Focus Topic: Property Crimes
Panel:
- Chief of Police, Bill Scott
- Assistant Chief, Mike Redmond of the Special Operations Bureau
- Deputy Chief David Lazar
- Commander Teresa Ewins
- Captain Paul Yep of Northern
- Sgt. Brent Bradford of the SFPD Burglary Unit
- Sgt James O’Malley of Northern
- New Assistant District Attorney assigned to Northern, Andrew Clark
- Art Campos, SF SAFE
Summary:
The meeting started with a welcome from Chief of Police Bill Scott. He said he was glad to talk to the community members from Hayes Valley and surrounding areas. He was pleased to announce the appointment of the new Commanding Officer of Northern Station, Captain Paul Yep. Assistant Chief Redmond was important in the appointment.
Commander Teresa Ewins was next up. She is the head of the Metro Division which oversees Northern Station. She has been at this position for 8 months. This is an important position for Hayes Valley and she should be reached out to for public safety concerns. She was happy to introduce Captain Paul Yep, the new leader of Northern
Captain Paul Yep joined the call while he was on vacation before he takes charge later in the week. Captain Yep is a native San Franciscan. He went to Lowell High and San Francisco State. He was the Commanding Officer of two other stations, including Central Station, prior to taking charge of Northern in mid July.
Deputy Chief David Lazar is head of the Investigation Bureau for SFPD. He has been a long time friend of Hayes Valley. He has been to some Public Safety Meetings in the past 10 years. He was joined by Sgt Brent Bradford of the Burglary Unit to address 2 major concerns. There has been uptick in car break-ins in Hayes Valley which they say is due to the tourists (60% of car break-ins in the city are with tourist cars) not showing up to the previous hot spots at Alamo Square, Japantown, and Palace of Fine Arts. The crimes are moving to Hayes Valley. The vast majority of the people committing car break-ins are from out of the area. When confronted with the Comstat information showing a 20% increase in burglaries in the Northern District Deputy Chief Lazar and Sgt Bradford said these crimes are much less organized and spread out thru the district. This makes them harder to catch the suspects.
Art Campos of SF SAFE talked about the programs they provide with many being free. They have a residential specialist who will visit your residence to look over your safety systems. There is some question about how well this will work apartment buildings. Art says to check with your manager and landlord. He also talked about the Neighborhood Watch program that SF SAFE has sponsored for many years.
The meeting then moved to the submitted questions. Throughout the meeting there were numerous chat comments. Over 75% dealt with the problems of the tent encampments along Octavia and other locations. While many comments were not addressed by the police the SFPD saw the comments and the major frustration in Hayes Valley. When asked about beat cops Captain Yep promised he would look at assigning beat cops to Hayes Valley. If he is unable to assign beat cops he will let us know. He saw the many comments regarding burglaries. He said he will talk to his night shift about the increasing crimes which usually occur at night. He will look at increasing the patrols.
A previously submitted question was from a man whose residence had been burglarized 4 times including twice since February. He found his items in some of tents on Octavia and he called the police. 2 people were arrested. Several chat comments said they did not think anything would happen. Commander Ewins she will check with the incident report and will contact the victim. Other burglary situations were discussed. Sgt Bradford of Burglary Unit said that it is important to keep a record of the serial numbers of as many valuable items that you can. Not just bicycles but computers, sound and television, and appliances.
Attendance count: approx 62
Attendance count: approx 62