The Informant

Ali Winston

San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón's final year in charge saw a dip in violent and property crimes

Although the first month of 2011 is almost through, the San Francisco Police Department has yet to release its final set of CompStat figures for 2010. So absent that final week of data, we’re going to break down San Francisco’s crime trends in George Gascón’s final year as Police Chief.

San Francisco ended 2010 with 50 murders. While homicides were up from the 45 killings that took place in the city in 2009, it’s important to remember that San Francisco averaged 94 murders from 2005 through 2008. There have been nine homicides so far in 2011, the most recent one occurring last night in the Bayview.

Figures through December 25th, 2010 show an eight percent decrease in overall part 1 crimes, as well as a 12 percent decrease in arrests for that crime category. Violent crime was down three percent, and property crime decreased by nine percent. Rape, robberies, aggravated assaults, car thefts and burglaries all declined – the only notable spikes aside from murders were in domestic violence cases (948, up from 910 in 2009) and personal or “other” theft, up to 13,852 from 13,407 the year before.

After the jump is a breakdown of important crime trends in the city’s nine police districts.

• Murders are up in the Taraval – 5 killings up to December 25, compared with none for all of 2009 -  along with aggravated assaults (273, from 211 in ’09) and shootings (22 incidents, compared to 9 in 2009). Burglaries and arsons also rose 15 and 27 percent, respectively.
• A rise in murders (6 in 2010, 4 for ’09), shootings (20 incidents versus 13 for ’09), arson (up 64 percent) and theft (up 20 percent) in the Mission District.
• Shootings (11 people hit by gunfire, versus 8 in ’09) and rape (25 as of December 25) are up in the Southern District, where a large concentration of San Francisco’s nightclubs are located in the South of Market area.
• Rape (up 35 percent), robberies (up 10 percent), theft (23 percent) and car theft (49 percent) rose in the Tenderloin. Cracking down on the drug trade in San Francisco’s skid row was one of Gascón’s priorities when he was appointed by Gavin Newsom in 2009.
• Shootings actually declined in the Bayview (90 as compared to 110), but arson (53 percent) , thefts from vehicles (29 percent), personal thefts (13 percent) and domestic violence (20 percent) all rose.