Newsom sending National Guard to SF won’t work: former officer
- California governor is sending National Guard to San Francisco
- 14 members deployed to the city will gather intelligence on drug cartels
- Former SF officer says they need more staff, not information
Aerial of downtown district at sunset, San Francisco, California, USA
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(NewsNation) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced local authorities in San Francisco will receive additional help from the California National Guard and the California State Highway Patrol in their fight against fentanyl.
However, Joel Aylworth, who spent 14 years as a police officer in San Francisco and Oakland, says this is “100% politicking.”
According to NewsNation local affiliate KRON, the 14 members of the National Guard deployed to San Francisco will provide intelligence analysis of drug cartels operating in and around the city.
But Aylworth said on “Morning in America” said police already have the knowledge they need about area crime.
“They’re going to be doing things in an office — and we don’t need any more intelligence gathering,” he said. “We’re talking about a fentanyl crisis in a very, very small area in San Francisco. The cops in the Tenderloin (neighborhood), they don’t need anybody to analyze and give them intelligence. They know where the drugs are happening.”
When it comes to the CHP, Aylworth said, it’s a great organization for writing tickets, going to bars and catching people committing DUIs — but they’re not going to get out of their car and stop drug dealers on the street.
What the city police need, he said, is staffing that it currently doesn’t have.
“Nothing’s gonna happen … from the law enforcement side unless we start strategizing with beefing up their staffing and getting the (District Attorney) to charge people for these crimes,” he added.