Welcome, City Attorney herrera. Good morning. Thank you to mayor breed, chief scott, supervisors peskin and haney for joining me this morning to highlight our collective commitment to combating an all too familiar problem. Open air drug dealing in the tenderloin. Were all created to solutions to make sure we combat this epidemic that is taking control of the tenderloin neighborhood. This morning, my office sued 28 known drug dealers, file. They do not live in the tenderloin, but sell deadly drugs there. The drugs that are fueling the drug crisis in our streets. This is to stop the brazen drugdealing that has plagued this neighborhood. Last year alone 441 people died from drug overdoses in the city and the tenderloin had the highest overdose mortality rate of any neighborhood in the city. Enough is enough. These injunctions are carefully crafted to simultaneously safeguard a defendants due process while targeting with precision, the problem of drug dealers coming from outside the area to prey on tenderloin residents, housed and unhoused. This prevents the 28 named defendants from entering the tenderloin and part of the adjacent south of market neighborhood. Roughly from van ness to ellis and geary to mission. The tenderloin would become a protected zone and these defendants, none of whom live in the tenderloin, would be allowed to go there unless they had a lawful legitimate reason to be there. Were focused on the predatory repeat dealers selling the most dangerous drugs, including those leading to the most deaths. We have rigorous criteria. He or she was arrested at least twice for drug sales or possession of drugs for the purpose of sales in the tenderloin in the past year and a half. One of those arrests must have been in the last nine months. Both of the arrests must have led to either criminal charges by the District Attorney or a motion to revoke probation. The drugs involved were fentanyl, heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine. And the defendant is not a tenderloin resident. Has been given the opportunity to present their defense in court at a hearing and the court finds there is sufficient evidence to warrant the injunction. In other words, an injunction is issued if the need for it is proven in a court of law. Demographics or Group Affiliations were not considered when putting together these lawsuits. Violations of the injunctions will have civil and criminal consequences. Violations carry Civil Penalties of up to 6,000 per violation. Perhaps just as important, violations can also be pursued as misdemeanor crimes and subject to the defendants immediate arrest. An arrest leads to the search and confiscation of drugs or contraband a person has in his or her possession. These actions are aimed slowly at criminals coming to prey on the people of the tenderloin. We know who the predators are and we will not allow them to victimize tenderloin residents. Our message to these dealers is simple. If you come to the tenderloin, youll be arrested and your drugs will be confiscated. This is not a silver bullet. More needs to be done, including drug treatment options, expanded Mental Health and a focus on major narcotics suppliers, but this gives one more tool to the Law Enforcement to help keep the tenderloin residents safe. We need to stop this neighborhood from being used as the open air drug market. Our goal is to keep the dealers out of the tenderloin. The kids, the parents, the seniors, the workers, the Business Owners of this neighborhood have suffered enough and deserve nothing less. The tenderloin has the highest concentration of children in the city. It also has the highest number of Overdose Deaths and that is not acceptable. Once the pandemic improves, the kids of the pandemic deserve to be able to go to the school, playground, go see a friend without being caught in the middle of a drug deal or a person overdosing on the sidewalk. This wont solve the problem, but its a step work taking. I hadnt to thank the hardworking men and women in the San FranciscoPolice Department. Their diligence laid the ground work to put together this creative approach to public safety. I want to thank the team in my office that worked hard to come up with a way that will deal with a longstanding problem. I also want to thank our mayor for her tremendous support and leadership during this incredibly challenging time for our city, as well as supervisors peskin and haney, for their commitment to combating this problem. With that, i would like to introduce our mayor, london breed. Mayor breed good morning, everyone. Thank you, all, so much for being here today. I want to begin by thanking dennis has rare kerrera and the Attorney Office to deal with one of the Biggest Challenges in the tenderloin community. Not so long ago we set down a path to address what we saw as a significant increase in homelessness and tent encampments in the t. L. And we made a lot of progress. Over 400 tents removed with over 600 people. Were now down to less than 30 tents. And we drive around the tenderloin, we walk around the tenderloin, and you would think that nothing has ever happened there. That no progress has been made. You see hundreds of people on