San Francisco Family Violence Council cites declines in child abuse but urges new steps on domestic violence, elder abuse

The San Francisco Family Violence Council presented its FY2015–16 findings to the Board of Supervisors' Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee on May 23, urging a mix of prevention, coordination and enforcement to reduce child abuse, intimate partner violence and elder abuse.

The council’s report highlighted a long-term decline in substantiated child abuse, but also flagged several troubling trends. Katie Albright, Executive Director of Safe & Sound, reported that police investigations of child abuse rose 37 percent and district attorney case filings increased 47 percent in the latest year for certain categories of cases, while the 15-year rate of substantiated child abuse has fallen about 67 percent. Albright credited prevention work — including training for more than 2,000 mandated reporters, a 40‑year crisis “talk line,” and 26 family resource centers — for helping reduce children entering foster care. “We are seeing a historic low of 738 children in foster care,” Albright said.

Presenters warned, however, that racial disproportionality remains a concern. Albright and other council members said Black and Latinx children and adults are overrepresented in reported and service-connected cases, and that deeper analysis of victim profiles is planned for future reports.

Domestic violence data presented to the committee showed a sharp increase in calls involving weapons. Manoush Kandel, staff at the Department on the Status of Women filling in for a tri‑chair, said the city has seen an 87 percent increase in knife‑related 911 calls and a 53 percent increase in calls involving firearms. Kandel said the council’s top recommendation is the creation of a sheriff’s‑department program to remove firearms from people subject to domestic violence restraining orders, noting that “California law provides that when a domestic violence order is issued… they are required to surrender any guns they have,” but that compliance is not self‑executing.

Shauna Reeves of the Institute on Aging and Joan Nielsen of the Department of Aging and Adult Services described rising adult protective services (APS) caseloads. Reeves said APS reports have risen to about 7,303 incidents, with 3,302 substantiated cases and 608 police department elder‑abuse reports; she said elder physical‑abuse substantiations rose about 21 percent from the prior year. Reeves highlighted self‑neglect, psychological/emotional abuse and financial exploitation as the most common elder cases and described a supplemental police form for elder‑abuse responses and efforts to prioritize APS calls.

Supervisors praised the Family Violence Council and suggested follow‑up steps. Several members expressed interest in introducing or cosponsoring Board resolutions and in using budget authority to support prevention. Jill Nielsen described a new high‑risk eviction and self‑neglect unit in APS that has served nearly 300 individuals and partners closely with legal defense programs to prevent housing loss among vulnerable elders.

Public comment included testimony from Karen Roy, director of the Department of Child Support Services, who described department collaboration with the council and implementation of training to better support families experiencing violence.

The committee filed the hearing for the record. Next steps discussed included moving the firearm‑surrender proposal into budget discussions and possible Board resolutions to secure funding and direction for the sheriff’s office.