San Francisco Gang Injunctions

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has historically opposed civil gang injunctions because of their unfair impact on civil liberties, their potential for racial profiling, and due process concerns.

In September 2006, the City Attorney of San Francisco sought the city's first civil gang injunction in the Bayview neighborhood.  On June 21, 2007, the city filed two new gang injunction cases, targeting the Mission and Western Addition neighborhoods. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed amicus briefs in all three cases, first successfully bringing the court's attention to due process concerns in the Bayview case and then raising concerns about overbreadth, vagueness, and racial profiling in the two cases following.

After the San Francisco Superior Court issued injunctions in all three cases, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights negotiated with the City Attorney’s Office to design a process to make implementation of the injunctions as fair as possible.  On March 27, 2008, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and LCCR signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the City Attorney defining a clear and accessible process for people who have been placed on a gang injunction enforcement list to demonstrate that they are no longer active gang members and should be removed from the enforcement list.  In considering petitions for removal, the City Attorney will take into account the applicant’s participation in positive social programs such as job training, violence prevention or education programs, as well as information that applicants include in their petitions from neighbors, teachers, coaches, clergy, social workers and probation, parole and police officers.  The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and LCCR will continue to monitor both police enforcement of the injunctions and the City Attorney’s implementation of the new agreement, which includes a periodic review of the continuing need for each gang injunctions.

The following documents are available for review on the ACLU Foundation of Northern California website:

• Memorandum of Understanding between the S.F. City Attorney's Office, the ACLU Foundation of Northern CA and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.

• Notice about the opt-out process that will be provided to individuals who are placed on a gang injunction list.

• Petition form to be used by persons living in the City of San Francisco who have been served with a Gang Injunction and who wish to be removed from the list.

Learn more:

Facts About Recent Gang Injunctions

ACLU Foundation of Northern California, Lawyers Committee and S.F. City Attorney Agree To Removal Process from Gang Injunction Lists