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Taraval station captain praised as community meetings return to neighborhoods
Summary
Community members and commissioners lauded Taraval (Terrevel) Station Captain Curtis Lum at the San Francisco Police Commission’s July 24 meeting, citing neighborhood outreach, youth programs and targeted enforcement as reasons for improved community trust even as robberies rose modestly this year.
Captain Curtis Lum told the Police Commission that the Taraval (Terrevel) Police District covers about 10.8 square miles and serves roughly 163,000 residents. "The Taraval Police District is the largest police district in San Francisco," Lum said, outlining a district structure that includes neighborhood teams, school cars, and a neighborhood-problem solving unit.
Lum reported mixed crime trends through June 30: homicides and some violent crimes were down, robberies had risen from an average of about 15 per month last year to roughly 20 per month this year, and auto-theft arrests were up. He told commissioners the station uses undercover plainclothes operations, a Taraval neighborhood team that works both plainclothes and uniformed beats, and weekly mapping to look for patterns and allocate resources. "Right now, we don't see any trends for the robberies," he said, while noting recent robberies were sometimes more violent.
Community speakers described regular, hands-on outreach by Taraval officers. Bill Barnacle, a longtime neighborhood merchant, thanked Captain Lum and his team and praised school car officers who serve local high schools. James Adams, a retired officer and Stone Town security director, recounted joint tactics such as rooftop observation and bait cars that led to arrests at Stonestown Galleria. Amy Anderson, a resident who said her house had been burglarized, thanked officers who organized a donation collection after her family’s holiday packages were stolen.
Commissioners emphasized the value of sustained station leadership and community policing. Commissioner Susie Loftus asked about pedestrian and traffic safety near schools; Lum pointed to MTA collision studies and monthly traffic plans that target speeding and failure-to-yield as top factors. Several speakers urged that Captain Lum remain in the district; commissioners said there were no current plans to reassign him.
The meeting closed with broad praise for the collaboration between the station, the Office of Citizen Complaints and the District Attorney's neighborhood-prosecution team, and with a unanimous vote to adjourn.
The commission scheduled a return to regular City Hall business at its next meeting and noted a planned August 7 recognition for officers who helped at SFO after the Asiana crash.
