Park Station Rolls Out 'Haight Street Heat' Campaign

Park Station Rolls Out 'Haight Street Heat' CampaignPhoto: Amy Stephenson/Hoodline
Amy Stephenson
Published on May 19, 2015

He's been at the helm for just over a month, and now Park Station's Captain Sanford has announced a new broken windows-style program called "Haight Street Heat." The effort will target everyday nuisances like double parking and dog leash violations, and going forward, police plan on writing more tickets for these minor offenses.

If you're in the habit of letting Fido roam freely throughout the neighborhood, you may want to reconsider that leash. Park Station says they'll be targeting dogs with improper tags and dogs without leashes in their effort to curb dog owners. From the most recent Park Station newsletter: 

"This practice makes it uncomfortable for visitors to the Haight Street corridor due to their fear of potentially vicious animals. We consider such practices as a health and safety hazard for children and visitors to this area. Despite our warnings, we have noticed that some individuals have blatantly disregarded our warnings and continue to exercise poor judgment when it comes to properly securing their animal."

Captain Sanford urges you to alert a beat officer if you notice dog-related violations in the area.

Citing "traffic concerns" in the neighborhood as the impetus, Park Station officers have been out in force with their LIDARs at the ready. On May 6th, the day they implemented the new program, they wrote six tickets for speeding in areas "notorious for traffic violations." No word yet on the response to this past weekend's rather disruptive dirt bike display.

As part of Haight Street Heat, police will also "be out in full force citing those individuals who believe it is okay to double park their vehicle," so that's another bad habit you might consider breaking.

"If you “jump” out of your vehicle and leave it double parked, you are in violation of the law and subject to a citation. If you are sitting in your vehicle double parked and blocking traffic and/or forcing cars to drive around you, then you are in violation of impeding the flow of traffic which is a moving violation if stopped and cited."

They go on to encourage residents and visitors to "take a few minutes and find a legal parking spot." Which, as you well know, can often take more than a few minutes.


And finally, Park Station plans to redouble efforts to crack down on drug dealers. This we've seen before, in 2012 under Captain Feeney, and in 2014 under Captain Vaswani. The 2015 iteration involves "high visibility tactics" and a coordinated effort with beat and bike cops. Here's one success story from Officer Matthew Friedman involving "exemplary bicycle skills":

"As Officer Friedman and Cheng rode past the Captain and Sergeant, on the other side of the street there were two individuals engaged in activity not legal under the law. As Officer Friedman’s eyes were drawn to where the activity was occurring he immediately saw a narcotics transaction occur. Using exemplary bicycle skills, Officer Friedman maneuvered his police bicycle on to the sidewalk and behind the suspected drug dealer. Officer Cheng followed suit and was quickly supported by Captain Sanford and Sergeant Meyer. The drug dealer was quickly taken into custody and removed from our city streets. The person who wished to engage in illegal activity by supporting sidewalk drug dealing was admonished and reminded of the several legal ways to purchase cannabis."

Will these efforts make the neighborhood safer and/or more pleasant? Take it to the comments.