As I prepare to write my Captain’s message, as the Captain of Taraval Station, I always take the time to reflect and ask what I want my message to be. In light of the recent tragedy in Dallas, I have to take a moment to tell the officers of Taraval Station, “Thank You!” When the life of an officer is taken, let alone 5 officers in one incident, it has a tremendous impact on the law enforcement community. During these times, it is not uncommon for officers to question the future of their career. It is not uncommon for our spouses and our children, with tears in their eyes, ask us not to go to work. These conversations we have with our family can be the most difficult as we try to explain why we need to go work. It is a conversation that offers reassurance to our loved ones that we will be ok. We offer promises of being safe so we can return home to them at the end of our shift. We remind them we are not alone and that we have a community that needs us to protect and serve them. As police officers, we all took an oath, an oath that becomes part of who we are. We believe in our commitment to run towards danger when others run from it. We do so instinctually because we understand why we took the oath to begin with. We took the oath to help others. Being a police officer is not any easy job. Every day, we are required to make decisions. We are required to make the right decisions, sometimes they are tough decisions, but it is all in the name of protecting and serving the residents of San Francisco. Over the past week, I have witnessed the officers put on their uniform every day while knowing the danger they may face during their shift. I have witnessed community members embrace the officers of Taraval saying, “Thank You” through cards, flowers, treats and hugs. I am incredibly proud of the officers of Taraval Station, I am incredibly proud of the officers of the San Francisco Police Department and I am incredibly proud of the community who stands up and supports the officers efforts.
Let’s talk about what’s going on in the Taraval. I am always amazed how quickly time goes by, it’s hard to believe we are approaching mid July and are halfway through the summer months. I know the Fourth of July brought a lot of frustration for many residents, not only in the Taraval, but throughout the city. On the days leading up to the Fourth and on the evening of the Fourth, the officers of Taraval Station worked very hard to address the many calls for service concerning fireworks. Many of you have taken the time to share with me your experience and I appreciate that. As a result of the many conversations, we have identified the “hot spots” for those evenings. This information is important to me as it will allow me, next year, to look back at these hot spots and deploy our officers more strategically as opposed to just being reactionary to the calls for service. I’m confident that with this approach, we will be able to more effectively address the concerns of the residents.
Property Crime is still a very big part of the discussion when we look at crime prevention. I am happy to report that we are seeing a significant reduction in the number of burglaries and theft from auto incidents. In January, we had 200 incidents of theft from auto. In June, this decreased to 114 incidents of theft from auto. In March, we had a high of 73 burglaries. In June, we had only 25. I believe there are 4 contributing factors to the reduction of property crime within the Taraval. First, we are deploying our resources based on data that shows us where and when these types of crimes are occurring. That data is broken down to the areas, the days of the weeks and the times of the day these incidents occur. Second, the Taraval SIT and TNT are doing an incredible job with the follow up investigations. These investigations allow us to identify who is committing the crimes. With diligence, the team is able to build strong cases for arrest and prosecution. Third, The District Attorney’s Office is making the arrest and prosecution of these cases a priority. Finally, the last contributing factor is the community. Many residents have decided to play a proactive role in their neighborhood’s safety. You are getting to know your neighbors and you are able to identify behaviors that are suspicious. The reduction of crime takes all four factors to be successful and no one factor can do it all by itself. As the Captain of Taraval, I recognize the value in partnerships and am constantly asking, “How can we be better”.
For those of you who may be unaware, Taraval has a Community Police Advisory Board (CPAB). The CPAB works closely with the district station captain to address concerns within the district. Currently, the CPAB is working on two projects. The first is a Theft from Auto Prevention campaign where we are using signs to bring awareness to areas that are experiencing a high volume of auto break ins. Thank you Vi Huynh, Charles Head, Elise Stupi and John Hughes for creating an amazing sign and taking the time to reach out to areas such as Stonestown and Park Merced. Special Thanks also to Vi and Charles, who took it a step further and walked through these areas and posting the signs for public view. These signs are available to residents if you would like to post some in your neighborhood. The signs are also available to view on the website. Please take a moment, check out the sign and let us know if you would like to be part of this campaign.
The second project the CPAB is working on is a Kid’s Safe Zone project. The concept of the project is that often during the school year, students head towards the areas of West Portal, Ocean Ave, Irving St and Noriega St. While we are in an era where most kids have cell phones; sometimes the student may find they are walking through an area and are suddenly in a situation where they don’t feel safe. This could be from cases of interaction with subjects who suffer from mental illness, it could be a situation of bullying or it could even be a situation where an individual becomes aggressive towards the student for no reason. The idea of the Kid’s Safe Zone, is to identify businesses along these corridors where a student is welcomed to go inside a marked business to remove themselves from a situation if they feel unsafe. Once inside the business, an employee would be able to assist the student with calling 911 or getting hold of a parent to make arrangements for the child to make it home safely. Currently, we are working on identifying businesses that want to participate in the Kid’s Safe Zone Project. Once we identify these businesses, the business will display a sign that has been created by the CPAB which will alert the students that “this is a safe place I can go”. The next part of the project will be an outreach and education of the project to local schools and parents. The goal is to identify schools along these corridors and reach out to school administrators to coordinate outreach to parents and students. Our hope is that this can be completed early in the school year, possibly at a Back to School Night. If you are a business owner, school administrator or parent who is interested in more information or if you have suggestions, please contact me at denise.flaherty@sfgov.org or 415-759-3100.
My Captain’s Community Meeting is coming up! Please join me along with Board of Supervisor Norman Yee, and ADA Archie Wong. The meeting will be held at the West Portal Library at 190 Lenox on Thursday July 28 6-8pm.
As always, please feel free to contact me with any concerns, comments or suggestions you may have.