San Francisco supervisor proposes aggregating crime data to help police
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - Supervisor Gordon Mar wants to find out whether crime data from the San Francisco Police Department shows an increase in crimes targeting the city's Chinese community.
During Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, Mar introduced a resolution calling on the Police Department to release aggregated demographic data on crime victims within the city's 11 districts annually, for the last ten years.
The data would help ascertain whether certain demographics are being disproportionately impacted by violence, property and hate crimes.
The information could then be used to help strengthen crime prevention strategies in the communities that need them the most.
The resolution comes after "growing incidents, particularly violent ones, and property crimes targeting Chinese residents and businesses, and a big increase in hate motivated crimes overall in San Francisco," according to Mar.
In the most recent high-profile incident, three suspects allegedly brutally assaulted two elderly men, ages 56 and 69, in Chinatown on July 8, and ultimately took one of the victims' watch.
Mar said he first requested the information from police back in April during a hearing, which he called in response to a series of home invasion robberies and package thefts allegedly targeting Chinese residents in the Sunset District.
"Four months later, Chinese residents and businesses have been victims of many more high-profile violent crimes, yet I still haven't received the information I requested," he said.
"It's unacceptable that SFPD does not provide such basic information to me, the Board of Supervisors and the public."
Instead of receiving the annual data on victims, police gave Mar information about the demographic breakdown of police officers, "Which is not what I requested, although that was interesting information to see," he said.
In addition to requesting the victim data, Mar said he's also working with City Attorney Dennis Herrera to draft legislation that would mandate the collection and annual reporting of demographic data on crime victims, including their race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious preference and disability.
"This information is critically important to strengthening our crime prevention strategies and ensuring that all communities are safe," he said, adding that the information could also show what other communities are more vulnerable to crimes, like LGBT or religious communities.