San Rafael police mentioned this week they've apologized to residents and first responders in San Francisco after an officer drove a homeless man accused of inflicting a disturbance to a residential neighborhood and left him there.
The incident unfolded final month, when San Rafael police had been referred to as to Northgate mall round 4:43 p.m. on July 30 after a caller reported a person was threatening safety guards on the mall, San Rafael police Lt. Scott Eberle mentioned.
The officers “decided that no crime had taken place,” and the person didn't meet the brink to be held for psychiatric analysis, Eberle mentioned.
The person, whose identification has not been launched, was identified to police, however the division couldn't verify whether or not he lived there or had ties to San Francisco. He was not a resident of San Rafael’s city-run homeless camp, police mentioned.
Eberle mentioned an officer prompt San Francisco as a vacation spot, “and the topic mentioned he wished to go.”
As soon as within the metropolis, the person allegedly tried to start out a fireplace and started undressing in a driveway within the residential neighborhood the place he was dropped off, mentioned Jen Kwart, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Metropolis Legal professional’s Workplace.
He was transported to an space hospital “for a medical grievance,” in line with the San Francisco Hearth Division.
“It's disturbing to assume one other jurisdiction would drop off somebody experiencing homelessness or psychological well being challenges in the midst of a residential neighborhood with no providers or assets round,” San Francisco Metropolis Legal professional David Chiu mentioned in an announcement. “We are going to maintain any jurisdiction accountable that's confirmed to interact on this conduct.”
A bystander seen the San Rafael police car and shot a video of police dropping the person off close to 14th Avenue and Lake Avenue. Eberle mentioned the one that took the video shared it with San Rafael police, which instantly started an inside investigation.
Eberle mentioned it was not the division’s follow to drive folks to different jurisdictions and go away them there with out notifying native authorities.
“This doesn't replicate any practices of the San Rafael Police Division,” Eberle mentioned. “We don't condone this officer’s actions.
“We commit a lot time and assets and power to serving to fight the homelessness disaster that our metropolis is experiencing, and we've got employed and promoted folks inside the division to specialise in addressing the homelessness disaster,” Eberle mentioned.
The division has a psychological well being liaison, Lynn Murphy, who will at instances join homeless folks with assets exterior town, “however she does so in an expert method, and simply doesn’t transport anyone with out gaining approval from the receiving useful resource or service supplier,” Eberle mentioned.
The officer and a supervisor who was concerned within the incident stay on energetic responsibility as an inside investigation continues, Eberle mentioned. He declined to determine the officer or the supervisor.
Chiu’s workplace solely grew to become conscious of the complete scope of the incident roughly every week in the past.
San Rafael police mentioned the division has apologized to town and county of San Francisco, the neighborhood the place the homeless man was dropped off and the firefighters and police who responded after neighbors complained in regards to the man’s conduct there.
“In my 22 years of being right here, I've heard of this taking place up to now, however this isn't regular or routine,” Eberle mentioned.
“We do acknowledge that we made a mistake,” Eberle mentioned. “We’re extraordinarily apologetic to everybody who was impacted.”
Such incidents have occurred earlier than. In 2013, San Francisco sued the state of Nevada, alleging it had improperly bused dozens of psychiatric sufferers from the Rawson-Neal Hospital in Las Vegas into San Francisco with out meals, water or remedy and dropped them within the metropolis to fend for themselves.
That lawsuit was settled when Nevada agreed to solely deliver sufferers to California in the event that they had been going to a particular house handle, medical facility or program with somebody ready for or accompanying them. Nevada additionally paid $400,000 to San Francisco.