San Francisco Park Station Reports Highest Burglary Spike in San Francisco
Accordinging to the most recent data from the San Francisco Crime Dashboard, San Francisco Police Department Park District, which serves District 5, has had the largest spike in burglaries of any district in San Francisco in 2020.
Crime in 2020 vs. 2019
From January 1st, 2020 to October 18th, 2020, burglaries have skyrocketed over 100% — 420 in 2020 compared to 219 in 2019. And motor vehicle theft has risen more than 30% — 279 in 2020 compared to 213 in 2019.
Park District Crimes (Year-to-Date)
This is a drastic increase over the city-wide burglaries increase of 44.1%, and about even with the 30% citywide increase in motor vehicle theft.
Crime since shelter-in-place order
Since San Francisco shelter-in-place went into effect on March 16th, 2020, burglaries reported by Park Station are up 126%, and motor vehicle theft is up more than 37% compared to the same period in 2019.
In comparison, burglaries are up only 57% across the city since March shelter-in-place. Under Supervisor Dean Preston, there are more than twice as many burglaries happening in the Park Station neighborhood, including the Haight Ashbury, Panhandle, Inner Sunset and Cole Valley, compared to any other neighborhood in the city.
In response, Supervisor Preston has sent mixed messages to his constituents. He advocates for “defunding the police,” and wrote regarding the city budget, “We came up short as a City in our response to the widespread demands that we reimagine public safety and defund the police.”
Preston outlines a desire to “defund police” and allocate “funding to police alternatives,” but offers no details on any new policies, resources or a timetable for implementation.
Preston also commends himself for creating, “a $100,000 District 5 Small Business Assistance program to offer financial support to businesses that have suffered smashed windows.” With 54% of storefronts in San Francisco closed since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, $100,000 to fix broken windows, delivered more than six months after the onset of pandemic is far too little, too late. And why is Preston campaigning on band-aid solutions in a pandemic to solve the problems he in part created?
While his constituents are burglarized at rates higher than anywhere else in San Francisco, Supervisor Preston does not attend monthly community meetings with SFPD Park Station and has no strategy for public safety.
Instead of vague statements, Supervisor Preston could better service minorities and the Black community by telling the San Francisco Unified School District to have a plan to reopen our schools, working with his constituents and law enforcement on public safety and doing more for the many minority owned small businesses in District 5 who are struggling to survive.
We encourage all District 5 residents to email — Dean.Preston@sfgov.org, prestonstaff@sfgov.org — and call — (415) 741–3828 — Supervisor Preston and demand he come up with a plan to help his constituents.