blocks throughout the t. L. Who are dealing drugs openly, in broad daylight. You see people pushing strollers, mothers, who have to go out on the streets to go around the drug dealing and the drug using and the challenges that exist there. I grew up in this city. I grew up not too far from the tenderloin in the western edition. And the tenderloin has always had its challenges, but it has never been worse. It has never been worse. And we cant do this work alone. We need to make sure that, yes, we address the challenges that exist with people who struggle with addiction. This is why im fighting so hard to get Safe Injection Sites open. Why im fighting to get expanded Mental Health support, because those of you who have family members who suffer with addicti addiction, you know how challenging it is to get them on the right path. We have to do more as a city to provide alternatives. And then we know the challenges that exist. The people who are being trafficked to sell drugs on our streets from other countries. The folks who are coming from other bay area cities because they know San Francisco is a place where they can make a lot of money. San francisco has become the place to go to sell drugs. It is known widely. And that has got to stop, because there has to be consequences. Look, i understand there might be financial challenges, but the fact is, we cant tolerate what we see happening in the tenderloin or any other neighborhood in our city. People have got to be held accountable for the destruction they are causing to these communities. And when we talk about destruction, were talking about the people who are dying in record numbers from drug overdoses right in the tenderloin. This is a commonsense solution to a very, very complex problem. And i really want to, again, express my appreciation to our City Attorney, Dennis Herrera, for not only putting together a unique plan, but for caring about this issue in the first place. And i want to thank him for working with the San FranciscoPolice Department to actually use data to inform this decision. We know that there is a lot of work to do. And we cant continue to let the tenderloin be the breeding ground for all that is problematic and challenging in our city. Its going to take helping with homelessness. Its going to take drug treatment. Its going to take supporting lowincome families and people who live in that community. And, yes, its going to take holding the people who are holding this community hostage with the rampant drugdealing that is completely devastated this neighborhood. We have to do better and we will do better. This is a step in the right direction. And im looking forward to seeing the results of this work. And i want to thank all those who have been involved and supportive of this issue. And we have got to get the job done and thats what this is about. With that, i want to introduce the police chief of San Francisco, chief scott. Good morning. Thank you, mayor breed. First, i want to start off by thanking our mayor london breed for her relentless leadership when it comes to this issue. As the mayor stated, this problem is pervasive and i also want to thank our City AttorneyDennis Herrera for an innovative strategy that really gives us a much better opportunity to turn the corner on the drug dealing in the tenderloin. I would like to thank supervisors peskin and haney for their support and leadership on this issue. Youll hear from them as well in a second. The men and women of the San FranciscoPolice Department and those say sign assigned to the tenderloin, have been working very, very hard to address the rampant drugdealing in the tenderloin. During a recent threemonth operation to focus on narcotics dealers, the tenderloin officers and the narcotics detail officers arrested over 267 individuals for drug sales. 267. And although that number may sound high, its just a drop in the bucket. Our officers seized over 144,000 in u. S. Currency and a combination of over 7,000 grams of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and other drugs. 210 of those arrests had prior arrests in San Francisco and 55 of the 267 arrests were in violation of courtissued stay away orders where they were prohibited from the area where they were selling drugs. 58 of those arrested live outside of the city of San Francisco. Now our efforts to combine or combat narc sales in the tenderloin are ongoing as of today. And todays announcement of injunctions filed by our City Attorney will help us address the concerns and complaints of tenderloin residents and merchants. And those complaints come pouring in daily. These dealers prey on a vulnerable population and contribute to the drug degradation of the quality of life who work and live in the tenderloin. These injunctions give Law Enforcement officers another tool in our tool kit. Violators face up to a 6,000 fine, misdemeanor arrest and officers can potentially seize money and drugs along with other contraband. With the combined efforts in the drug treatment and other Public Health strategies, we hope to have a positive effect on the quality of life in the tenderloin area. As was stated by the mayor i cant emphasize this enough we have to do