Mayor Daniel Lurie on Wednesday picked Derrick Lew, a longtime San Francisco police investigator who climbed the ranks to lead the city’s crackdown on downtown drug dealing, as his next police chief.
Lew will begin his tenure as chief at a time when the San Francisco Police Department is emboldened by support from the public and City Hall to try new strategies for responding to the city’s thorniest challenges. Although it struggles to fill its dwindling ranks, it has recently embraced new surveillance technologies, including drones, to fight crime.
Lurie, who has made improving public safety a focal point of his administration, called his pick the “beginning of a new era” for SFPD and the city…