Years before Vice President Kamala Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, she promoted a third-strike crime policy for drug dealers as San Francisco’s district attorney that was promptly shut down by law enforcement for being too easy on narcotics peddlers.
Harris served as San Francisco’s DA from 2004 to 2011, when she was then elected attorney general of California. In her second year in office as the Golden City’s district attorney, Harris proposed a drug enforcement policy that would have prosecuted drug dealers upon their third arrest. Under the proposal, dubbed “Operation Safe Streets,” police in the city would have detained and released drug dealers two times before finally charging them upon their third arrest.
The San Francisco Police Department, however, refused to take part in the plan, detailing in a letter to Harris that such a proposal would likely allow criminals back on the streets to re-offend immediately after being detained.
“This proposal asks us not to arrest, but instead detain and release observed narcotics sales suspects pursuant to Penal Code Section 849(b) P.C. When the same suspect is arrested the third time for narcotics sales, your office would then charge all three counts,” then-Police Chief Heather Fong wrote in a letter to Harris in 2005 which was obtained by Fox Digital.
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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at IBEW Local Union #5 on Sept. 2, 2024 in Pittsburgh. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“The proposal would result in a double standard, as adults would be released while juveniles would be booked. Additionally, narcotics dealers who sell drugs near a school would be released after only a brief detention,” Fong argued. “Undoubtedly, this would send the wrong message to observant children who unfortunately witness drug dealing activity on a regular basis.”
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Then-District Attorney Kamala Harris walks into the courtroom shortly before the hearing convened in San Francisco on April 29, 2004. (Photo By Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Fong added in the letter to Harris that while the left-wing city was sympathetic to those suffering with drug addiction issues, the police department and community did not hold drug dealers in high regard.
“The San Francisco Police Department fully supports treatment programs for users who desire to break their cycle of addiction. However, the community and the Police Department are not sympathetic to those who sell narcotics and exploit for profit the weakness of others,” Fong wrote.
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“We believe drug dealers should be held accountable for their actions. Therefore, we believe the public would not view a ‘detain and release’ program favorably.”
Fong capped off the letter by telling Harris that the department would not participate in such a proposal.
“After carefully considering the pros and cons of this proposal, we decline to participate in such a program. We would prefer a program where a suspect has been arrested three times for narcotics sales without being rebooked, be bundled together for a District Attorney warrant. Under such a program, the evidence against a defendant would be tripled and the case(s) would certainly have more jury appeal.”
A local outlet, The Daily Journal, reported in 2006 that Harris’ chief of the criminal division in the DA’s office responded to Fong that he was willing to risk potential negative media from the program and that the city should plow ahead with the plan.
“It is true that San Francisco is home to some media outlets that may perceive of this program as being too tough on narcotics offenders, because more dealers will wind up behind bars as a result of this approach,” then-Criminal Division Chief Jeff Ross wrote, according to the outlet.
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“I’m sure you would agree that we must pursue effective enforcement approaches without regard to whether there might be critical media coverage.”
The proposal ultimately failed and did not go into effect.
A pedestrian crosses a street in the Outer Sunset district by Ocean Beach on June 26, 2023 in San Francisco. (Photo by Loren Elliott via Getty Images )
Fast-forward to the current election cycle, Harris’ 2005 plan was resurrected by California critics who say the vice president’s bravado as a “tough” prosecutor is rewriting history.
The Harris campaign has broadcast ads touting Harris’ record on law and order, focusing on her years as a prosecutor in Alameda County, San Francisco and as attorney general of the state.
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“As a tough prosecutor, Kamala Harris dealt with men like Trump all the time: Rapists, con men, frauds, criminals – she’s used to guys like Trump, used to putting them in their place,” a narrator for a pro-Harris ad released last month stated.
Law enforcement and Republicans in the state hit back against such ads, the Daily Mail reported.
“The campaign is trying to completely reinvent reality,” Republican California Rep. Kevin Kiley said. “Those of us who have actually lived in California – in particular in San Francisco where she was DA but Los Angeles as well – know all too well what the reality was.”
“She was a champion of San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy, she wanted drug dealers to go without being prosecuted until the third attempt, and she herself said in her own book that she was a progressive prosecutor.”
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris speaks to supporters before a No on K press conference Oct. 29, 2008 in San Francisco. San Francisco ballot measure Proposition K seeks to stop enforcing laws against prostitution. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Kevin Cashman, who was deputy chief of the San Francisco Police Department when Harris proposed the drug dealer proposal in 2005, told the outlet that police officers were “shocked” by the proposals.
“We immediately saw that it wouldn’t be effective for our mission of keeping San Francisco safe,” he told the Daily Mail.
“The District Attorney called the strategy she recommended Operation Safe Streets. We in the police department called it Catch and Release, because we would have to catch them, identify them, and then release them back in the community without any action taken.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign about the 2005 proposal but did not receive a response by the publication deadline.
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