A relatively small crowd braved a steady drizzle to attend last night's Park Station community meeting. Because district Capt. John Sanford, Jr. was on vacation, Lt. John Newman recapped crime and traffic statistics and provided updates for recent operations involving Haight Street, quality of life crimes and "dog violation abatement."
Newman, a 29-year veteran of SFPD, started the session by recognizing Ofc. Lionel Lucas as the recipient of the captain's Officer of the Month award. Lucas, one of two officers who apprehended escaped Orange County fugitives Hossein Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu in January, "is a great guy," said Newman. "You ask him to do anything, and he just does it and doesn't complain. He's a true professional."
Moving to crime statistics, Newman announced that car thefts and break-ins have declined slightly for the second month in a row. Between January 1st and March 1st, 66 vehicles were stolen, compared to 71 for the same period in 2015. Since the beginning of the year, 156 car break-ins were reported, a slight drop from 170 last year. Most vehicle crimes in Park Station's territory occurred in the Upper Haight, Panhandle and eastern end of Golden Gate Park.
Ofcs. Brett Kaczmarczyk, Elizabeth Prillinger and Lt. John Newman.
"We know [that area] is our main area of crime, so we try to utilize outside resources" like motorcycle cops and tactical units who "aren't assigned to Park Station," said Newman. "They're there for captains and lieutenants when we feel that we need them to come out and augment our officers," he added, explaining that each arrest takes one officer off the street for several hours.
Park Station officers didn't issue any traffic citations for bicyclists last month, but 25 people were cited for breaking leash laws, lacking a license and other infractions as part of a month-long operation targeting dog owners. "A lot of these are fix-it tickets," said Ofc. Jeff Sung, a member of the station's Homeless Outreach Team. February saw 543 traffic citations issued; 37 were for cell phone violators.
Park Station's undercover officers made three arrests last month: one for marijuana possession and sales at 730 Stanyan, another at 500 Cole, and a car break-in at Twin Peaks. Officers tracked the suspect to Twin Peaks, where he rammed a police car and drove onto a sidewalk before escaping on foot. "I believe there was an arrest afterwards," said Newman.
On Valentine's Day, officers responded to a shooting on Twin Peaks that killed two people and hospitalized another with life-threatening injuries.
"They were affiliated with possible gangs from the Santa Rosa area," said Newman, who said the victims were "just enjoying the nice night" at the vista view point when they were spotted by a rival. "These guys were real victims," said Newman. "The shooter didn't even say a word to them. He just walked up and shot these guys. That's about as low as it gets."
The suspect in the shooting was taken into custody the next day in Richmond; Park Station officer Brett Kaczmarczyk transported the alleged shooter back to San Francisco.
Kaczmarczyk and his partner, Ofc. Elizabeth Prillinger, spoke about their work patrolling the Haight Street corridor on bike, foot and by car.
"We respond directly to calls for service for the area, so things that happened on Haight Street, whether they're criminal in nature or a mentally disturbed subject," Prillinger said. "We also interrelate with people on the street and try to get to know people in the neighborhood whether they're residents, merchants, tourists, or transients."
"One of the things we do every day that's the hardest thing to quantify is just how much interactions we have with people trying to understand what their needs are," said Prillinger.
Before the meeting adjourned, Newman announced that Mary Artist, who was attacked with her husband near Duboce Triangle on February 23rd, has been released from the hospital.
Police have created a composite sketch of at least one of the four suspects involved, said Newman, who added that even though investigators are "working a few leads," anyone with information about the incident is still encouraged to call the SFPD anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 with "SFPD" at the start of the message.
The next Park Station community meeting will be on Tuesday, April 2nd at 6 pm in the station's community room at 1399 Waller St.
