Between August and September, San Francisco saw an increase in some high-profile crimes in the city, with homicides going from zero to 6 and rapes climbing from 27 to 33. Things were better on the Northside, where there were no homicides for either month, and rapes declined by 33 percent.
All other categories of crimes declined both in the city at large and on the Northside in particular.
Declines don’t mean all’s well. Thefts from automobiles did decline (by 17 percent in the Northside and 1 percent citywide), but according to Police Department reports, the Northern District still had 421 thefts from autos in August and 350 in September.
One Cow Hollow resident, owner of two cars, recently shared with the Marina Times a letter he sent to city leaders imploring them to do something about the rampant auto break-ins. “Our cars have been broken into 23 times as a resident of S.F.,” he wrote. “Seventeen of those 23 break-ins have occurred since July 2013 in a four-block radius of our home.”
Can the city find a way to pay for better protection out of its $9 billion annual budget?
