SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 2.2.2026
Law enforcement harassment of the ‘unhoused’ population is amongst the worst form of discrimination. Whether the ‘unhoused’ person is behind the wheel of a vehicle, riding public transit or living on the street.
This type of economic profiling illuminates law enforcement at its worst. Taking advantage of the most vulnerable amongst us.
Official harassment of the unhoused is also an easy way for the cops to buttress their statistics. Giving the impression they are performing meaningful work.
It is nothing more than a form of blatant economic racism.
The truth of the matter is that many people fear the homeless. And therefore feel the best way to handle this population is to keep it down and out of sight. The cops are the useful vehicle to serve the paranoid fantasies of the better off citizenry.
Excerpted from the San Francisco Chronicle – Bob Egelko – 2.2.2026
When police in California stop a driver or pedestrian whom they believe to be homeless, they’re far more likely to search, handcuff, deploy force against and arrest that person than others they pull over, according to a new state report.
The ninth annual report by the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board, or RIPA, based on data from 5.1 million police stops in 2024, reaffirmed previous findings that Black and HIspanic drivers were much more likely than others to be stopped than other motorists. But the disparity in treatment of those who appear to be homeless was new information that officers were first required to provide in January 2024.
Among more than 181,000 stops of people perceived by officers to be unhoused, the report said, 43% were then searched or frisked; 37.9% were handcuffed; 38.68% were subjected to use of force and 47.3% were arrested.
The report comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2024 ruling, in a case from Grants Pass, Ore., that opened the door for cities and states to evict homeless people from street encampments, confiscate their property and subject them to criminal prosecution. The 6-3 decision said such actions do not violate the constitutional ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”
The ruling has led to a wave of local ordinances authorizing sweeps of street camps and imposing criminal penalties for camping or sleeping on public property, even when no shelters are available.
San Francisco responded with hundreds of arrests and seizures of property from homeless encampments, though the city agreed to pay nearly $3 million last year to settle a lawsuit by the Coalition on Homelessness for similar actions it had taken before the Supreme Court ruling.
Top photo: Unhoused person at a bus stop – photo Lee Heidhues
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