SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) - The San Francisco City Attorney's Office is investigating after a San Rafael police officer was caught on camera dropping off a man suffering from homelessness and mental illness in San Francisco's Richmond District. KRON4 spoke with the city attorney and obtained the video, which you can see above.
"San Francisco is not a dumping ground,” was San Francisco city attorney David Chiu's reaction after seeing the video. It appears the officer was dropping off a man experiencing mental illness and homlessness in the residential area of 14th Avenue and Lake Street.
Chiu says, "It's disturbing to think that another jurisdiction might drop someone who is homeless or experiencing mental health issues in an area with no services or resources around it." The video is time-stamped at 5:27 p.m. on July 30. About 10 minutes later, San Francisco police officers were getting calls to respond to the area.
Police say, "Officers assigned to Richmond station responded to the area of 14th Avenue and Lake Street regarding a person in distress. Officers arrived on scene and located an adult male subject. Officers summoned medics to the scene and the subject was transported by personnel from SFFD to a local hospital for treatment."
KRON4 reached out to the San Rafael Police Department and they provided this statement:
"We would like to apologize to the city and county of San Francisco, specifically the neighborhood where we dropped off this man. We would also like to apologize to the first responders, police and fire department who had to deal with this person after we left. The San Rafael Police Department does not have a policy to take people to other jurisdictions and just leave them without any notification or approval. We are taking this incident seriously but are not allowed to comment further due to an ongoing personnel investigation."
City Attorney Chiu says his office has dealt with a similar issue in the past. He told KRON4, "a number of years ago, our office filed a lawsuit against the state of Nevada for improperly bussing psychiatric patients to San Francisco."
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He says they will continue to look into this incident and may file charges as well. At the very least, he wants other agencies to know San Francisco won't tolerate things like this.
Chiu says, "Any jurisdiction that is thinking about doing something similar to what we think may have happened should think twice. We will ensure that there is accountability for any jurisdiction that is proven to engage in behavior that's violating the law here." He says video evidence like this will help with their investigation.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/r5EkzT7
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