130,000 YouTube Hits on SFPD Narcotics Officer Britt Elmore’s Exit Interview

Below is a video interview of SFPD Narcotics Officer Britt Elmore. He was my partner for almost two years.

130,000 have watched this video in just five days, so it must be interesting. Britt provides unique insight into drug dealers’ mindsets and his assessment of why they won’t leave the business.

On a date in the nineties that I can’t remember, my cousin, my cousin’s friend, and I sat at the same table to take the entrance exam to SFPD. In 2003, thanks to Captain Greg Corrales my partner Jake Fegan and I were transferred from Mission Station to the Narcotics unit of SFPD. There, I joined my cousin’s friend, Britt Elmore, though Fegan and I were assigned to a different team.

In 2005 Britt was assigned part time to the DEA and went full time in 2009.

In 2010, SFPD Chief George Gascon wanted to increase SFPD’s retention of illegal cash that officers were seizing from drug dealers.  Because of my financial background, I got the assignment.  I soon learned a problem existed that the San Francisco assistant district attorney assigned to forfeitures, resided in San Diego and was only in the city a couple days per week.  It became too convenient for the ADA to just negotiate an even split of the forfeitures with the public defenders, no matter how much money was seized, no matter how strong a case SFPD delivered. It only mattered that it didn’t disrupt the ADA’s scheduled flights home. The ADA’s actions made it difficult for me to execute Gascon’s program, so the conflict was resolved by sending me to the DEA.

There I joined Britt as a partner for 2010 and 2011.  I am including my route to DEA for two reasons: 1) to share the typical SFPD irony that years after two strangers sit at a table, they become partners and friends, and 2) to contrast that even though we were partners, I was at DEA as more of a pencil pusher. I didn’t participate in the federal operations Britt was involved in.  Britt’s YouTube video (below) is extremely impactful. Like Britt, I enjoyed buying dope, but I only did it for SFPD.  Contrastingly, Britt conducted buys of guns and dope at the federal level, which involved more weight, more potential prison time, and consequently more danger.  

My most memorable DEA case with Britt occurred when we were intercepting drug money at FedEx.  In the heat of the Giants’ September 2010 pennant race, we delivered a FedEx package containing 49 syringes of HGH to the wife of the Giants’ right fielder.  The event changed the Giants’ lineup.  My closest friends will appreciate my primary concern that I immediately expressed was, “Britt, we gotta keep this quiet. Outta the news.  We can’t make this a distraction to the Giants’ momentum.” Britt, thanks for the memories.

Britt retired last Friday- 10 7E.