The Eureka Valley Recreation Center was packed with standing room only for last night's Castro Safety Meeting. The event, organized by Supervisor Scott Wiener's office, was held to discuss what is perceived as an uptick in crime in the neighborhood. More than 200 people showed up to hear what the SFPD, the DA and community organizations were doing to help make the Castro a safer place and to ask questions and offer their opinions on the matter. KRON 4 was on hand to interview attendees.

If there was a theme from last night's meeting it was: start paying attention and get off your cell phone. Captains from Mission and Park station including District Attorney George Gascón and representatives from the Castro Community on Patrol and SF Safe reiterated what Supervisor Wiener had already said to us here at the Biscuit and in an op-ed in the Bay Area Reporter: that with the shortage in staffing in the police force it is up to the community to work together to help mitigate crime in our neighborhood. That means using the non-emergency phone line (415-553-0123) more often for suspicious loitering and situations that don't require immediate police attention. Forming more neighborhood watches through the help of SFSafe.org. Being more aware of our surroundings and putting away our phones while we're walking at night. Using the whistles provided by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to alert others and going into the safe places marked by the "Stop the Violence" signs when we are in danger. Calling 911 when we see something shady going down. Encouraging victims to report crime that they sometimes leave unreported (from bike thefts to taking the wrong person home who stole something). Mission Station Captain Bob Moser provided statistics on the amount of robberies happening in the neighborhood noting that it was a "relatively small number" compared with other parts of the city.

2013 Castro Robberies

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
5	5	4	0	5	6*

*5 were Pride/Pink Saturday related incidents Moser said that since January the police have made a combined total of over 700 citations and arrests in the Castro. Police Chief Greg Suhr noted that the perceived uptick in crime is due to the fact that we live in an age of instant information where crime is reported to the public by the PD and by information outlets (like this blog) through Twitter and Facebook nearly instantaneously. After the discussion, members of the community took the SFPD to task with questions regarding their response time, visibility, changes to street fair admission, and vagrants. The SFPD noted that they have one beat officer that patrols the neighborhood everyday in addition to several undercover plain clothes officers that walk the streets of the Castro. Supervisor Wiener said that he would be holding a public meeting to discuss possible changes to Pink Saturday admission and that he would be open to organizing a neighborhood walk with the community and the SFPD, much like the Lower Haight did, to help identify problem areas. Folks from communities neighboring the Castro also attended and asked the SFPD what they were doing to stop the violence perpetrated in their neighborhoods. At the end of the meeting Supervisor Wiener made it clear that the safety of the Castro has to be a community effort and that we have to work together with other community organizations and with the SFPD to make and keep the Castro a safe place to live and have fun in.