San Francisco in the midst of historic drug crisis, city leadership can't agree on what to do about it

Chesa Boudin says he couldn't have picked a more challenging time to take the helm of San Francisco's District Attorney's Office. His campaign made promises to lower populations of jails and prisons, hold police officers accountable for misconduct, and end cash bail. But just one month into his tenure, COVID-19 reared its head, bringing with it a set of obstacles the criminal justice system had never seen before.

"Some of the challenges we faced," Boudin told 60 Minutes+ correspondent Wesley Lowery, "have been court closures, have been the prison system refusing to come pick people up from our county jail, have been-- changes in poverty, and access to employment, and homeless shelters."

Still, Boudin has pushed forward with his plans and heeding health experts' advice, the 40-year-old DA released 40% of the people in the city jails to prevent further spread of the COVID-19 virus.

"The way we have approached it," Boudin said, "particularly in the context of COVID, is to look closely at every single person in our county jail, and to ask ourselves, 'Do they need to be incarcerated or is there some other place, some other conditions we could impose on them that would be consistent with justice and public safety?'"

The notion of what is best for public safety is up for debate as Boudin faces harsh criticism over an uptick in murders, burglaries, and a historic number of fatal drug overdoses. 2020 was San Francisco's deadliest year ever with nearly 700 fatal overdoses--almost triple the number of those who died from COVID in the city. Leadership within the police department point to Boudin's drug enforcement policy and rhetoric, as a cause for concern.

In October, Boudin delivered a speech imploring law enforcement to do more than arrest street-level drug dealers who might possess only a few grams of drugs, saying "I need the police department to bring me kilos, not crumbs." 

But as synthetic opiate Fentanyl floods the streets, correspondent Wesley Lowery points out to the DA, even crumbs could kill. Boudin says that his office has and will continue to prosecute those minor possession cases, but that it won't help the drug epidemic facing San Francisco. "As soon as the dealers are arrested, they're replaced immediately with other dealers." Boudin told 60 Minutes+, "If all you're doing is taking a couple grams off the street, great. We'll prosecute that case. We are. We always have. But it has never made a difference. And it won't."

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott disagrees.

"We took 5.5 kilograms of fentanyl off the streets in 2020 alone," Scott told Lowery. "What if all of that fentanyl was on the streets? I'm looking at every individual life counts. And if we get a kilo, that's great. It's fantastic. If we get, you know-- a little sack of fentanyl off the streets, that's just as fantastic because those street-level dealers are who are causing, in my opinion, the damage that's happening on the streets."

Scott said he can't discount the idea that there's a rift between the District Attorney's Office and the police rank and file in San Francisco.

Tony Montana, the president of the union that represents 2,200 San Francisco police officers, says his members can handle change well enough, but he hasn't come around on Boudin's reforms. "In the short term, you know, we've seen the consequences of his policies, and that's just pure destruction," Montana says.

The full 60 Minutes+ report on Chesa Boudin and San Francisco law enforcement is streaming now on Paramount+.