San Francisco officers to go undercover as bait for hate crimes

At a City Hall news conference with Mayor Ed Lee and other leaders, Chaplin did not offer specifics, but warned that police are “taking proactive measures” to ensure that a flurry of hate crime reports emerging around the country in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election won’t be duplicated in San Francisco.

“We’re going to put officers out much like we did when our teams made it to the playoffs and we dressed officers in rival teams’ gear,” Chaplin said, referring to the city’s bid to tackle rising sports-fan violence.

“We’re going to do that in our neighborhoods,” he said, “so if someone decides they want to take someone on or attack them because of how they look or what they’re wearing, they may be attacking an on-duty San Francisco police officer.”