San Francisco Democrat Mayor London Breed is seeking federal assistance to curb the city’s drugs, violence and homelessness problems.
Breed makes the plea as the city’s police department faces steep staffing hurdles.
“The scale of the problem is beyond our local capacity,” the mayor reportedly wrote in letter last month to U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey.
“No one else is going to go and deal with this problem but the police,” San Francisco Police Officers Association’s Lt. Tracy McCray said Monday. “Stop criticizing us. … Everyone knows about our staffing crisis, so this is no secret.”
Breed’s letter emphasized curbing San Francisco’s “open-air drug market” as fentanyl-related overdoses continue to soar.
“We need additional and ongoing support from the Department of Justice to arrest and prosecute drug dealers so residents, families, and workers feel safe in their neighborhoods,” she wrote.