Eleni Balakrishnan

San Francisco

Police and Courts Reporter at Mission Local

police & courts reporter @MLNow • desi-habesha siempre pensando en méxico • @RiceUniversity, @LJJProject alum • tips: [email protected]

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Articles

Crypto company to give over $9M to S.F. police for surveillance unit

4 days ago | missionlocal.org | Eleni Balakrishnan

Cryptocurrency company Ripple Labs is seeking to donate nearly $9.4 million to the San Francisco Police Department’s Real Time Investigation Center, a fledgling branch of the department that uses surveillance technology to monitor crimes in progress. The gift will fund equipment purchases, including 12 new police drones, and will also cover a year and a half of a sublease for 14,000 square feet of downtown office space that Ripple is no longer using.
S.F promised residents permanent housing in 2022. Now they’re being moved out.

1 week ago | missionlocal.org | Eleni Balakrishnan

Ryan Palmer bounced around for years: He spent about a decade on the streets, then lived in two residential hotels that he had to leave under duress – first someone pulled a gun on him, and then a neighbor busted a hole through his wall with a sledgehammer. When he landed two years ago at 835 Turk St. — the former Gotham Hotel, which was converted to permanent supportive housing under the name Vantaggio Suites — Palmer thought at last he was somewhere he could call home.
Tech-backed ‘Corner Store’ coming to old Lucca Ravioli location

2 weeks ago | missionlocal.org | Eleni Balakrishnan

Payment processing company Square will next week launch a business and community hub called “The Corner Store” at the long-shuttered Lucca Ravioli Co. location on Valencia Street.
As S.F. pushes to get addicts to services, DOGE cuts their funding

4 weeks ago | missionlocal.org | Eleni Balakrishnan

People who are addicted to fentanyl, says Dorothy Dean, “don’t listen to nobody.” For that reason, Dean is proud of every person she has talked into seeking medical help. But in late March, Vanguard Lab, an art and activist space on Sixth Street, where Dean did harm reduction work, found out that it was caught up in federal cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency. Its $250,000 federal grant was cut off abruptly. Vanguard Lab closed its doors a few weeks later.
Chief Bill Scott took on the difficult task of transforming a beleaguered SFPD. Did he deliver?

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Eleni Balakrishnan

Chief Bill Scott took over the San Francisco Police Department more than eight years ago amid chaos and upheaval: a series of fatal police shootings, a hunger strike to oust the former chief, and federal government intervention to reform the department’s issues. Today, as upheaval continues in San Francisco — a shift back toward more law-and-order policing, a new mayor at the helm — Scott announced on Wednesday he will be leaving in June.
S.F. police chase sends suspects fleeing into startled neighbors’ backyards

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Eleni Balakrishnan

A police chase on San Jose Avenue this afternoon sent two suspects bailing out of a vehicle and fleeing into the backyards of the Fairmount area of Glen Park, according to residents and police. Witnesses saw dozens of police, including officers from Daly City and a helicopter from the California Highway patrol swarming the area with rifles drawn after 5 p.m., going door to door seeking two suspects.
Man killed in Mission District shooting Friday afternoon

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Eleni Balakrishnan

A man was shot and killed at a Mission District home on Friday afternoon, police have confirmed. The shooting occurred at a residence on 26th Street between Alabama and Florida streets around 12:48 p.m., according to a police statement, and police are investigating the incident as a homicide. “Officers arrived on scene and located an adult male suffering from a gunshot wound,” the statement said. Paramedics declared the man dead on the scene.
S.F. police call Tenderloin store curfew a success, want it to continue

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Eleni Balakrishnan

Nine months into a two-year pilot curfew on certain stores in the Tenderloin, San Francisco police officials said today it has been effective in its goal to reduce street loitering and crime in areas of the neighborhood.
S.F. opens ‘police-friendly’ crisis stabilization center

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Eleni Balakrishnan

The San Francisco Department of Public Health today opened a 16-bed facility at 822 Geary St. to provide medical care for people in crisis on city streets, as an alternative to taking people to jail or filling hospital emergency rooms. Visitors will be primarily people who don’t need to be urgently hospitalized, but need lower level medical care, officials said today. Street teams, police, and EMS vehicles will be able to drop people off at the center 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Car crashes in S.F. cost billions, report reveals

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Eleni Balakrishnan

Vehicle crashes and injuries in San Francisco cost about $2.5 billion over a five-year period, according to a report released by the Budget and Legislative Analyst today. That was for an estimated 92,799 total crashes in San Francisco, or 18,560 crashes each year between 2018 and 2022. Those crashes likely resulted in more than 113,000 vehicles damaged, more than 33,000 injuries and nearly 200 fatalities.