more, we have do better and we will do better. We cannot and will not further tolerate drug dealers coming into the tenderloin from wherever theyre coming from throughout the bay area to ruin our community. The injunctions will make coming back to the tenderloin have more serious consequences. And, drug dealers, if youre out there watching this news conference, know that your actions will not and cannot be tolerated any longer in the city and county of San Francisco. With that, id like to turn the mic over to supervisor aaron peskin. Thank you. Supervisor peskin chief, thank you, City Attorney herrera, mayor breed, for what is truly a creative solution. This is not a silver bullet. It must be coupled with Mental Health services, with drug treatment, with the addition of sorely needed Affordable Housing in and around the tenderloin. A year ago supervisor haney and i went to a meeting together just up the street in the tenderloin wherein we witnessed an individual who was literally dying of a fentanyl overdose. We were able to locate some narcan and that individual is alive today, but that should not be happening on our streets. This is not only a creative solution, but it is one where City Attorney herrera has crafted it very carefully in conjunction with my office. Has done so in a way that honors the civil rights of individuals in our community. It is structured fairly and will be supported by the board of supervisors. I want to thank the City Attorney. Were going to make a difference in the tenderloin. And if this works, this is a model that be exported to other parts of San Francisco because when you look at those 441 deaths, it is true a disproportionate number of them are in the tenderloin, but those individuals who are preying on weak individuals in our community are not just operating in the tenderloin. And if this is a success, i look forward to working with the City Attorney office, the chief of police and mayor to export this model to the rest of the city and county of San Francisco. We are available for questions and comments. Thank you, supervisor peskin. Well begin with the q a portion with City Attorney herrera. The first set of questions are from kate wolf. The aclu and other Community Groups have said injunctions like gang injunctions used in the past dont address root problems and violate peoples civil liberties. Can you address how these injunctions will be different from those . One thing you heard uniformly, both from the mayor, from supervisor peskin and from the chief of police, this is part of a has to be part of a comprehensive approach that focuses on drug rehab, Mental Health and the like. So there is no doubt that we need to also get the root causes which are contributing to our problem. However, this is different from gang injunctions. This is not based on affiliation or status, it is based on going after individuals who have been known to engage in criminal conduct that has been charged by the District Attorney and arrests by the Police Department for known activity that has occurred in the tenderloin. The fact of the matter is, we carefully crafted this to make sure it was based on conduct, not on status or affiliation. And there is also the opportunity for if people have a legitimate reason to be in the 50square block area, the protected zone, courts, city hall, have all been exempted from the limitation of movement. So this is very different from gang injunctions. I think it is something people need to be aware of. This is based on conduct, not status. And demonstrable conduct from individuals who dont even live in the tenderloin and 27 of the 28 dont even live in the city and county of San Francisco. Thank you, City Attorney. The next question is from joe with bay city news. Why would civil injunctions be used instead of criminal actions if the city knows who the dealers are . Its another tool in the tool kit. Certainly, there are criminal penalties that can accrue, but the fact of the matter is, if someone is going to suffer a financial penalty of a significant dollar amount, that is something that dissuades individuals from engaging. With respect to these injunctions, you have two tools, a criminal sanction as well as a civil sanction which did not occur previously. This encompasses the whole tenderloin, where something that the chief referred to earlier, the stayaway orders in other criminal cases were designed to be with respect to one particular corner or block. It was not nearly as comprehensive as what were seeking here today. Thank you, City Attorney. That concludes todays press conference. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. Chair ronen good morning. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the september 21, 2020 meeting of the rules committee. I am supervisor hillary ronen, chair of the committee. With me on the call is rules Committee Vice chair Catherine Stefani and supervisor gordon an m mar. I would like to thank sfgovtv for staffing this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements . Yes, d clerk yes. Due to the covid19 emergency, city hall and offices are closed. Members will participate in the meeting to the same extent as if they were physically