Ok, before you start asking how I ended up in the Richmond District Police Station, let me assure you it had nothing to do with bad behavior. 😉
As part of “National Night Out” on Tuesday night, the Richmond District station opened their doors to residents to come by and check out the station.
We assembled in the community room at the back of the station (which used to be police horse stables way back in the day) where we kicked off with a short info session about SAFE. They are an organization affiliated with the SFPD that helps promote public safety, primarily by helping residents form neighborhood watch groups.
Then it was off for what we had all been waiting for – the tour! Led by two very friendly officers, we walked in through the back door of the station where they bring in the “perps” for booking. Just inside the entry are lockers for the officers to secure their guns when they bring in an arrest. And then a door that leads into a holding area.
The holding area is bare bones with a bench the prisoner can sit on while they are processed by the Sergeant, all the while cuffed to the back of the wall. If they have to stick around for awhile before they head downtown, they’ll go into one of two holding cells. One of them is less furnished and has an ez-clean floor for the more inebriated visitors. Both have industrial, steel toilets in them (brrr).
I noticed a big red button on the wall. The officer told me that’s the “Can I get some help here?!” button (note that’s my nickname for it, not his). In the event an officer gets into a sticky situation in the holding area with a prisoner, they can hit the button and reinforcements will come running.
I can report that the technology at the station was up to speed in some areas, behind the times with others. I did see a laser fingerprint scanner but that sat alongside a dot-matrix printer that looked like it came from my grammar school computer lab. But hey, I’m sure it gets the job done. And no, the officers we saw working on reports were not huddled over a typewriter. They toiled away in front of flatscreens like the rest of us.
We walked by a separate room where minors are placed when they come into the station. Across from that was a report room where officers can work and the lieutenant can run roll-call at the start of a shift (complete with a weathered “Hill Street Blues” style podium). About 70 officers are stationed in the Richmond.
Around the corner was the station’s main desk where an officer deals with visitors to the station who come in for various reasons, like filing a report. The officers grumbled that the thick, bullet-proof partition is poorly designed – the visitor can hear the officer behind the glass perfectly but they can’t hear the visitor.
We got a peek into the armory (no pics please!) which had medical kits and a rack of scary looking, black shotguns. Officers take home their sidearm but are required to check in all other weapons at the end of their shift.
Despite the general dreariness of the station (serious lack of light!), there is a nice, sky-lit atrium near the front of the station (e.g. not the entrance the bad guys and girls enter through). And lo and behold, a very large, lovely fish tank sits there. I was told it’s maintained by one officer in the station who must be a fish hobbyist like the character, Sipowitz, on NYPD Blue.
Just off the atrium is the Lieutenant’s office. Or the dungeon as she affectionately called it – not a single window in the place. We all piled into her tiny office where she was pouring over paperwork and schedules (with an occasional glance at the Giants game on the muted TV across from her).
The Lieutenant was extremely friendly, answering lots of questions and explaining what everything was for. In a tip to old-school paper-pushing, she had a classic rack of rubber stamps for various directives ranging from ‘Read to Platoon’ to ‘Lieutenant’s Office’.
Just down the hall was another report room, where a few officers were working. Above their heads were arrest photos of former/current offenders that they want to be sure to keep an eye on, some on parole, others just worthy of extra attention.
Someone in our group pointed to one photo and exclaimed “I know that guy, I see him in my neighborhood all the time!”. The room was a sobering reminder of what the officers deal with when they’re out on patrol.
Unfortunately Captain Richard Correia had another engagement so we didn’t get a chance to meet him in person. But his officers were great hosts and we really enjoyed the tour. And like any police station visit, we were thrilled to walk back out the front door. “You’re free to go”. 
Sarah B.
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