The majority of reported crimes in San Francisco continued their downward trajectory in the first three months of the year, building on historic declines over the last two years.
But homicides have spiked. So far, there have been 14 killings, compared to just four this time last year.
In a presentation to the police commission, Police Chief Derrick Lew noted that, while homicides are up, gun violence overall has not spiked in the same way. In other words, it isn’t that more people are being shot, it’s that more people are being shot and killed.
Even so, gun violence this year isn’t declining the way other crimes are; in fact, it’s actually ticked up a bit, according to the department’s weekly crime trends report to the commission. At this time last year, there had been 29 shooting incidents in total, compared to 26 last year. Nine of the 14 killings this year were the result of a firearm, the report said.
Lew said in the meeting that the police department is working to get guns off the street to help reduce gun violence. He also said that the killings have not been random, and that the department, as of Thursday, was able to close all but one of the cases.
While it is still very early in the year, if the increase continues, it could mean that San Francisco’s homicide rate goes up for the first time since the pandemic. Last year, San Francisco saw its lowest number of homicides since 1954, part of a nationwide, historic decline in killings. Oakland also saw a decades-long low with fewer homicides than any year since the 1960s.
Still, other types of reported crime continue to dwindle, even after hitting their lowest point in more than two decades last year. The two other major violent crime categories, robbery and assault, were both down compared to this time last year, by 30% and 10% respectively. Property crimes were down notably as well: burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny theft – the city’s most common crime – were all down by roughly a third.
In particular, the larceny theft drop continues to be driven by the continued plummeting of reported car break-ins. The decline began in 2023 after police announced a concerted effort to crack down on the crime, leveraging technology like license plate readers and drones.
Since then, the numbers have continued to plunge. So far this year, car break-ins are half of what they were in the first three months of last year, and 85% lower than in 2023, before the crackdown.
Despite the rise in homicides, Lew said in the commission meeting that he is confident the department’s strategies for bringing crime down are successful.
“Given our crime stats over the last few years,” he said, “we’re going to lean in on those strategies and continue that, believing that it’s worked.”
This article originally published at Crime is down in S.F., but homicides are up. What’s going on?.
