Name In Cross-Bay Relationship Discussion/Demolition Derby

'It's not you, it's me...' What's more awkward than domestic arguments on public transportation? How about arguments on the Highway Transportation System -- carried out in separate cars via metal-on-metal violence. San Francisco Police officers were called in on Saturday to settle a relationship dis ... More >>

Knowledge Is Power: Cop's Tutorial at Head Shop Results in Big Drug Bust

Wait, that's not the Uncola!A talkative head shop owner and his eager pupil on the San Francisco Police Department can take credit for a sizable narcotics seizure over in Ingleside.During a recent routine traffic stop, a pair of officers noticed a soda bottle in a plastic bag in the driver's glove c ... More >>

If the Shoe Fits: Cops Match Crime Scene Bloody Footwear to Shoeless Limping Man

J'accuse!In a case that comes close to the hypothetical situation of tracking a bleeding elephant in the snow, San Francisco Police have arrested an early contender for "Worst Getaway Attempt" of 2009. Responding Wednesday to a hit-and-run call in the Outer Sunset involving a car bowling over a barr ... More >>

How Do You Manage To Get Busted For Drunk Driving Even Though You're In the Back of a Cab? Here's How.

The San Francisco Police Department has proven that a soused man sitting in the back of a taxi can still be nailed for drunk driving -- provided he irritates his cabdriver enough. A pair of police at Holloway and Arellano Avenues were flagged down by a cabbie early Saturday morning who, according to ... More >>

Father: SFPD's Dogged Insistence Hugues de la Plaza Committed Suicide Is 'Almost Complicity'

Joe EskenaziFrançois de la Plaza says of the SFPD: "They can still help us toward our objective of finding the murderer. ... There is still a lot to do." Through tightly clenched teeth, François de la Plaza says he still believes the San Francisco Police Department can catch the person who killed ... More >>

Mission Possible? SFPD Nails 100 Percent of Homicide Suspects in 2009

Maybe the SFPD ate their Wheaties. Maybe they made a New Year's resolution. But you know that bit about the San Francisco Police Department having one of the worst arrest rates of homicide suspects in the United States? It appears that it's a new day, folks (in the first 16 days of 2009, at least).W ... More >>

Ring of Fire: Outhouse Arsonist Continues Rampage

The unknown miscreant or miscreants immolating area outhouses has burned another according to the San Francisco Police Department. A porta-john in the 1200 block of Washington Street went up in the predawn hours; like the other 14 johns torched since November, this is in or near the Russian Hill sec ... More >>