Ed Lee drops stop-frisk plan amid uproar S.F. CRIME

Mayor Ed Lee in front of San Francisco city hall in July. Mayor Ed Lee in front of San Francisco city hall in July. Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Ed Lee drops stop-frisk plan amid uproar 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Mayor Ed Lee has dropped plans to bring New York City's controversial stop-and-frisk policy to San Francisco and instead will rely on targeted police enforcement, crime-tracking software and increased involvement by ministers to combat the gun violence that has plagued some of the city's most crime-ridden neighborhoods.

In June, Lee told The Chronicle he was considering implementing stop and frisk in San Francisco to reduce violence after a discussion with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The entire Board of Supervisors, scores of community groups and church leaders criticized the idea, saying it would lead to racial profiling.

In New York, more than 80 percent of those stopped by police and frisked for weapons have been black or Latino - and 90 percent were found to have done nothing wrong.

Until late last month, Lee remained resolute in his quest to utilize stop and frisk. But he was apparently persuaded to try different methods after several meetings with law enforcement officials and community leaders, culminating in a meeting Friday with black ministers who pledged their support for combatting gun violence without relying on random stops.

Lee will announce the details of his alternative plan Tuesday at Calvary Hill Community Church in the Bayview.

"The program the mayor's announcing doesn't include stop and frisk," said his spokeswoman, Christine Falvey. "He doesn't want to implement a policy that has the potential to include racial profiling. Looking at best practices, he came up with other options that have a lot more community support."

'Zero tolerance' for violators

Police Chief Greg Suhr said the department instead will increase its presence in the city's southeast sector and use a zero-tolerance approach for violations of probation, parole or the city's gang injunction.

In 2010, a Superior Court judge approved City Attorney Dennis Herrera's injunction against two warring Visitacion Valley gangs, naming about 40 members who were prohibited from associating with each other, flashing gang signs, loitering or congregating in the area. The two gangs - one of which represents the west side of Visitacion Valley and the other the east side - have apparently started feuding even among their own members, and the violence has led to a deadly summer, including four homicides just last week.

"In a less turbulent time, they might be granted a kinder, gentler approach to their probation or parole status, but with the violence being at the level it's been over the last few months, we've got to get folks off the street," Suhr said.

Rather than looking to New York City, the Police Department is borrowing parts of Boston's much-heralded Operation Ceasefire program, which was implemented in 1995 to curb gang-related youth homicides. It reduced gun violence by 68 percent in the first year by directing police enforcement on gang members carrying guns and catching any violations of probation or parole.

Eye on gang members

A central piece of the program was communicating to the gang members that they were being closely watched for any slipups. Operation Ceasefire included a smaller program called Operation Night Light that sent teams of police and probation officers to perform nightly checks on youth on probation in their homes, which Suhr said he will implement.

Suhr said enforcement will be targeted, unlike New York City's version of stop and frisk. "It will not be random," he said. "It will be focused."

Suhr said the department will focus on "predictive policing," in which law enforcement officials use Web-based, real-time crime data to predict where the next outburst of gun violence will occur.

The third piece of Lee's new plan includes using ministers as liaisons between informants and police. They will publicize and formalize a practice they've long been using in which they'll take firearms or crime tips to the police, no questions asked.

The Rev. Joseph Bryant of Calvary Hill Community Church in the Bayview said he has taken many guns to police, often after a rash of violence.

"I believe that most people who want to do the right thing are not exactly sure if that option exists, and so the mayor coming out with a plan that will incorporate that particular option is a great statement to the community that the fears don't need to exist," he said.

Bryant said he is relieved the mayor is dropping his call for stop and frisk, which he said ministers agreed would create tension among the black community and police and City Hall that would harm their mutual goal of stopping gun violence.