Editor, San Francisco Examiner
Sept. 9, 2011

Dear Editor:

Isn't it time this City quits being so tolerant that it allows lovely Delores Park to turn into a crack haven (Letter to Editor Sept. 8)? And isn't it time for residents to quit tolerating the police department's delay averaging a year or more to approve applications for more privately-paid Patrol Special Police? Many Castro merchants and the Community Business District already pay for two of these neighborhood police officers to provide extra patrols of the business area, handle disturbances before they become full-blown crimes, and therefore free up more SFPD officers to go elsewhere. Concerned residents would likely join in to support a full-time Patrol Special in the Park, but there just aren't enough officers City-wide to go around. Meantime applications for two new Patrol Specials (one now a qualified candidate for Sheriff) have lingered in SFPD background check for over nine months, yet the police commission remains typically silent (the Cincinnati, Ohio police department takes two months to approve their new private police officers). Last fall one of these applications was mysteriously 'lost' by the SFPD (the SFPD!!) and several months later 'found.' Over two years ago a third applicant's package was 'lost' and has never been found. If we don't speak up at City Hall, we get the policing and crime we don't deserve.

Ann Grogan, J.D.
Client of the Patrol Specials Police in Glen Park
30 yr. resident