San Francisco Posts More Police at the Marina After Photographer Robbery
San Francisco will be posting more police in the Marina district in response to the high-profile armed robbery of a photographer at the Palace of Fine Arts last week.
In a press release, the area’s District Supervisor Catherine Stefani says she has decided to increase the police presence in the area after what she describes as a “horrific armed robbery” of a wedding photographer. Stefani has worked with the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) to add new patrol units to the Palace of Fine Arts along with SFPD Community Ambassadors who will staff the commercial corridors in the district through a $300,000 budget allocation.
I have worked with the @SFPD to ensure that there will be new patrol units deployed to the Palace of the Fine Arts and the Chestnut Street merchant corridor 7 days a week; and secured $300k for dedicated SFPD Community Ambassadors to staff our D2 merchant corridors.
— Supervisor Catherine Stefani (@SupStefani) November 22, 2022
“My number one priority as the District 2 Supervisor is to keep residents and visitors safe, and to make sure that small businesses can thrive,” Stefani says. “Every day I hear from San Franciscans who are concerned about crime in our city, and I take this issue extremely seriously.”
The SFPD Chief Bill Scott says that he is aware of the recent high-profile robberies around San Francisco’s various popular destinations and says that the public an expect to see an increased police presence in and around the Palace of Fine Arts, Fillmore, Pacific Hights, Union Street, and what he describes as other high-traffic and heavily populated residential areas, tourist destinations, and business corridors.
“Whether you’re coming here to shop, to dine, or visit one of our many historical landmarks, we are committed to keeping everyone in San Francisco safe,” Chief Scott adds.
Neither Supervisor Stefani nor Chief Scott provided specifics on how many or how frequent the increased patrols will be.
San Francisco has been the focus of violence against photographers for the last several years as there have been multiple documented incidents of armed assaults and robberies in and around the city going back years. Most have not elicited as strong of a public response as the one given by the SFPD Chief and District Supervisor as last week’s armed assault on a visiting wedding photographer, likely because while stories like it have been reported in photography circles and here on PetaPixel, they had avoided more widespread national coverage.
That changed last week, and San Franciso now faces heightened scrutiny on how it intends to deal with the escalating situation going forward, as thieves are becoming more brazen in their public attacks than ever before.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
