With homeless camps once again sprawling across sidewalks and vacant lots, San Francisco’s Public Works director has taken it upon himself to sidestep the city’s much-publicized system of coordinated agency response and is preemptively cleaning out the most dystopian tent encampments.

What city crews are finding is startling.

In a single week, Public Works packed out 53,100 pounds of garbage and 3,295 used syringes from six encampments in the South of Market neighborhood and Mission District. That comes to about 4.3 tons of trash per site.

At a block-long encampment adjacent to the Caltrain yard on Townsend Street, which thousands of commuters and tech workers pass by daily, a Public Works “hot spot” crew found 15,000 pounds of debris, 700 needles “and a lot of rats,” agency Director Mohammed Nuru said.

On San Bruno Avenue between 16th and Division streets, city workers pulled out 13,500 pounds of debris and 1,250 needles.

“Mice, but no rats,” Nuru said.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “No one should have to live like that — no one should work or walk by all that, either.”

Other large camps that Public Works has cleared recently were on Utah Street between 15th and 16th streets; Shotwell Street between 19th and 14th streets; along Stevenson Street; and one stretching down South Van Ness and Duboce avenues.

Although the growing mounds of trash were visible to anyone walking by, the Public Health Department never inspected any of the encampments.

Back to Gallery SF hauls tons of trash, thousands of needles from... 5 1 of 5 Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle 2 of 5 Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle 3 of 5 Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle 4 of 5 Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle 5 of 5 Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2017









“Thank you for pointing this out,” said department spokeswoman Rachael Kagan. “We are working together with the other city agencies to find the best way to deal with encampments, including clarifying of roles and responsibilities.”

Public Works says it hasn’t confiscated anyone’s tent, but that workers did find a number that were abandoned. In some cases, Nuru said, camp dwellers asked the city crews to take them away.

Nuru said the campers were given fair warning to leave, but insisted that the sidewalk “cleanups” were not technically removals — and therefore were not governed by the rules set down by voter-approved Proposition Q, which requires the city to offer shelter to camp residents before removing their tents.

Coalition on Homelessness Executive Director Jennifer Friedenbach said the result for homeless people was the same as in any police-enforced sweep.

“This was no ordinary cleanup where they asked people to move their tents for a couple of hours,” Friedenbach said. “It was definitely a removal.”

Nuru said most of the tent dwellers just moved a block or two down the line and set up camp again.

“This was about cleaning up an unhealthy situation,” Nuru said.

His break with protocol was brought on by numerous complaints from the public about encampments — and by the snail’s-pace opening of new navigation centers and shelters.

Sam Dodge, a spokesman for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, referred requests for comment to Mayor Ed Lee’s office — which voiced support for the cleanups.

“This is grueling work that the mayor appreciates ... that keeps our city safe and clean for all people,” said Lee spokeswoman Deirdre Hussey.

Nuru said a lack of shelter beds and space in navigation centers has him looking into whether Public Works should open its own shelter.

“I can’t have people sleeping on pallets over rats,” Nuru said.

Friedenbach agrees that there aren’t enough shelter beds for the people now living in tents. But she has an alternative solution — have the city provide portable bathrooms and garbage cans at the camps, much as Oakland has tried at a homeless encampment near Interstate 580.

“We do give bags for people to clean up,” Nuru said. “Bathrooms, we are still exploring. But if we had a vacant lot where people could stay, I think we would look into it.”

Line of fire: San Francisco’s new police chief, William Scott, has dismissed two police recruits — one just two days before completing probation —over cheating allegations involving the unauthorized use of a study guide for tests administered during field training.

And there are hints that more recruits may be cut. A department insider told us that one of the fired rookies warned that if she was going down for alleged cheating, the department would have to fire all 20 recruits who graduated from the Police Academy a year ago.

The names of the two recruits who were dismissed have not been disclosed, and few details about the incident have been revealed.

However, Police Officers Association President Martin Halloran confirmed Tuesday that the two recruits were notified of their dismissals in the past couple of days.

“We are still looking into it, and we still need to talk to the officers,” Halloran said.

He disagreed that what happened amounted to cheating.

“There was a study manual passed around by recruits,” Halloran said. He said the manual was based on information provided to recruits in the training books they all receive upon graduation. The rookies study the books to prepare for written tests, covering police codes and procedures, that they must pass during field training.

“Somebody put together a study guide based on that information,” but it didn’t contain answers to specific test questions, Halloran said. “I don’t know how they label this cheating.”

We asked to speak to Scott, but were told he was unavailable.

“It’s a personnel matter, and we can’t comment further,” said department spokesman Sgt. Michael Andraychak.

One thing is certain — the dismissals will be costly. Halloran estimated that the department spends about $1 million for every officer it recruits and trains before they pass probation.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross