SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — We are less than a week away from the opening of APEC, the Asian Pacific Economic Forum. President Joe Biden and leaders from across the globe will be among the 20,000 or so expected.
With that will come security like San Francisco has never seen before, impacting where and how people can get from one place to another. On Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement updated the media on those security protocols.
The San Francisco Police Department is staffed up to prepare and make sure that this event is safe for everyone. Police Chief Bill Scott says the police force along with federal and state law enforcement agencies are ready for next week’s APEC summit.
“We are fully mobilized all of next week, which means every able-bodied officer will be working,” Scott said. “We will be working 12 to 14-hour shifts and will have coverage daytime and nighttime. Our goal is to be prepared for anything and everything that may come our way.”
Twenty thousand people are expected in San Francisco. Among them are world leaders and protesters.
“People are welcome to exercise their constitutional rights in San Francisco, but we will not tolerate people committing acts of violence or property destruction or any other crimes,” Scott said. “We will make arrests when necessary if those acts of violence or property destruction occur, and we are prepared to do just that.”
The main security zones will be centered around the Moscone Center and the Fairmont Hotel. The green areas are vehicle exclusion zones, meaning pedestrians are allowed but only authorized vehicles can enter and only after they are inspected.
“Residents seeking to access their residencies via their vehicle and park in their garage may do so subject to having their vehicle inspected at one of the checkpoints noted on the map,” U.S. Secret Service special agent Jermy Brown said. “During inspection, the resident will be asked to prove they’re local or provide evidence of their residency or their reason for seeking access to that garage. A lot of the garages are staffed 24 hours by Secret Service or other law enforcement personnel that can assist residences or guests in accessing garages.”
The red area is the pedestrian-controlled access zone and is not open to the public.
“Individuals seeking to enter this zone must usually be credentialed as an APEC leader, attendee, a worker of the APEC or be frequenting a business establishment, which is open to the public inside this perimeter,” Brown said. “In this zone, people will need to be screened to enter. There will be no parking or transit within the zone. There are no private residences within the red zone.”
The main areas where we’ll see closures are around the Moscone Center and the Fairmont Hotel. Barricades will start to move into place around the Fairmont on Monday night. Barricades are moving into place around Moscone on Tuesday.
