The SF police mobile home does not fight against crime. It leads to a psychological war

A few years ago, a friend and I drove through Manteca, an old agricultural city in Central Valley when we discovered something extraordinary. We had just left his mechanic and turned around a corner when we drove to a modest brown building with slate roof tiles. In the entrance there was a massive motorhome -not the suburb -adventurer type, but something militant. It was black and white, clearly marked as a police vehicle.

I didn't know at the time, but that was what the law enforcement agencies referred to as a “mobile command unit”. If you were in the 16th Street Bart Station in San Francisco in the past two months, you have probably parked a similar motorhome on the sidewalk – and have wondered what it is doing there.

In March, San Francisco moved the mobile command unit 2 from UN Plaza to 16th and mission, supposedly to the CURB Street Crime. But what this hulking vehicle actually does is diffuse – and more insidious – than most recognize.

A short story of mobile command units

The tactical concept of a mobile surgical center comes from the military conquest, but the version that we see today on the city's sidewalks – equipped with satellite dishes and tinted windows – exploded more and more after September 11th.

The mobile phone command commanded by the then May Rudy Giuliani brought a lot of attention from the media. The police authorities soon decided that they needed their own. In the paranoid post-9/11 years, suburban and rural cities searched to procure these militarized motorhomes.

Tracy, California, spent $ 500,000 for his unit in 2004. Fremont spent $ 1.3 million in 2014. A company based in Wisconsin, LDV, has established mobile command units for departments across the state-from Pleasanton to Milpitas, Merced to Fresno. On its website, LDV even offers a tab “How to buy” with state contract information and leasing options. That should tell you what kind of industry it is.

These units are usually framed as emergency preparation tools. But their use on site indicates something completely different.

Senselessness through design

SFPD has already provided its mobile command. In 2018 and 2023, the unit was stationed on the UN Plaza to combat drug trafficking. Every time it only pushed the activity elsewhere – including now in the 16th street.

Even the police recognized the senselessness of this approach. A source recently told Mission Local The motorhome is “for look”. The chief of police Bill Scott spoke together with Mayor Daniel Lurie: “The long -term strategy is that you go to other parts of the city, then we have to go there too.”

This is literally a game with a whack-a-mole. A clearly visible, deep expensive, militarized.

The motorhome does not reduce crime. It does not solve any systemic problems. What it does must be reinforced the perception of the danger of justifying the expansion of the police budgets and signaling that something is being done – and at the same time deals with sensible solutions.

Perception of the police, not reality

Here is the thing: crimes in San Francisco is below. According to the information from several sources, the car break, thefts and violent crimes have decreased. But that did not prevent the local media, politicians and neighborhood forums from painting the city as a dystopian wasteland.

And it turns out that perception is as important as – if not more than – reality.

If you see a black and white police mobile home at your train station, your brain does not ask for statistics. It tells you that something is wrong. This feeling of fear drives more public pressure, more political attitude and more militarization. The motorhome becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy-proof of a crisis that is produced solely by the presence.

In this way, the mobile command unit acts as a psychological weapon – not only against residents, but also in law enforcement itself. It confirms a worldview in which crime is everywhere, and the only answer is more strength, more equipment and more funds.

A census that is disguised as security

This has another layer – one that shows how deep our criminal legal system is classified.

In March, in the same month in which the police motorhome rolled to 16 and mission, San Francisco 119 experienced arrests for illegal camping – the highest monthly total in at least seven years. The violence crime was back in the same month. Car burglars were below. What kind of crime is increasing?

The way that is associated with poverty.

Public drug use and tent camps are met with police units and arrests. But employed crime wage theft, securities fraud, tax evasion proceeds rarely emerge the same urgency or visibility.

This paper recently contributed to uncovering 1.7 million US dollars of wage theft at several U -Bahn locations. This type of theft has a deeper effect from the busy families, but only one of these crimes reveals the armored vehicles.

So the class determines who is criminalized – and who gets a passport.

A war against the poor – disguised as public security

Ultimately, the presence of the mobile command unit in 16th Street is not about reducing crime. It's about reaffirming the illusion of control. It is about disciplining poverty under the guise of public security.

Instead of financing affordable living space, expanding psychiatric services or pursuing the exploitation of companies, the city doubles in the theater police. And we, the public, take the legislative template financially and psychologically.

The most dangerous result is not only wasted. It is the normalization of fear. If we have got used to militarized motorhomes that are parked on our sidewalks, we risk to forget that security is not created by violence. It is built up by dignity, stability and care. This does not roll up with sirens and chrome siding. But it could actually work.