Over the last few months, San Francisco has been cracking down on open-air drug markets that have taken root on several street corners in the city’s South of Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods.

Some progress has been made, but Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents South of Market, is fed up with what’s happening on one particular street in his district: Sixth Street.

On Sixth Street on any given day, one can see some of the city’s issues with drug use, drug dealing and mental health all out in the open.

Dorsey is pressing city departments to take swift action.

“Just on the Sixth Street corridor, if we were to affect 100 arrests per night with an eye toward making those life-saving, medically-appropriate interventions, getting people into detox and drug treatment,” he said.

Dorsey has sent a formal letter of inquiry to all city departments that are responsible for law enforcement, public safety and public health to ask what they would need to make his 100-arrests-per-night proposal a reality.

He acknowledges there has been improvement on drug use and sales on several street corners in SoMa and the neighboring Tenderloin, but not on Sixth Street.

He said the issues on Sixth Street have not just remained the same. He said they’ve gotten worse

“This is not COVID-19 or something that we can expect to get better once we get over the hump,” he said. “The reality is that we are now in the era of synthetic drugs.”

For that reason, he believes mandated treatment after an arrest is needed.

But not everyone agrees, in part, because right now there is a lack of treatment available in the city.

“We have very little treatment for women, for example,” Coalition on Homelessness Executive Director Jennifer Friedenbach said. “We have very little for the Spanish-speaking population. We have literally no free trauma therapy that’s extensive. These are the places that have been identified as what we really need to do to address the crisis. Criminalization isn’t even on the list.”

Freidenbach said the city also needs some kind of detox facility.

She and Dorsey seldom agree on many issues, but they both said they have high hopes for Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie. Dorsey said he’s on the same page as a lot of Lurie’s public safety proposals, and Friedenbach said Lurie has a long history of funding projects aimed as solving the root causes of problems in the city.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — In the wake of the attack in New Orleans, the San Francisco Police Officers Association is asking for SFPD to reinstate its partnership with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.

The partnership was suspended in 2017 because of pressure from civil liberties advocates.

The POA posted on X: “The SFPD should rejoin the joint terrorism task force to work with all of our law enforcement partners in keeping the people who live, work and visit San Francisco safe.”

“We put out the tweet because what happened in New Orleans. Nobody wants to see that happen again. We have some high-profile events happening here in the city. And we want to make sure we have every available piece of information that is going to keep the public safe,” said Lt. Tracy McCray with the SF Police Officers Association.

McCray says there will be a lot of eyes on San Francisco because of upcoming events like the J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference.

“That’s going to be really huge and after what happened in New York with the CEO killed,” McCray said.

In February there’s the Chinese New Year Parade and the NBA All-Star Game.

“That’s a huge event. Security is paramount,” McCray said.

New Orleans attack latest: 14 killed; Police don’t believe any other suspects involved, FBI says

The San Francisco Police Department pulled out of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in 2017 during the Trump Administration.

SFPD faced pressure from civil liberties advocates and members of the Muslim community concerned that the FBI and SFPD would target undocumented immigrants and Muslim residents. Law enforcement leaders say SFPD and the FBI share information now but that more needs to be done.

“Even though there is info that is shared with the department, it’s different from actually being part of this joint effort. This task force where we would actually have someone dedicated to being on that task force,” McCray said.

“To not have SFPD involved in it, as a member of it, is ludicrous,” said former FBI Agent Rick Smith. He says SFPD needs to be part of the task force.

“It’s a coordinated group that is formed to deal with situations just like what is being dealt with today in New Orleans. It’s essential to have a coordinated effort and one command post when something like this happens,” Smith said. “To be safe, you need law enforcement to talk together in realtime to deal with these things.”

MORE: Safety experts detail ways to protect SF’s ‘entertainment zones’ in wake of New Orleans attack

Local leaders say what happened in New Orleans is a wake up call.

“We have to double down on our relationships with federal partners like the joint federal task force. I’m going to do everything I can as a member of the Board of Supervisors to support that,” said SF Supervisor Matt Dorsey.

A San Francisco Police Department spokesman said it’s time for rethink its membership in the JTTF.

It also issued a statement saying that officers are on heightened alert and are prepared to respond to any incident that may occur. SFPD will be fully staffed for all major events in the coming weeks and months.

The decision to reinstate the partnership between SFPD and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force depends on the SF Police Commission.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The quarter-mile stretch of 6th Street in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood has long struggled with open air drug usage, but Supervisor Matt Dorsey says it’s only getting worse.

It’s why he’s calling for mass-arrests of drug users to put them into “compulsory detox and treatment” and off the streets.

Dorsey first told ABC7 News about his request to the city agencies that deal with these issues to come up with an enforcement plan in order to solve drug-related “lawlessness” on the streets.

“Historically, most of the work that we’re doing is focused on drug dealers, and I think that’s something that needs to continue, but we also need to be making criminal justice interventions in public drug use,” he said. “We do need to be making arrests of drug users with an eye toward making sure that any criminal justice intervention we make is a medical and life saving intervention.”

MORE: California’s Prop 36 now in effect, increasing penalties for certain theft and drug crimes

The San Francisco Police Department estimates that at least 200 people “loiter and use drugs” in the area on a nightly basis. Dorsey wants to see no fewer than 100 arrests per night going forward.

It’s not the first time the city has tried to use the criminal justice system to get those with substance use disorders off the streets and into treatment. In 2023, Mayor London Breed directed SFPD to make more drug-related arrests.

Dr. Tyler TerMeer, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, is critical of this approach, saying it does not address the root causes of substance abuse.

“Decades of research have shown that criminalizing people for their health conditions or circumstances perpetuates harm rather than fostering recovery. Forced treatment under the threat of incarceration undermines trust in health services and disproportionately impacts marginalized communities,” TerMeer said in a statement to ABC7 News. “What San Francisco truly needs is increased investment in overdose prevention services, voluntary treatment programs, and supportive housing. These approaches save lives, reduce public health crises, and strengthen our city.”

MORE: San Francisco launches new ‘Living Proof’ health campaign to encourage drug addiction treatment

Dorsey believes the city’s longtime harm reduction approach is no longer working. And as a former addict himself, it’s personal.

“What may have worked in the heroin era is not working in the fentanyl era. We are facing drugs that are deadlier than ever before in human history. And we’re seeing levels of addiction driven lawlessness that we have never seen even in a city that has taken a permissive approach to drug use in years past,” he said.

When asked what this will cost, Dorsey did not provide specifics but said San Francisco cannot afford to ignore this problem.

Dorsey’s letter of inquiry asks five different agencies to come up with a plan for large-scale arrests and involuntary holds within the next 30 days. It is directed to the following agencies: San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco Sheriff’s Office, San Francisco Fire Department EMS Division, San Francisco Department of Public Health, and San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.