Drastic drop seen in murder rate
By: Tamara Barak Aparton
Examiner Staff Writer
June 1, 2009
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After five years of intense violence on city streets that drove the murder rate to record-setting levels, San Francisco has seen a significant decrease in homicides this year.
Two killings in the Bayview district last weekend brought the total of number of homicides 20 from New Year’s Day through the end of May, according to police statistics. Last year, there were 45 by this time.
The dip to date puts San Francisco on track to end 2009 below the numbers recorded in recent years. The City had 97 homicides last year and there were 98, a decade high, in 2007.
The increases during the tenures of Mayor Gavin Newsom and retiring police Chief Heather Fong became a political hot-button issue, with calls for reorganizing the
Police Department and forcing the Board of Supervisors to mandate foot patrols.
On Monday, however, Newsom and police officials credited beefed- up enforcement, a massive federal gang sting and more aggressive prosecution for stemming the flow of homicides. The mayor, however, expressed concern about the number of nonfatal shootings, which have held steady.
The Police Department’s zone strategy, concentrating enforcement in The City’s most violent neighborhoods — including Bayview-Hunters Point, Mission, Western Addition, Tenderloin and Visitacion Valley — has resulted in a dramatic decrease in murders, Newsom said. The strategy was born from an analysis that showed most homicides were fueled by drugs and gangs, and that both killers and victims were likely to be on parole or probation. The plan hinges on working alongside state parole agents and The City’s Probation Department.
"It’s not really nuclear physics," said Kevin Ryan, director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. "We’re in the high-crime areas, we’re arresting these guys and
we’re holding them accountable through the courts. It’s created an environment where these guys are off the streets."
To ensure killings remain infrequent, authorities are keeping a close eye on rising gang tensions in the Sunnydale area, Ryan said.
A federal raid in three Bay Area cities, including San Francisco, on the violent Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, street gang in October helped quell the tide of violence in the Mission district, he said. San Francisco gang leaders were among the 29 people indicted.
"There has only been one homicide in the Mission this year, and last year it was very hot in terms of gang violence," Ryan said.
As for the people who have been arrested on suspicion of the crimes, Erica Derryck, spokeswoman for District Attorney Kamala Harris, said prosecutors have been working more closely with homicide and gang task force inspectors during the past year, meeting weekly to stay on top of cases.
But according to Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the zone strategy is not working alone. "The zone strategy is an important approach, but it often reacts to the uptick of crime," he said. "A lot of ground work has been done by community based organizations who are trying to install community policing and violence preventative strategies."
But while homicides have dropped, nonfatal shootings have remained about the same as last year. The trend has shaded the mayor’s optimism with caution.
"We saw a huge reduction in nonfatal shootings until about February," Newsom said. "In February, March and April, they started ticking up in some of the zones even though homicides didn’t go up. That’s why I’m a little more cautious. It’s a quirk of fate."
There were 114 nonfatal shootings in The City from Jan. 1, 2007, through the end of May 2007. In 2008 and 2009 during that same time period, there were 91.
Homicides tallied in The City
Murders have held steady since 2005, but this year there have been fewer.
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
| JAN | 7 | 5 | 13 | 8 | 5 |
| FEB | 8 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 3 |
| MAR | 7 | 5 | 5 | 13 | 3 |
| APR | 5 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 5 |
| MAY | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 4 |
| JUNE | 6 | 9 | 11 | 7 | NA |
| JULY | 6 | 6 | 13 | 7 | NA |
| AUG | 2 | 14 | 10 | 8 | NA |
| SEPT | 10 | 7 | 9 | 16 | NA |
| OCT | 14 | 7 | 5 | 8 | NA |
| NOV | 20 | 4 | 6 | 5 | NA |
| DEC | 5 | 5 | 4 | 1 | NA |
| Total | 96 | 85 | 98 | 97 | 20 |
Source: San Francisco Police Department
