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SFPD asks for more staff as police render over 8,000 hours overtime for Union Square patrol

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Several San Francisco Police Department officials are rendering overtime work since the patrol around Union Square has been increased, Police Chief William Scott said, noting a significant decrease in his staff, ABC7 reported.

“8,000+ hours of overtime has been used in this operation,” Scott said. “If we had the proper amount of officers it would be much easier to just re-deploy on duty resources.”

Scott said that he has about 500 fewer staff than the regular. But with the crime spike last month, the police chief has to deploy measures to ensure the safety of the area.

The boosted patrol in the area is working, the SFPD said, adding that there is an about 85 percent crime reduction around Union Square.

The figure is compared to the crime statistics prior to the mass robbery incident last Nov. 19.

“We have seen a significant drop in crime overall,” Scott said. “I am talking about from theft to cars being broke into, over to burglaries.”

Scott said that patrols will be continued as it is throughout the shopping season this holiday.

He also expressed the need for more staff of the department to address the overtime concerns.

“We want people to work for SFPD,” he said. “It would be great to deploy more officers to help with these patrols. When you are close to 500 officers short, and that number continues to increase, you can’t do it.”