Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office shared on Wednesday that police have seized an estimated 700 pounds of fentanyl and other drugs in San Francisco in the last year.
The announcement comes on the anniversary of Newsom’s decision to use the California Highway Patrol and California National Guard to clean up San Francisco’s streets.
Among the seized narcotics was also a hefty number of arrests, according to CHP Officer Andrew Berkeley, who spoke with KCBS Radio about the report.
“We’re looking at 506 arrests. And we’re looking at, really, a lot of drugs that have been removed from the streets of San Francisco,” Berkeley said.
The news also comes as San Francisco continues to see accidental drug overdose deaths rise, with 806 dying in 2023, up from 647 in 2022.
So far this year, the city’s chief medical examiner has reported 61 unintentional drug overdose deaths.
“Over the last year, we have made significant, measurable progress for safety in San Francisco,” Newsom said in a statement. “While there is more to do to improve public safety, crime rates are significantly down as we work with our local partners to continue to reverse the tide.”
Other statistics highlighted by Newsom’s office were the more than 6,200 citations CHP issued, along with 115 stolen vehicles it has recovered since May 2023.
After just one year of the operation, Newsom’s office reported that violent crime and property crime were down significantly year-over-year. Berkeley echoed this, saying that the additional support from the CHP is helping local law enforcement.
“Having the California Highway Patrol there, we can conduct the traffic enforcement. We can make the vehicle stops,” Berkeley said. “We can handle that, which allows the San Francisco Police Department to focus on the foot beats, patrolling the sidewalks, handling things not in our roadways.”
However, Mayor London Breed stressed that they “have more work to do.”
“Together, we are sending a message at all levels of government that anyone selling fentanyl in this city will be arrested and prosecuted,” Breed said in a statement.