mayonnaiseslacks asks: What exactly does the “Violence Reduction Team” consist of and if it’s so effective (and not prohibitively expensive to operate) shouldn’t it be deployed at all times?”
Although the Violence Reduction Team sounds like it could be the basis for a new superhero movie, it’s really just a fancy name for police officers that are more concerned with stabbings than underage FourLoko drinking.
A more official definition: Officer Albie Esparza told me the Violence Reduction Team is a “citywide team of officers that respond to violent crime and high priority calls in an attempt to reduce violent crimes.”
Patrol officers respond to burglary reports and the like, but the Violence Reduction Team deals with calls (shootings, stabbings, robberies) that are “in progress.” Esparza says they “are also proactive in the way they take on suspicious people that could be lingering in certain areas of high crime.”
He couldn’t give me too much information about the members of the Violence Reduction Team, but he did say the team is comprised of members with different specified backgrounds (gangs, narcotics,etc).
I guess Robert Downey Jr. won’t be coming to SF to film a Violence Reduction Team movie anytime soon. Perchance to dream.
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