THE SAN FRANCISCO BEAT

Three letters to the editor on Tuesday, in a package headlined "Tales
of life in the city," raised questions about the competence and
attentiveness of the San Francisco Police Department. One writer, a
visitor from Chicago, detailed his frustration in trying to retrieve
his stolen belongings. A city resident bemoaned the difficulty of
finding a shopping cart at a grocery store - while homeless people
seemed to steal them with impunity. A tourist from Boise, Idaho,
described how her stay in the Grand Hyatt hotel seemed like a
smoke-filled scene from a Cheech and Chong movie.

These letter writers deserve more than an opportunity to vent.
They're raising good questions about the Police Department's
practices and priorities. They deserve answers.

What does the SFPD have to say for itself?

I put those questions to Police Chief George Gascon in a phone
interview last week. Gascon recently arrived from Mesa, Ariz., with a
reputation as a straight shooter and an avowed determination to
challenge the culture and assumptions of police work in this town.
Here are three challenges for the new chief.

Case one: A thief broke into the rental car of Dr. Ori Gottlieb, an
anesthesiologist from Chicago who was in San Francisco for a
conference. Among the stolen items: Gottlieb's prized leather jacket.
Police caught the thief, found the doctor's business card in the
jacket, and called Gottlieb to tell him the good news.

Then came the bad news. Gottlieb was told that he would have to
return to San Francisco to pick up the recovered items, even though
the doctor had offered to pay for shipping.

It got worse. When Gottlieb arrived at SFPD headquarters, he
encountered a bureaucratic runaround, being shuffled from office to
office. Ultimately, he was told that they could not find his
recovered goods, even though he had the claim number with him. The
officers told him it would be impossible to find the leather jacket,
dress clothes and other items in a huge warehouse stuffed with recovered loot.

"I was just picturing this 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' warehouse of
people's things," Gottlieb said by phone last week. "It was difficult
to swallow."

There are several outrageous aspects of this story, most notably the
prospect that visitors - also known as the lifeblood of our tourism
industry - are being forced to make a second trip if they are the
victims of a theft.

Gascon said he is looking into the Gottlieb case, and he has been
assured that the department does not have a written policy of
requiring out-of-town theft victims to pick up their recovered items.

"If we do, we'll amend that policy," Gascon said. He also said
Gottlieb would receive an apology.

It seems to me that the police department that lost Gottlieb's
belongings - and put him through the time and expense of a vain
mission to retrieve them - has a duty to replace them.

Case two: Greg Griffin, a San Francisco resident, wondered why the
city seemed to turn "a blind eye" toward the rampant appropriation of
shopping carts by homeless people. "If I was a grocery store owner it
would really bug me to see folks roaming the streets with my stolen
carts," he wrote.

If it bugs them enough to call police, an officer will respond,
according to Gascon. Most of the major stores have their own systems
for retrieving stolen carts, he explained.

"The ball is in their court," he said.

Case three: Sandy Dalton of Boise, Idaho, took her 73-year-old mother
to San Francisco to see the musical "South Pacific." She booked a
nonsmoking room at the Grand Hyatt, but when she arrived, the entire
hotel seemed to be engulfed by the distinct scent of marijuana.
Dalton's visit coincided with the 38th annual conference of NORML, a
group that advocates the legalization of marijuana. It seems that
many of the conference attendees were lighting up as if their goal
already had been achieved.

Dalton and her mother rolled wet towels under their door to stop the
secondhand smoke, but it did little good. The smoke was so pervasive
that her mother felt ill.

"There were a couple of guys who rode up the elevator with us at the
Grand Hyatt during the marijuana love fest," she said. "One of them
mentioned that he was on probation and was worried that he wouldn't
pass a drug test, given that the elevator was honestly thick with pot smoke."

She complained to the front desk. The hotel offered an apology and a
free breakfast. It did not, apparently, ask for law enforcement's
help in controlling the party.

Gascon said the department reviewed its records during that three-day
period and found only two calls regarding the Grand Hyatt: one for a
parking matter and another for a labor demonstration.

He acknowledged that marijuana smoking is a "low-grade event" on the
scale of police priorities - as it should be - but if officers had
been called, they would have started with warnings to smokers who did
not have medical marijuana cards.

The Grand Hyatt should not have been surprised that a NORML event
turned into an abnormal smokeathon. It owes Sandy Dalton and other
nonsmoking guests more than a free breakfast and an apology. They
should get refunds for their exposure to the inconsiderate side of
San Francisco.