San Francisco's DA announces new policy to hold drug dealers accountable
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins held a press conference Wednesday to announce her new office policy to hold drug dealers accountable and revoke open drug plea case offers.
"These changes are going to make a difference out on the street and one that we can all see and feel," she said.
RELATED: More people died from fentanyl last year than COVID-19 in this Bay Area county
Since 2020, over 1,500 people have died from drug overdoses in the city, the vast majority dying from fentanyl, Jenkins said.
"We cannot stand by while these neighborhoods continue to suffer with violence and drug dealing happening openly on their streets, and we also cannot continue to standby while people continue to die on our streets," she said. "We have to make changes now to save lives."
RELATED: Video shows severity of SF's drug crisis as children try to navigate past users
As of Wednesday, San Francisco has revoked a number of lenient offers in drug dealing cases from the previous administration, Jenkins announced, offers in cases involving "egregious amounts" of fentanyl that was possessed for sale, and people who had numerous open cases for dealing the drug.
Jenkins' new policy will prohibit drug dealers arrested with more than 5 grams of fentanyl or a controlled substance from being referred to the Community Justice Court, which she says has been "abused" for the last 2 and a half years. Her new policy will also put back on the table enhancements for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school.
In addition, the DA's office is going to take the step of potentially seeking pre-trial detention in extreme fentanyl sales cases and for those who repeat offend with respect to the sale of fentanyl.
50 BLOCKS: Stories from SF's Tenderloin neighborhood
"For the past year or more, the previous administration did not obtain a single fentanyl sales conviction, despite what was happening on our streets," she said. "And I repeat not one single conviction for the sale of fentanyl despite as I said 1,500 overdoses deaths since 2020.
"I promised the public immediately after my appointment that I was going to make a change with respect to the way we were handling drug dealing cases and that I was committed to ending open-air drug markets and doing everything in my power to do so."
Watch the video in the player above for Jenkins' full statement on her new policy.
If you're on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live
