New statistics show San Francisco’s crime rate is now the lowest it's been in 23 years. Two of the most noticeable drops are homicides and car burglaries.
This all comes as the California Department of Justice announced the San Francisco Police Department has made big strides in its efforts to reform the department.
San Francisco police Chief Bill Scott said that officers have plenty to be proud of based on the crime statistics released on Tuesday.
"Across the board with violent crime, from robberies to shootings to homicides to sexual assaults, they're all down," he said.
According to the San Francisco Mayor's Office and police numbers, the crime rate in the city is down by double digits in both violent crimes and property crimes when compared to 2023.
In fact, the overall drop in crime is so significant, Scott said you have to go all the way back to 2001, when Willie Brown was the mayor of San Francisco to see a lower crime rate than 2024.
In a couple key categories, like homicide and car burglaries, the drop is even more significant. There were 35 homicides in the city last year. That is a more than a third lower than the homicide rate in 2023 and it's the lowest murder rate the city's seen since the early 1960's.
Car burglaries in the city are down by more than half. Scott credits pro-active police work by his officers and the use of new technologies like drones and plate reading traffic cameras and a better working relationship with the current district attorney.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta also announced on Tuesday that San Francisco policed has successfully implemented nearly all of the 272 reforms the department agreed to back in 2017.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. >Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
Scott is heralding some major achievements for the police department. But they also come on the eve of the inauguration for a brand new mayor.
San Francisco Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie spent some of his Tuesday morning at the central police station in Chinatown. He said that he hopes to see more progress department wide.
"I commend SFPD and, and but we can't stop. We've got to continue to get better. I want SFPD to be known as the greatest police department in the country,” he said.
Scott said that he's looking forward to helping.
"The mayor said it best, the new mayor, what he would like to see, clean and safe streets,” he said. "Some of the challenges that we have been able to make some progress on, we want to continue the momentum."
