San Francisco Police Arrest 84 People in Overnight Drug Market Raid at City Park

San Francisco police arrested 84 people, mostly suspected drug users and dealers, during a massive overnight raid at Jefferson Square Park, SFPD Chief Bill Scott said Thursday.

The operation is the first of its scale since Mayor Daniel Lurie took office in January and promised to crack down on illegal drug-related activity in public spaces.

“This is a message I want everyone to hear: If you are selling drugs in this city, we are coming after you,” Lurie said during a press conference on Thursday morning. “We had a multi-agency operation in Jefferson Square Park last night, targeting the drug market there. Dozens of arrests were made.”

The operation took place roughly between 10:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. and involved the Police Department, Sheriff’s Department, Public Works and other agencies. Details on the arrests are expected to be released later Thursday afternoon.

“Some people will be released, some of the crimes are misdemeanors, and some people will remain in custody,” Scott said during Thursday’s press conference. “The bottom line is, we’re going to take action.”

Lurie said the raid is just the start of an intensified police crackdown on outdoor drug markets.

“You are going to see more of that in the weeks and months ahead,” he said.

More people began using and selling drugs in Jefferson Square Park as SFPD escalated drug enforcement — and increased its clearing of street encampments — in areas such as Sixth Street in the South of Market neighborhood and the Tenderloin.

Sebastian Luke, who lives near Jefferson Square Park, said he recently filed multiple complaints with the city about rampant drug use in the park, which is near two schools and an assisted living facility.

Luke, who is also a contributor to the local website Beyond Chron, witnessed and photographed the overnight raid.

“When I got there, I saw police going through the park … they rounded everyone up on the Eddy [Street] side of the park and pushed people dealing and using drugs in front of the Sacred Heart practice field to the other side of the park,” Luke told KQED.

Luke said he saw deputies knock on parked cars and ask the people inside to step out; at least one of them was arrested, he said. He also saw about 20 people loaded onto a Sheriff’s Department bus.

Since law enforcement began to focus more on specific neighborhoods like SoMa, some supervisors and residents have raised concerns that the enforcement has only displaced people living on the street and outdoor drug markets to other areas, including Jefferson Square Park and the 16th Street-Mission BART station.

The day after the Jefferson Square raid, Luke said he saw people back at the park using and dealing drugs.

Police said they are aware that their targeted enforcement has dispersed drug-related street issues to new locations.

“We’ll go into a community because of the rampant drug use or sales. And we put pressure on those dealers. When that pressure becomes intense enough, we often see those groups will go to the next block or the next neighborhood,” Scott said. “A lot of the people [who] started to hang out in Jefferson Square Park, who were selling and doing drugs, were a result of pressure from other neighborhoods like the Tenderloin and SoMa, and it just became untenable.”

Lurie and SFPD recently opened up a new police command center on Sixth Street for officers to drop off people they arrest or detain on the street, with the goal of making a more convenient, quicker handoff to Sheriff’s Department custody. Residents in the area told KQED that there’s been a noticeable difference in the neighborhood, including more street cleaning and increased arrests.

The center also provides a walk-in space where people can get coffee, use a toilet or sign up for a variety of government and social services. Police have not yet started to use the space for processing arrests, Scott told reporters on Thursday.

KQED’s Elize Manoukian contributed to this report.