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Bayview captain outlines crime trends, housing-unit plan and new violence-reduction efforts
Summary
At a Feb. 27 Police Commission community meeting in Bayview, the Bayview Station captain reviewed district crime data, said total Part I crimes were roughly flat year-over-year while homicides fell and described plans to place a housing unit in Alice Griffith and launch a Violence Reduction Zone.
At a San Francisco Police Commission community meeting Feb. 27 at the Bayview Opera House, the Bayview Station commanding officer presented district demographics, crime trends and a package of enforcement and community programs intended to reduce violence and build relationships with residents.
The captain said the Bayview District serves roughly 73,000 people across about 9.1 square miles and described the area as racially and economically diverse. "The Bayview Police District has a population of nearly 73,000 and it covers an area 9.1 square miles," the captain told the commission. He reported that total Part I crimes from 2006 to February 2007 "increased last year less than 1%" compared with 2006, that homicide was down about 11% in the district, and that robberies were up about 5%.
Why it matters: the captain framed those figures as the basis for targeted enforcement and community outreach. He described five enforcement approaches — standard patrols (including foot and bicycle beats), a housing team dedicated to public-housing projects, a plainclothes ceasefire unit, participation in Violence Reduction Zone operations, and code enforcement — and said the housing team was created in 2004 to focus resources where they are most needed.
On a short-term staffing change, the captain said Chief Fong approved moving the housing unit into the Alice Griffith housing project to provide sustained on-site coverage. "Just last week, Chief Fong agreed to a proposal to move the housing unit into the Alice Griffith housing project," the captain said, adding that the move is expected to improve public safety there.
The captain also described a new Violence Reduction Zone launched that month, which coordinates tactical units, the gang task force, narcotics, fugitive-recovery teams, parole and traffic units and investigators in identified hotspots. He cited the station’s ceasefire unit for recent arrests and firearms seizures, noting that gun recovery counts were 124 in February 2006 and 144 in February 2007.
Community engagement and outreach were emphasized alongside enforcement: Bayview officers, the captain said, staff daily foot and bicycle beats on key corridors, run youth programs (Little League, backpack giveaways, holiday events) and plan to assign a sergeant to each community group. The captain said the station will expand a newsletter currently published weekly to three times per week, with the goal of more frequent updates if community response supports it.
Commissioners questioned the captain about his short tenure (he said he had been at the station about six weeks) and pressed for neighborhood-level crime breakdowns and greater outreach to the Asian Pacific Islander community. In response to a robbery trend question from Commissioner Yvonne Lee, the captain cited a prior spike tied in part to juvenile arrests, out-of-city suspects committing robberies, and a wave of electronic-theft crimes that made prosecution difficult.
The commission closed the discussion with requests that the captain make neighborhood-level statistics available to the public and that deployment decisions reflect the findings of several departmentwide studies due later in 2008.
The commission then moved to public comment and other agenda items.
