San Francisco police spent nearly $250,000 on overtime pay to respond to the Dolores Park Hill Bomb last month, according to an email shared with The Standard.
Police had warned the day before the July 6 event that they would block off Dolores Street and make arrests (opens in new tab) to stop skaters from bombing down the boulevard. Despite the barricade and heavy police presence, skaters just moved the illegal event a block over to Church Street and careened down the hill anyway.
The overtime figure (opens in new tab) was revealed in response to a public records request made by Hazel Williams, a city hall watchdog.
Police Chief Bill Scott later hailed the department’s response (opens in new tab) to the annual unsanctioned event as a “huge success,” even though law enforcement was unable to stop it from happening as planned.
Scott said the department’s warnings and officers’ presence helped prevent property crime and violence from occurring, according to Mission Local. The outlet reported (opens in new tab) that police also didn’t make any arrests.
That’s unlike last year’s hill bomb, where cops arrested more than 100 people, most of whom were minors, and detained them for hours. Police racked up $143,236 in overtime costs during last year’s event, according to Mission Local (opens in new tab).
Representatives for SFPD did not immediately respond to The Standard’s request for comment.