Violent crime declined in the Mission during March, San Francisco police said Wednesday. However, the violent crime rate for the first quarter of 2010 did not show a significant improvement over last year, the department said.
Mission Station Captain Greg Corrales, along with captains from four other stations, presented district crime statistics to San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón at a meeting of police officials.
Violent crimes in the Mission, which include homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, were down by 17 percent in March when compared to last month, Corrales told the gathering. However, there was a decline of only 1 percent when comparing crimes so far this year with the same reporting period in 2009, the decreases are minimal.
And while violent crime has only decreased by one percent so far this year, arrests in that category have dropped even more. For example, there have been 117 robberies in the Mission so far this year, 23 of which lead to arrests. The same reporting period in 2009 saw 121 robberies, with 57 arrests.
So while robberies only declined by three percent, the arrests for this crime in this same category dropped by 60 percent.
Captain Corrales received much praise at the meeting from several SFPD police officials, and the Mission Police Station was held up as an example for other stations to follow. Despite the compliments, he received at the meeting, Captain Corrales acknowledged that he still hears some dissatisfaction from some Mission residents, including those who came to Tuesday night’s monthly station community meeting.
“My normal response is what I gave them. I told them come back to the April meeting, bring the whole community group and let me know if the situation is better or if it’s worse,” he said. “If it’s worse, hammer me. If it’s better, let me know,” said Corrales.
Wednesday’s meeting, which was sparsely attended by members of the public, was part of a new effort to implement COMPSTAT, a computerized information sharing system designed to share information across different levels of the police department.
The system is expected to help police detect crime patterns and trends and assist in investigations and crime prevention. It gives police resources and help towards “proactively fighting crime rather than just reacting to it,” according to SFPD’s website.
The system has been proven effective in reducing crime in other large metropolitan areas across the country, and SFPD Chief George Gascón implemented it in San Francisco shortly after his appointment last year.
Community meetings at the Mission Police station take place the last Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m.
Latest COMPSTAT report crime stats for the Mission can be found here.