San Francisco Police Department Releases 2019 Year-End Public Safety Statistics 20-005
Violent crime continued to drop in San Francisco last year, according to data released today from the San Francisco Police Department’s December 2019 CompStat Profile. Highlights from the year-end report include:
- Homicides decreased 11 percent from 2018 and marked the lowest number of homicides in the city since 1961
- Sex trafficking decreased by 57 percent
- Rapes decreased by 15 percent
- Robberies decreased by 4 percent
- Aggravated assaults decreased 4 percent
Violent crime- SFPD’s top priority- dropped 6 percent last year and the total number of victims injured or killed by gun violence decreased 1 percent. As part of its strategy to address such incidents, the department seized 933 firearms in 2019 and in October hosted its first Gun Violence Summit to identify comprehensive strategies to reduce gun violence in the Bayview district.
“We are constantly striving to reduce all forms of violence in our communities,” said Police Chief William Scott. “We’re doing this through our Crime Gun Investigations Center and by working closely with our community-based anti-violence partners to prevent shootings and advance justice for victims. Our success is contingent on all of us working together to make our city even safer.”
Last year also saw a 4 percent overall drop in Part 1 Property Crimes in San Francisco:
- Burglaries decreased by 14 percent
- Vehicle burglaries decreased 2 percent
- Larceny theft decreased 3 percent
As part of the department’s commitment to crime deterrence, improved responsiveness and engagement with the public, SFPD this month is opening a new downtown foot beat office at 1100 Market Street. The location enables the department to strategically deploy foot beats throughout the Mid-Market corridor, support the deployment of other response teams throughout the downtown area and provide a place for the public to meet with officers. A 2018 study by the California Policy Lab and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found SFPD’s expanded foot patrol strategy led to a significant decrease in assaults and thefts.
“We know that our foot patrols discourage criminals, increase confidence in public safety and enable us to build strong, productive relationships with residents and merchants that are critical to help us solve problems and investigate crimes,” said Chief Scott. “Day after day, our dedicated officers are working hard to protect our city and increase communication and trust with San Francisco communities. As we move forward in 2020, we’ll continue to rise to the challenges of policing in our great city through smart strategies and our commitment to providing safety with respect to everyone we serve.”
SFPD CompStat reports are posted online at sanfranciscopolice.org/compstatreports.