{"id":28783,"date":"2023-09-28T14:00:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T21:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=28783"},"modified":"2023-09-28T14:03:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T21:03:05","slug":"federal-officers-in-s-f-watched-a-man-od-outside-nancy-pelosi-federal-building-why-didnt-they-step-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/09\/28\/federal-officers-in-s-f-watched-a-man-od-outside-nancy-pelosi-federal-building-why-didnt-they-step-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal officers in S.F. watched a man OD outside Nancy Pelosi Federal Building. Why didn\u2019t they step in?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Megan Cassidy<\/a>, <\/em>Gabrielle Lurie<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sep. 26, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two
Two citizens try to save a man who was overdosing on Mission Street near Seventh Street in San Francisco on Tuesday, Sept. 19, as a Federal Protective Service officer stands over them. The man survived the overdose, and paramedics arrived to administer emergency care. Gabrielle Lurie\/The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last week, on a sidewalk just steps away from the towering Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building<\/a> at Seventh and Market streets, a commonplace horror was unfolding in the middle of the workday: Someone overdosed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two civilians \u2014 one of whom rushed from his nearby tent \u2014 swooped in to administer chest compressions and Narcan, a medicine that can reverse an opioid overdose. Paramedics arrived within minutes and wheeled a dazed but breathing man into an ambulance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scene was perhaps more remarkable, though, for what didn\u2019t happen. As civilians worked desperately to revive the man, who convulsed and threw his head back into the pavement in response to the medication, five officers with the Federal Protective Service standing within feet of him looked on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c(They did) nothing,\u201d said Michael Walker, one of the two people who administered Narcan to the man before paramedics arrived, in an interview the following day from his tent across the street. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t run over there, that boy would have died.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inaction, which was witnessed and recorded by Chronicle journalists, raises questions about why officers deployed to an area so rife with drug problems that some federal employees have been advised to work from home<\/a>, wouldn\u2019t perform basic, lifesaving measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When one of the federal officers at the scene was asked why they didn\u2019t intervene, he said they weren\u2019t allowed to, and that they didn\u2019t carry Narcan. They did, however, assist emergency responders in securing the victim to the stretcher, and a spokesperson for the Federal Protective Service said they called for the ambulance.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spokesperson said in an email that the agency \u201cis in the process of ensuring inspectors are equipped with naloxone and trained in how to administer the prescription drug when necessary,\u201d referring to the generic name for Narcan.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spokesperson said that while federal inspectors are trained with CPR and first aid, \u201cothers were already administering CPR and Narcan when the responding FPS officer arrived\u201d to the Sept. 19 overdose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA total of five officers responded, secured the scene and worked with Emergency Medical Services to secure the man for transport,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees for local public safety agencies including San Francisco\u2019s police and fire departments, and sheriff\u2019s office, have for years been outfitted with Narcan kits. Even as the opioid epidemic is on track to kill a record number of people this year<\/a>, experts say that figure would be exponentially higher if it wasn\u2019t for the prevalence of Narcan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between January and July of this year, emergency medical crews have responded to at least 146 suspected overdoses in the block surrounding the Federal Building, according to data provided by the San Francisco Fire Department. The data includes responses from both San Francisco emergency crews and other ambulance companies, but not overdoses that were aided by a private citizen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While FPS officers have long policed federal buildings in San Francisco and across the U.S., their presence at the Federal Building has been noticeably larger in the last several weeks. It\u2019s now standard to see at least five police cars lining the block and upward of a dozen officers patrolling the perimeter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal officials have not publicly commented on the boosted deployment, but one of the officers said it was in response to news that officials with the Department of Health and Human Services, one of the tenants at the building, had advised its employees to work from home due to the unsafe conditions outside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an Aug. 4 memo obtained by the Chronicle,<\/a> HHS Assistant Secretary for Administration Cheryl Campbell recommended employees at the building \u201cmaximize the use of telework for the foreseeable future.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walker, the man who helped to revive the victim last week and often goes by the nickname Frosty, questioned why the officers didn\u2019t at least perform CPR, even if they didn\u2019t carry Narcan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents the portion of the city that includes the building, said he reached out to the director of the city\u2019s Office of Overdose Prevention to ensure that the city would coordinate with federal authorities if they needed Narcan supplies or training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s the case that federal protective officers aren\u2019t trained in it, but it can pretty much be learned in a few minutes,\u201d Dorsey said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorsey, who last month criticized federal authorities<\/a> for the work-from-home recommendation, credited federal authorities for stepping up their efforts to police the troubled areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am grateful we\u2019re in a situation where multiple agencies, from multiple levels of government, are putting more skin in the game,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reach Megan Cassidy:\u00a0megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com.<\/a>\u00a0Reach Gabrielle Lurie: glurie@sfchronicle.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written By Megan Cassidy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Megan Cassidy is a crime reporter with The Chronicle, also covering cops, criminal justice issues and mayhem. Previously, Cassidy worked for the Arizona Republic covering Phoenix police, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and desert-area crime and mayhem. She is a two-time graduate of the University of Missouri, and has additionally worked at the Casper Star-Tribune, National Geographic and an online publication in Buenos Aires. Cassidy can be reached on twitter at @meganrcassidy, and will talk about true crime as long as you\u2019ll let her.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written By Gabrielle Lurie<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabrielle Lurie is one of the newest Chronicle staff members. Raised in Washington D.C, Gabrielle Lurie picked up a camera at 17-years old. She moved to New York City where she continued to photograph and study art history at New York University. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, LA Times and The Guardian. She has covered a variety of events ranging from politics to the homeless crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"San<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\"HEARST\u00a92023 Hearst Communications, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Megan Cassidy, Gabrielle Lurie Sep. 26, 2023 (SFChronicle.com) Last week, on a sidewalk just steps away from the towering Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building at Seventh and Market streets, a commonplace horror was unfolding in the middle of the workday: Someone overdosed. Two civilians \u2014 one of whom rushed from his nearby tent \u2014 swooped in to… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1144],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28783"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28783"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28784,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28783\/revisions\/28784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}