San Francisco sees historic drop in violent crime in 2024

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins joined hundreds of police officers at the department's headquarters on Tuesday to announce a decline in violent crime seen this year in the city.

"This time last year, we were at 50 homicides," said San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott. "Year to date, we have had 33 homicides."

That number has not been seen in the city since the early 1960s. Nonfatal shootings are also down by 19% compared to 2023, Scott said.

District 10, which consists of the Bayview and Hunters Point neighborhoods, has seen a 50% reduction in homicides and shootings compared to last year, Breed said.

District 10 has had an average of 13 homicides per year since 2020, according to police crime data. Year to date, there have been four homicides there.

"When I was growing up, going back to 1993 when we had 133 homicides the year after I graduated from high school, it was a deadly time in the city and it was something that we lived through for so many years," Breed said. "The fact that we are in this place is amazing. It is because we focused on prevention. When we provide solutions, when we work together and when we give a damn, we see progress."

Scott and Breed attributed the decreases in violent crime partially to implementing violence prevention programs and collaborating with organizations that aim to get to the root of what causes people to commit homicides and shootings.

Breed spearheaded the Street Violence Intervention Program, or SVIP, which tries to reduce crime through outreach and defusing potentially violent situations in schools and neighborhoods.

"It wasn't about just a response to violence. It was making sure the violence doesn't happen in the first place," Breed said. "It has been an ongoing and challenging effort. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to help bring those teams of police officers and community-based organizations working together with a number of initiatives to start to get to the root of these problems so that they never happen in the first place."

Homicide rates in every district across the city have either decreased or stayed the same so far this year, except for one neighborhood. The Mission District has seen 10 homicides this year compared to last year's four homicides, according to police crime data.

Roberto Alfaro is the executive director of HOMEY, an organization whose goals are to empower and redirect at-risk youth away from violence in San Francisco.

He noted that the rise in violent crime in the Mission District could be the result of desperation and economic obstacles faced by low-income individuals.

"There's a lot of crimes of what we call 'poverty crimes,'" Alfaro said. "There's homelessness and a lack of opportunities for jobs that creates conditions where people get desperate and use violence as a means to get what they need."

Such reasons for choosing violence is what Breed and her initiatives like SVIP are trying to address so that violent crime can get nipped in the bud.

Breed has also touted a reduction in property crimes and larceny thefts this year compared to 2023 and 2022.

"When you look at San Francisco over the decades and you look at our violent crime rate and our crime rate overall, whether it's car break-ins, property crimes, violent crime or anything else, it is one of the lowest numbers we've seen in over a decade," Breed said. "The numbers don't lie but we do have a lot more work to do around how we make people feel it."

However, some people don't fully believe these statistics since not all nonviolent crimes such as car break-ins and theft are reported to law enforcement.

While Scott acknowledged that some residents may not feel the changes in crime reduction, homicide numbers don't lie, he said.

"Homicides is one of the few statistics that you really can't go around," Scott said. "We all talk about unreported crime but homicides are reported. So we know that the work is being done."

Scott also thanked Jenkins for her efforts to hold criminals accountable and provide justice for families whose loved ones were victims of violent crime.

"We carry as a district attorney's office that responsibility to make sure we don't leave families in a position where they have to carry that pain indefinitely and where they don't feel a need to get justice out on the street," Jenkins said. "We contribute to a cycle of violence when we as law enforcement don't do our jobs. We have to take that seriously."

Family members of victims of gun violence were also present at Tuesday's press conference to raise awareness for their loved ones and show their support for the city's progress in reducing violent crime.

One of them was Paulette Brown, the mother of Aubrey Abrakasa Jr., a 17-year-old who was shot and killed nearly 20 years ago in San Francisco. His case has not been solved.

She thanked Scott for maintaining interest in her son's case and praised the department for their work in bringing down violent crime.

"Chief Scott has been the most attentive to us mothers who've lost our children," Brown said while getting emotional. "I thank God that crime and homicides are down so that now the focus can be on our children, on unsolved homicides."

The city is commemorating Abrakasa and helping to bring awareness to his case by renaming the 1500 block of Grove Street after him, the site of his murder. The street sign will be erected on Wednesday.

While violent crime rates are at a historic low, Jenkins said that there is still more work to be done and one murder is one too many.

"It's incumbent upon us to continue to move the ball forward," Jenkins said. "I think today, while there's a celebratory tone, we all know that we've still lost too many lives and we have to get that number to zero. But today is a testament that in comparison to last year, there are 17 fewer families who had to bury their loved ones this year."