San Francisco police officers were paid more than $143,000 in overtime during the July 8 Dolores Park hill bomb, an annual skateboarding event that was shut down earlier this year and resulted in the arrests of 117 mostly young people.
The costs, tallied by the San Francisco Police Department in response to a public records request, include only overtime pay. The department said a total of 1,221 overtime hours were used by officers during the enforcement. Using the average overtime pay rate, the department calculated a total overtime cost for the operation: $143,236.
The department clarified that it was “nearly impossible” to disentangle general overtime costs during that time period from operation-specific overtime costs, and that “some of that figure came from SFPD use of overtime to backfill our basic staffing needs.”
The enforcement action resulted in dozens of teenagers being rounded up by officers after police moved to curtail the event. Though the event has, in years past, also seen a heavy police presence — and participants and bystanders have been injured or, in the case of a cyclist struck by a skater in 2020, killed — the police operation in July was the largest in its history.
It was also San Francisco’s biggest mass arrest of teenagers in at least six years: A total of 117 people, 83 of them minors, were arrested in connection with the event, the vast majority encircled by police officers and made to sit on the street or stand outside for hours. The cases against all but two of the minors, and the vast majority of the adults, have been dropped.
The operation involved dozens of officers on foot and several vehicles: Police motorcycles, vans and squad cars; also, several Muni buses were used to transport the arrested teenagers a block away to the police station. The police had, earlier in the day, set up barricades along Dolores Street to prevent skating downhill.
The overtime costs provided today did not include those associated costs. The city suffered other costs, too, namely $70,000 in damages to Muni vehicles by attendees spray-painting light-rail vehicles and buses near the park.
“Wow, okay — that’s high,” said Police Commissioner Kevin Benedicto upon learning the overtime costs. Benedicto has criticized the police response on July 8 as heavy-handed, and said this new number only solidified his belief: “This doesn’t strike me as the most efficient use of our resources.”
The public costs may not end there: Many of those arrested have vowed to file a class-action suit against the city, and Rachel Lederman, a civil rights attorney who has met with dozens of parents and teenagers, said Monday that a federal suit is taking shape.
“It’s going to be filed as a class action with five named class representatives who are all minors, a cross-section of the folks who were arrested,” she said. She said the five named plaintiffs would be teenagers, 13 to 17, who were participants in the hill bomb, observing the skating event, or “simply swept up when they were standing in line for ice cream or going about other business.”
The suit will be filed in federal court alleging violations of the plaintiffs’ First and Fourth Amendment rights, Lederman said, as well as violations under California civil rights laws. The court would have to approve the suit as a class action.
The costs to the city of such a suit are unclear — the City Attorney’s Office could offer to settle with plaintiffs, or a jury could award damages — but Lederman pointed to a recent $13 million payment by New York City to settle a lawsuit alleging unlawful arrest of 1,380 people during the George Floyd protests. That settlement amounted to some $10,000 apiece for recipients.
Potential costs are “all over the board,” Lederman said, but plaintiffs “should be compensated significantly.”
That is about what the city spends per hour on the homeless, at $1.1 billion per year. And with less results. These spoiled suburban brats did more than the $70,000 in damage to Muni and it would have been worse if SFPD hadn’t taught them a much-needed lesson.
A penny paid to these spoiled brats would be a penny too much. How about the city file a class action suit against these “children” who terrorized neighbors and Muni riders that day.
Why not just legitimize this event instead of trying to stop it? Seams like you could prevent injury, crime and collateral damage to pedestrians and bicyclists just by having a light police presence and blocking off the street. Turn it into a real event, like the big wheel race.
What’s up with all the commenters on the thread trying to turn this city into some sterile boring city where nothing interesting happens. Skaters have a long history in SF. Probably longer than most people have lived here. Stop trying to paint them all with such broad strokes. It makes you sound old and grumpy.
Hard to legitimize an event that has resulted in life-changing injuries to participants when there is no organizer, no insurer would issue coverage, and the vast majority do not want the City and County to be liable for the inevitable consequences. It costs the Big Wheel people about 15 grand to put on that event, and people who ride — or the parents of anybody under age 18 who rides — are required to sign releases for insurance purposes. Think that’ll work with the skateboarders who gather flash-mob style via social media?
you made zero mention of the crime, danger, and nuisance these skaters cause. was there a permit process? have there been injuries in the past? severe traffic jams? if you want yo be a responsible journalist consider all the facts. i say spend a much $ as you need to to bring elements of law to the city. next, sfpd go after the dirtbag dirt bikers. incarcerate the all. i’m a liberal but something’s gotta give. and i’m at my limit.
And now the city is moving fast to put in a skatepark at Civic Center Plaza. I forget. Does SF want skaters or not?
I am beyond perplexed and find the level of force and mishandling resources unjustifiable. Clearly, there are more serious crimes that warrant such force; the side shows (donuts) smash & grab, theft & robbery, & assaults. Fight real crime, not skateboarders!
More money for the cops. More money for the cops. More money for the cops. I’m afraid. I’m afraid. Citizens are afraid. Afraid. More money for the cops. Make us safe. It doesn’t get better than this. Round up those teenagers. Make us safe. More money for the cops. We are so much safer now that the Scott and Our Saviors have rounded up those hooligans who would have made us feel unsafe. The cops acted quickly and if they didn’t follow policy, then the policy must be wrong!! More money for the cops!!@@!
And Gumps is maybe leaving SF…because …crime. Joseph Heller couldn’t spin a more deflating farce. The police are going to maintain order where they can, which doesn’t leave too many places thanks to irrational ideologues driving cities into the ground. Breath taking absurdity.
Between the Lake Street neighbors frothing that their neighborhood was subject to dirt bike riding youth doing wheelies and taking up both lanes in broad daylight for a few minutes one day (wheelies, SERIOUSLY!!!) and the pearl clutching performances of outrage by these Puritans over the Hill Bomb, can we just expect that their existing on permanent tenterhooks about any disorder is probably going to favor an early death? Coming to terms with Weltschmerz sooner rather than later is better for your health–the world will never live up to anyone’s perfectionist expectations.
They’re seriously losing it over wheelies and skateboards.
Skateboarding is safer than walking in my opinion. Don’t harass youngsters for doing something that is probably gonna keep them out of trouble when there is very little alternative things to do. If you wanna think about it think ok you don’t wanna skate in the sidewalk to avoid people and that leaves the street and it’s good to keep pace with the cars when possible go with the flow and going downhill is a necessity in this city you exercise going up and sharpin your reflexes going down it is a safe way for them to learn as something you would rather them not learn alone for if they fall there is someone to pick them back up if need be why people gotta be so harsh on them
Did Mission Local ever report on the dollar amount of damage skaters did to MUNI vehicles?
Paulie —
It’s in there. Try again.
JE
Youth whatever you do Do Not Settle no matter how much they offer your Dignity and Your Voice Your Oppions and our Communitys Need Brave Young Individuals who are willing too Make A Significant Impact on policy Moving Forward you want more activities and Opportunities for your Hobbies and Potential Careers Then you have too Fight No Matter the negativity that comes at you You are The Change you are the Future of our Community!
Overpaid cops corralling over-entitled kids, and we pay the price (well, maybe not you, cuz SF has always structured things so outsiders do the paying…).
This is just another data point in out-of-control behavior from residents and visitors alike.