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San Francisco's Days of Woke are over after new DA Brooke Jenkins cracks-down on crime

On Brooke Jenkins' first day in office, she demanded that her staff review soft plea deals that allowed criminals to walk free

San Francisco's new DA wants to give police access to private surveillance cameras in homes and businesses. Brooke Jenkins' effort would be to crack down on open-air drug markets and theft. Jenkins took office on Friday, July 8, replacing her woke predecessor Chesa Boudin, infamous for his soft-on-crime policies.

The 40-year-old was sworn in by Mayor London Breed last week, but she has not yet run for the job. She will have to campaign in November. At present, police have access to cameras in situations where there is a serious risk of physical injury or death. Jenkins, however, seeks to impose new rules that would allow police to tackle pettier crimes too.

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"I believe this policy can help address the existence of open-air drug markets fueling the sale of the deadly drug fentanyl. Drug dealers are destroying people's lives and wreaking havoc on neighborhoods like the Tenderloin. Mass organized retail theft, like we saw in Union Square last year, or targeted neighborhood efforts like we've seen in Chinatown is another area where the proposed policy can help," Jenkins wrote in a letter to the Board of Supervisors Rules Committee, obtained by SFGate.

The plan, originally proposed by Mayor London Breed, has already been blasted by the ACLU and local politicians. Those opposing the proposal believe it will lead to an infringement on civilian privacy. "As written, SFPD’s proposal would allow officers to use private cameras to monitor people going about their daily lives and to request troves of recorded footage, keeping it for years. It does not set any meaningful limits on how SFPD can share this video footage," the ACLU said, according to the Daily Mail. 

"So, in practice, local police could conceivably turn over stockpiled and time-stamped footage to prosecutors from other states," it said, adding that the targets could include "immigrants, religious minorities, LGBTQ people, abortion seekers, black people and any other frequent targets of state violence."

On Jenkins' first day in office, she demanded that her staff review soft plea deals that allowed criminals to walk free. Revolting against Boudin, Jenkins vowed to restore the law to San Francisco. "Under my leadership the San Francisco District Attorney's office will work diligently every single day to restore order to our city and to bring our city back to being the beautiful city that we know it is and the world renowned place that everybody loves to come visit," she tweeted last week.

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"I want to make clear: Holding offenders accountable does not preclude us from moving forward with vital and important reforms to our criminal justice system. As a Black and Latina woman, I know very well the inequities that exist in our criminal justice system," she added. "Accountability does not mean that we reject reform. We can have responsible reform and accountablity both at the same time. I vow to this city to balance both in pursuit of justice and safety for all."