Taraval Station, situated in a red-brick building on 24th Avenue in the Sunset, covers the most populous and largest geographic area in San Francisco.
The sprawling police district runs from Golden Gate Park in the north to the San Mateo County line, and from Ocean Beach to Seventh Avenue. It is home to more than 153,000 residents, or 17.5 percent of San Francisco’s population. At 10.8 square miles, it is 66 percent bigger than the next-largest police district, Ingleside (6.5 square miles).
But it has 43 fewer officers than Ingleside, and residents are complaining. It has more property crimes than the Ingleside and Bayview Districts, and the longest response times for high-priority 911 calls.
It fails, however, to rank high among the city’s concerns, because Taraval has less overall crime than most districts: Just 7.65 percent of all the incidents citywide from 2019 to 2023, one of the lowest among the 10 police districts in San Francisco, after the Park and Richmond stations. Moreover, it’s recently seen a 38 percent decrease in reported crimes.
Still, for those who live there, the slow response times are a problem, and are mostly an issue of too few officers, according to supervisors and retired police officers.
As of July 17, there were 51 sworn officers at Taraval Station, according to its acting captain, Anthony Ravano. The recommended staffing level for that station is 120 officers, a 2023 SFPD staffing analysis report shows.
Sometimes, there are just five officers staffing the station, Officer Drewkai Butler said, although they are usually supplemented by three to four others who work overtime on their days off, getting paid time-and-a-half.
“Taraval is just too big, geographically,” said Jen Low, the chief of staff for District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar. Taraval Station covers three supervisor districts: 4, 7 and 11. Melgar’s office wants the police department to shrink the district or add mini-stations, but neither policy is likely to happen anytime soon.
It’s true that the westside neighborhoods have some of the lowest crime rates in the city. This year, the Taraval District recorded 127 violent crimes, compared to 200 in the Ingleside District and 269 in the Bayview District.
But in the five fiscal years from FY 2018-19 to FY 2022-23, Taraval Station also saw the most significant increase in emergency response times. The times grew by more than four minutes, from 6 to 10.7 minutes for its “most urgent calls,” according to a 2024 Budget and Legislative Analyst report.
It has the longest response time to “priority A calls,” which are crimes that pose a “present or imminent danger to life,” among all police districts in the city.
“For a large district like Taraval, a decrease in patrol staffing could have a more significant effect on response times because it takes longer to drive from one part of the district to another,” the report reads.
Residents and officers say that community policing suffers, too; officers responding to emergency calls have less time on foot beats.
Butler has worked at Taraval Station for more than six years, and patrols Ocean Avenue. On a recent Thursday, when he got a call for a juvenile robbery, “I had to leave my foot beat and go help with the call, because we don’t have enough people to respond.”
For events elsewhere in the city — demonstrations or parades, for example — officers are pulled from quieter stations as support “on a daily basis,” said Richard Corriea, a retired SFPD commander and former Richmond Station captain.
“It’s very challenging for station leadership to provide continuity of coverage and good response times when your staff is being pulled for problems around the city,” he said.
“So much is focused downtown,” added Low, the District 7 aide. When people call the police about lower-priority incidents, they sometimes have to wait up to 30 minutes, she said. “It’s a long time.”
Gordon Mar, the District 4 supervisor from 2019 to 2023, said that because Taraval Station officers “always drive around and very rarely walk the beat,” residents started to complain. They wanted cops more engaged with the neighborhood.
“They didn’t really know what the officers stationed at Taraval Station were really doing with all their time,” Mar recalled.
But the boundaries are unlikely to change anytime soon. Last year, the San Francisco Police Department started a process to redraw the borders of police districts around the city.
“Districts are too large,” read the report from SFPD, mentioning Taraval and Ingleside stations, compiled after meetings with station captains, supervisors and a public survey. Stakeholders had a suggestion: “Reduce the size of Taraval.”
But the boundary remained untouched.
The supervisors’ offices acknowledged that neighborhoods covered by Taraval Station are not a high priority. Still, Low suggests a solution: Maybe a sub-station near Lake Merced and Stonestown Mall. Or a mobile command unit, like the one that was placed at the 16th Street BART Plaza in the Mission back in March.
But with the low crime rate, “it’s hard to advocate for that,” she said.
For now, as long as the station doesn’t have enough officers, Corriea said, “community policing” ends up being a lofty goal and little more.
“It’s like smearing peanut butter on a piece of bread,” Corriea said. “If you have a lot of peanut butter, it’s thick. If you don’t, it’s thin.”
The key is show presence in the high traffic corridors, West Portal by the MUNI, drive out to Stonestown, wait there until the next bus departs, then go to the Oceanview. The other car walks Taraval, then Noriega the three blocks, then Irving then Inner Sunset. Third car hits LaPlaya and Judah and the 7-11 and maybe makes a traffic stop. I got two more cars out and about or they might be in court have the day, but we’ll make do. Night time, I’d be on Lincoln at 19th and near Stonestown. The nighttime 7-11s have rift raft hanging around getting their hot dogs and then throwing the wrappers out the window of their stolen cars to steal and burglarize the Sunset.
“The nighttime 7-11s have rift raft (sic) hanging around getting their hot dogs and then throwing the wrappers out the window of their stolen cars to steal and burglarize the Sunset.”
That’s some pretty detailed work, Sherlock!
These are annual stats? That’d mean that each Taraval officer responds to just under 18 crimes a year, or 1.5 crimes a month. Staffing seems adequate.
Thanks for reporting.
Lawlessness is lawlessness.
If people were angels we would not need laws and law enforcement ;
However , it appears SF PD cannot get it together.
The blame is on staffing .
Even before that , SF police have been slow on the ball.
This has added to the enabling of criminals and crime.
The blatant open drug scene is a blaring example .
Sf gov has 35k employees , a huge budget , the highest paid employees in any city for such a small population.
Many nonprofits on the taxpayer dime yet
look at the mess .
The culture and entrained behaviors here contribute to the inability to get it fixed .
If everyone would do their job and care this city would be in better shape .
Very sad that anyone here is content and who is taking taxpayer monies is proud of what they are doing.
There needs to be accountability and people being held to some standard
Complacency and mediocrity are evident.
Accountability for all who are on the government dime and for those that cause the crimes
Mature a little bit