Gavin Newsom to double number of state police cracking down on fentanyl in San Francisco

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom will double the number of state police patrolling the streets of San Francisco in an effort to crack down on fentanyl dealing, he told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Newsom will increase the number of California Highway Patrol authorities from seven to 10 on the operation each day to 14 to 20, his office told the San Francisco Chronicle. Newsom in April announced the deployment of National Guard troops and a partnership between four law enforcement agencies to address the situation in San Francisco.

“We have a lot of existing laws on the books. I’d like to see us start to enforce the damn existing laws,” Newsom said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’ll be honest with you, my biggest gripe right now in San Francisco has been, frankly, we’re not enforcing existing laws … we’re not prosecuting the law breakers. Judges, DAs, the whole panoply — I want to see people held accountable for breaking the law.”

On 6/23/23 0111 hours, officers responded to a call at 519 Ellis St. The investigation led the officers to discover & seize 32.6g of fentanyl, 4.9g of cocaine, 11.8g of heroin, and 558.2 g of meth, 16.5g of oxy, 9g of meth, 144g of other pills, $960, & 3 guns.

Case #230431845 pic.twitter.com/UEFaC3kOwR

— SFPD Tenderloin (@SFPDTenderloin) June 28, 2023

San Francisco has seen a more than 40% increase in overdose deaths between January and March, mostly concentrated in the Tenderloin district and South of Market neighborhoods of the city, Newsom’s office said in an April statement. Additionally, a 2020 study identified San Francisco as the second-highest in the nation for fentanyl overdose deaths.

In May alone, 74 people died from accidental drug overdoses in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“I’m not going back to the old, failed war on drugs,” Newsom said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “But I’m also not naïve about the fact that we’ve got to triage what’s happening on the streets. Open-air drug dealing is unacceptable.”

In his latest announcement, Newsom also says he’ll increase the number of National Guard soldiers already working with authorities in the area to help Democratic San Francisco Mayor London Breed with her plan to combat the illicit drug markets in the area and assist in a law enforcement effort to cut off fentanyl trafficking to the city.

Since the launch of the effort, California state police deployed to the area have seized 8.1 kilos of fentanyl and arrested 115 people on felony and misdemeanor charges, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

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