The crimes below are a small snapshot of what the officers of Northern Station are doing. For a more comprehensive list, visit www.sf-police.org; under Compstat, there is a link to CrimeMAPS.
“WOW”
Sunday, June 2, 2:05 a.m.
1700 Block of Sacramento Street
Officers on patrol spotted a silver Dodge Challenger heading in the opposite direction, with headlights off and what appeared to be fresh front bumper damage. The officers pulled over the vehicle; they discovered the driver to be reeking of alcohol and fumbling with his wallet.
When the officers told him why they had pulled him over, he said there was nothing wrong with his car, adding, “It’s not damaged.” The officers then showed him the damage to his car, and he responded, “Wow.” He refused to take field sobriety tests; he was taken to Mission Station for a breath test, which he agreed to, and his blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit. He was booked at Northern Station.
THE BICYCLE THIEF, PART II
Wednesday, June 5, 4:35 a.m.
Polk Street at Clay
A woman walking her bike on the sidewalk was approached by a man who was initially friendly but became increasingly hostile, demanding she give him money. He grabbed her bike from her and said she wouldn’t get it back unless she paid him $100. The woman texted her boyfriend to meet her with $100, but the subject took the bike and rode away down Polk Street.
The bike, which had a distinctive license plate with the victim’s last name on it, was tracked down by officers, who took the subject into custody. He was positively ID’d by the victim, who had her bike returned to her after it was photographed as evidence. The subject was booked at Northern Station.
AM I MY BROTHER’S KEEPER?
Thursday, June 6, 11:52 a.m.
Larkin Street at O’Farrell
Officers spotted on the street and took into custody a male subject for whom they had been searching. Two days earlier, he had been named by a stabbing victim as the suspect; the victim and suspect are brothers. Officers tracked down the subject by searching known areas that he frequents, and eventually they found him. He was positively identified by his brother.
GUILTY CONSCIENCE
Thursday, June 6, 7:34 p.m.
Green Street at Gough
Plainclothes officers were responding to a call for service when they spotted a subject they had arrested in the past. The subject was walking along when he in turn spotted one of the officers, making eye contact and apparently recognizing him. He immediately turned and hotfooted it away in the opposite direction. Yelling, “Stop, police,” the officers chased the man, who responded with, “I didn’t do anything” even as he threw baggies of meth from his pockets. The chase ended when the subject collided with another person on the street. A field test of the meth was positive. The subject was handcuffed and then booked at Northern Station.
HE’S GOT A PROBLEM
Sunday, June 9, 9:13 p.m.
Gough Street at Green
A caller reported seeing someone break the window of a Mercedes, remove some objects, and escape by boarding a bus. The caller gave officers the description of the subject, the bus line and coach number, as well as its direction of travel. The bus was tracked down and stopped; an officer boarded it and began looking for the subject; when she was halfway through the bus, she was approached by a male matching the suspect’s description who asked her, “Do you got a problem?” The officer had him turn around and put his hands behind his back, but when he did so and she grabbed his wrist, the subject suddenly kicked backward, striking the officer’s left knee. He then broke her radio microphone when she tried to use it to call for backup.
Despite assistance from some of the other passengers to try to control the subject, he managed to get off the bus and run down Van Ness. The officer figured out that she couldn’t hear radio traffic on her radio but she could transmit, so she gave the direction of flight of the subject, and soon assisting officers were able to arrest the subject. When they captured him, he yelled, “What are you doing? Why are you chasing me? I didn’t do nothing; you had no right to chase me.”
A bus passenger gave the officers the bag they believed was stolen from the car, and the original caller identified the subject as the same person he saw breaking into the Mercedes. Officers contacted the owner of the Mercedes who, not surprisingly, told them she had not given anyone permission to break into her car and steal its contents.
The subject was transported to Northern Station and booked on multiple charges. The officer suffered some bruising and moderate pain in her knee.
PHONE TROUBLE
Sunday, June 9, 10:10 p.m.
McAllister Street at Gough
Officers responded to a possible robbery and found a young woman holding a bloody t-shirt to her nose. She had been on a bus, sitting in the back and playing a game on her phone. Suddenly a young male subject reached over the man sitting next to her and snatched away her phone. She got up and struggled with the subject, ending up on the ground outside the bus. Another subject came up and punched the victim one time in the nose; both subjects got away.
Officers broadcast the subjects’ descriptions via radio, and two plainclothes officers from Tenderloin Station quickly captured them. The victim positively identified the subjects, recovered her phone, and received medical attention.
The subjects were booked at the Northern Station.
