Some road signs have been changed (which turns are illegal, etc.) without considering how go some direction legally. Sunset neighborhood around 19th is mind numbing. Exceptionally few permitted left turns, random surface streets you'd otherwise use closed off except for residents of the street, etc.

Not to mention that pulling over a car on an SF street will most likely start a traffic jam..

People should not just stop in the road. I've heard officers use the megaphone (or walk up to the driver) to tell the person to pull into a parking lot. Otherwise, officers can just follow the driver until they're in a position that they can pull over somewhere and park safely.

It creates traffic jams and is dangerous for both driver and officer

Camping out in the left lane clogging up half the capacity of the street while you wait for a gap in the oncoming direction is psychopathic behavior.

If SF is like NYC in this regard, it's because the police there have been on an unofficial and illegal work strike for years (long predating COVID). Municipalities have lost (or willfully ceded) their ability to oversee their police departments and, lacking any real consequences, the police are more than happy to sit on their thumbs.