There's been growing discussion amongst many in the community regarding a perceived rise in crime in the neighborhood. Merchants, the MUMC and other concerned citizen's had cited criminal activity as one of the main reasons they lobbied for the removal of the public benches from Harvey Milk plaza. The Biscuit thought it would be a good idea to start a series focusing on this issue and to do some basic exploration of real, factual crime statistics for the area.
The Castro district police jurisdiction falls under the purview of SFPD's
Mission Station housed at 630 Valencia between 18th and 17th Streets. The building was built in 1994 to replace the smaller, inadequate facility that'd stood on the same property. The first Mission cop shop opened 110 years ago when the
original station site was built in 1902 at 17th Street and Treat.
In the past week, Nov. 23rd-29th of 2012, according to SFPD's own, interactive
map of criminal activity, there have been 89 crimes within a one mile radius of the heart of Castro village. Crimes mapped and represented by specific icons range from Arson to Noise Disturbance and every other sort of misdemeanor and felony.
On the danger scale the Castro appears to tip toward Noise Disturbances at it's most benign to the alarmingly frequent and growing number of Robberies and Assaults. What isn't represented on the map by a symbol is instances of specific Hate Crimes. Conversely neither are all the smaller, unreported petty crimes that many residences shrug off due to the feeling that nothing can be done or reporting would lead to higher insurance premiums once it had become an 'official' police matter. Police spokes people have encouraged everyone to report all crime as accuracy of events helps determine factual statistics and determine where current police patrols are then assigned.
While neighborhood watches, organizations like
Castro Community on Patrol (CCOP) and the density of the community tend to help keep the criminal activity down there is, according to SFPD's own data, reason to be more aware as you travel about. Holiday seasons tend to see a spike in crime.
Almost every anti-crime, community outreach lecture starts out with the admonishment, 'Be aware of your surroundings'. Safety of self and property is always tantamount to the level of personal responsibility one can take for keeping an eye out on yourself and your fellows. This is the basic rule of thumb. SFPD once had a noticeable, foot patrol, police presence in the neighborhood which many felt helped curtail a great deal of crime of opportunity or petty crime. Circumstances have changed and while we occasionally do see a lone officer on patrol by foot or bike we don't see that personal, neighborhood attention that once dominated our streets.
The Biscuit plans on continuing to explore and investigate crime within our community. If you have tips or ideas on where you thing we should be focusing we welcome your input. Drop us an email and keep us in the loop.
