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Police charged with the public security and peace outreach
to community - summary of article in Chinese by Yvonne Chen
Yun-pu; San Francisco, World
Journal 1-12-10
January 12, 2010 12:00 AM
The economic downturn with increasing cases of theft and
other crime in San Francisco is troublesome. San Francisco
faces budget deficits which signifies decreases in police
funding. Captain Daniel MaDonagh of Southern Station joined
the San Francisco Patrol Special Police and other citizen
safety programs, to present options to a residents meeting
in the South Beach area on Monday night, January 11. In order
to augment the public police, residents or business may hire
the Patrol Specials for extra security.
Patrol Specials provide services such as standing watch at
closing time for merchants and walking employees to the parking
lot. With a police escort there is less concern about robbery,
assault and other issues of crime. Residents may also request
other services such as vacation watch services if they are
out of their home for a period of time. Patrol Special Police
can patrol housing projects and condominiums to observe and
report unusual activity or suspicious persons.
The Patrol Special Police are the only private patrol service
legally authorized to patrol public streets; private security
companies must patrol fixed locations by law. Special Police
charge a range from $50 to $75 per hour depending on the level
and type of service desired. Businesses often hire the Patrol
Specials for additional fees to cover longer hours and to
deal with more difficult security issues, ranging from $50
to $200 per hour or more.
In the South Beach area, Patrol Special Police Officers Scott
and Todd Hart announced that they can provide patrols daily
from 4 pm in the afternoon until 4 am in the early morning.
Patrol Special officers provide quality of life services
that the San Francisco public police may not have time or
be specifically prepared to address. Patrol Specials do not
receive equivalent civil service salaries as do the public
police, but do receive the same annual training, wear a Patrol
Special Police uniform, carry a service revolver and are on
police radio bandwidth and ready to support the police establishment
and community with information they obtain.
The San Francisco Police Department can also provide additional
security for special events via their off-duty officer program
known as '10 (B)'. Hourly rates are higher than the Patrol
Specials charge, amounting to about $87 per hour plus a 22%
additional administrative charge, and officers hired through
this program also add to the future taxpayer burden of paying
pension costs of these officers when they retire. Moreover,
if off-duty police deployed under the 10(B) program provide
motorcycle or vehicle support, additional charges will accrue
with the effective overall rate reaching about $109 per hour.
Today, due to the practical challenges of crime, some believe
that the Patrol Special Police program should be more widely
introduced to the public. The program currently has 40 special
patrol officers but with the increased demand, they will recruit
more officers to serve. For further information, contact Patrol
Special Police Officer Scott Hart, (415)543-8807, San Francisco,
email: jtshart@aol.com.
Additional information on the San Francisco Special Patrol
program service is available at: www.sfspecialneighborhoodpolicing.org
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