San Francisco considering building temporary facility to help in struggle against drugs

The San Francisco Police Department has announced plans to open up a temporary facility in a parking lot near the Sixth Street Corridor to help reduce the city’s epidemic of drug-related crimes.

The proposed unit would be housed in a parking lot at 469 Stevenson, which would be focused on directing treatment services to drug abusers, offering them transportation out of the city, or putting them in jail. The operation could begin within days.

The plan came on the same day the Board of Supervisors approved a new ordinance that gives new Mayor Daniel Lurie greater executive powers to help deal more effectively with the city’s fentanyl epidemic.

San Francisco Assistant Police Chief David Lazar cautioned the public at a town hall meeting last night that plans for the unit remain “fluid.”The primary goal of the new unit would be to process suspects more quickly at the proposed site, allowing officers to return to the streets faster to patrol areas of concern.

Currently, suspects are transported to the police station at Seventh and Bryant for processing and then to the county jail.Lazar told the San Francisco Standard that the unit would operate during the day and evening, hopefully before gearing up to run on a 24-7 basis.

Also included in the plans would be for SFPD to run the unit in partnership with other city agencies, like the Department of Public Health and the Department of Emergency Management.

Although SFPD said there are no architectural drawings for the proposed facility, a third of the Stevenson parking lot has already been cordoned off with wired fences.