A dragnet focused on capturing wanted fugitives, drug dealers and other neighborhood nuisances resulted in 50 arrests in just hours in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, authorities said Thursday.

San Francisco police, sheriff’s deputies and parole agents from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation conducted the operation over five hours Wednesday as part of a larger strategy to improve the quality-of-life issues in the drug-plagued district.

Dubbed a “fugitive recovery operation,” officials arrested 38 people on outstanding warrants while busting the remaining 12 people on suspicion of other crimes ranging from drugs to burglary charges.

“The community in the Tenderloin is very determined and organized to take their community back, and we’re doing everything we can to support that,” district station Capt. Carl Fabbri said.

The operation was similar to an enforcement operation in October when police arrested 37 people in the neighborhood.

Parts of the district, like Civic Center, have seen welcomed improvements in recent months, but the neighborhood is still criticized as being an open-air bazaar for drug dealers.

Neighborhood streets are regularly strewn with doddering drug users, some passed out with needles still dangling from their arms. Shuffling among the troubled are families, school children and other residents who have grown frustrated over the seemingly intractable neighborhood problems.

Many of the suspects arrested Wednesday had bench warrants after failing to appear in court for an earlier arrest, Fabbri said, while others violated a court order or committed different crimes.

“There are families here. There are children. There are parks. There are people trying to run businesses, coming to and from work,” he said. “There is a strong community that really cares and there is a significant criminal element in the Tenderloin. We’re trying to get those people out of the community and to give the community some relief.”

Officers typically arrest around 12 people a day in the neighborhood, officials said. In 2018, more than 600 people in the Tenderloin were booked for drug crimes of the 4,000 overall arrests.

But many of the suspects are processed in the city’s jails and then released on conditions. Recent changes in the state’s bail system have led to an increase in people being released from jail before trial, allowing many back on the streets to sell drugs after just a few days behind bars, police said.

Fabbri said his officers have been undeterred by the larger challenges in the criminal justice system.

“All we can do is do our job and do it well,” he said. “Our role is to make those arrests. We’re not giving up. We’ll never give up on the fight to make the Tenderloin a better community.”

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky