Residents praise new captain and his plan to go ‘back to basics’
by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN August 26, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)
Read Mission Local often?
Help grow our newsroom, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by giving below.
New Tenderloin Police Station Captain Matt Sullivan said at a community meeting Tuesday evening that four San Francisco police officers will begin patrolling on foot next month in a new strategy to address street conditions in the neighborhood.
Sullivan said the officers will hit the pavement during the day and early evening in mid-September, and will connect with residents and business owners, break up groups of loiterers and address complaints.
“The main goal for them is to improve street conditions, so they’re going back to basics,” Sullivan said, to applause from the 25 or so residents attending the meeting at the Tenderloin Station on Eddy Street.
Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter below.Sign up
Sullivan, who took over the Tenderloin police station last month, said the plan comes in response to the feedback he has heard from community members.
“The request was for officers to be more visible, to be seen, to be known,” Sullivan said in an interview after the meeting. “The community thought that would be beneficial going forward, so we listened.”
For now, the patrols’ focus will be on three-block stretches on Hyde Street and Leavenworth Street between Golden Gate Avenue and Ellis Street, as well as the area of Jones and Market streets.
The idea of foot patrols appeared very popular at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Bringing foot beats to the Tenderloin was one of our main needs,” said Stone Selseth, who is on the safety committee of the Central City SRO Collaborative and lives in one of the target areas at Market and Jones. “So we’re going to have some good news to tell our cohorts.”
Naomi Cohen, a tenant organizer who said she has lived in the Tenderloin for about 10 years, was disappointed that her block of O’Farrell would not be part of the foot beat. Still, she called it “a wonderful idea.” She said she has rarely, if ever, seen police officers walking the neighborhood on foot.
Multiple residents at the meeting said they were grateful for the changes they had already begun seeing since Sullivan took over a month ago. Last month, he told residents of another effort in the neighborhood to block off different streets to vehicles for a few days at a time.
That strategy, led by the multi-agency Drug Market Agency Coordination Center, is intended to eliminate cover for crime and unwanted activity that might be obscured by parked cars.
Aaron Thomas, a Tenderloin resident, said that in the last month he has noticed officers exiting their cars to do police work. A block near his home that has long been home to open-air drug activity and noise has become less of a problem.
“We’re seeing a lot less crime on that particular block,” Thomas said. “I got some sleep this month.”
Thomas called foot patrols the “missing piece,” after a year and a half of watching police officers remain in their vehicles and ineffectively scold people through loudspeakers.
Seeing an officer on foot, he said, will be different. “It makes you recognize, ‘I can’t do this illegal thing here, at least as openly as I was doing.’”
The new police presence could lead to arrests, but Sullivan said the main goal was to improve street conditions through high visibility.
“I want our foot beats to know the pulse of the community,” Sullivan said.
MORE POLICE NEWS
S.F. police foot patrols are coming to these Tenderloin streets
What S.F.’s war on illegal drug markets looks like, one case at a time
S.F.’s new strategy to get rid of drugs in the Tenderloin: Ban cars
Support the Mission Local team
We’re a small, independent, nonprofit newsroom that works hard to bring you news you can’t get elsewhere.
In 2025, we have a lofty goal: 5,000 donors by the end of the year — more than double the number we had last year. We are 20 percent of the way there: Donate today and help us reach our goal!
ELENI BALAKRISHNAN
Reporting from the Tenderloin. Follow me on Twitter @miss_elenius.More by Eleni Balakrishnan
