>> thank you, everyone, for being here this morning. i have indicated to our new chief and i will be an active participant in comstat. of course, this is only one of many ways that we measure our effectiveness in the community policing in the city. i have been fond of looking at data and making sure we compare ourselves to previous years, look at trends and specific categories, crime to property, homicides, violent crime to aurora's, and other areas. various local captains of all the stations know that the chief and i, command staff, and police commission, are working together to make sure that we work our

best and keep our positive trends going. we are now enjoying, year to date, a 6% improvement over last year on all categories of violent crimes. we are still down in homicides since 1960, continuing a trend that was very strong last year and continues to this year. all of this as a result of the men and women of the police department working closely with command staff, sharing information, and doing all the things that account for best practices. one of the most important thing that the chief and i talked about, and we knew that we would measure ourselves in the first 100 days, is that we would do and a fine community policing in every possible respect that we could. as you hear this morning, collaboration with other departments, the support that the chief has given to other departments to do their jobs

while the police department does theirs, and also, a focus effort on improving the situation while we work with less resources. in these first 100 days, the chief has showed his leadership. i am amazed that he can go out there with his 30 years of experience and ask for officers to come in on the weekends or nights. that is when most of the crime happens. to get a response has he does, getting "volunteers" -- we want to get to a better situation. the reality i have, i am looking at what is occurring all around the bay area. i know there are bad situations. we need to be focused on our situation, here in san francisco. i am committed to that. we also need to make sure to continue a detailed review,

whether it is stolen bikes or property -- that sort of small stuff can lead to bigger things. that is something that mayor willie brown taught me. we allow our communications to get through and people will get through to us. i also want to give my appreciation to the police chief being out there tackling those things, even if there are communities that do not understand what we are doing, trying to get to a level of communication that is comfortable for everyone, so that we get good information. as i said earlier, working with our public safety adviser and his staff to promote as much prevention as we can. it is not always going to be the police stopping everything. it will be other programs that prevent and change people's

lives. that has to work in concert with our police department and all the things they do, but it begins with a good presence. the police chief has shown that through a number of things he has done, making sure there are great communications while we ask our police officers, has with our other public officers, to contribute to the deficit, making sure that our funding gap is closed. this is one of the most difficult years we have had financially, and everyone is stepping up. even the command staff is looking beyond their own self- interest. this is one of the most selfless organizations we have in the city. congratulations and let us keep on working together. we want to continue that faith that people have, the confidence

in the things that we are doing well. thank you. >> i want to thank the mayor again for his support and eco what he was saying about the spirit of cooperation from the police department, other agencies, community. we cannot arrest our way out of crime. if you look at these numbers, violent crime arrests are actually down. partnership with other agencies, the spirit of collegiality, really, an atmosphere of cooperation. when i asked 60% of officers to move to weekend and night, they were willing to do that. we work out a contract negotiation that would help to close a $12 million budget gap, the corporation was there.

everyone understands how serious things are right now with diminishing resources. we have about 4% mustaf than last year but we continue to have crime lows. that is because the her using the force multiplier of goodwill within the city department, police department, and the community. and i cannot say this enough. it is all about the young people in san francisco. if we engage kids, give them positive choices, there is no reason why this cannot become the new normal in san francisco where we are just a safer city. again, i appreciate the mayor's support, going forward. >> [inaudible] are we not facing a crisis of a loss of officers? >> i do not think it is lost on

anybody. the mayor and i talk about all the time. we have had a 4% decrease in staffing, but staffing is up in other areas. the 35 officers that were not working nights and weekends are now. that is akin to an academy class. more efficient and one of the resources we have will hopefully get us to the point where we are hiring more academy classes as the senior officers retire. that will bring new ideas and greater efficiency and a safer san francisco going forward. >> i would also say, the police officers to police work. when the chief graduated one of the largest cadet class is in recent history, we are talking about civilians doing the civilian work while the police are out there giving the police work. we are identifying those activities within the police department that should not be

done by uniformed officers, and assigning those to the right people. so we are just approaching resources the smartest way we can while we try to get more police academy classis. -- classes. >> you talked about a game can? -- gang camp? [inaudible] >> about three months ago, i walked through the mission district with jane kim and david campos. this was after that shooting in the mission. we were walking along with officers in the district, just watching the streets, -- walking the streets, talking to merchants. we got an eyeful and an earful

of these kids hanging out on the corners with nothing to do. people said the city has come out to come up with better programs to track these youth. they are listening to the people on the streets trying to recruit them. we know that they are interested player from getting in ties into these gangs. we particularly listened to the community response network, the people that are in touch with these gangs. we have a program where they are helping police officers get information on what is going on. they recommended that we create an annual camp, where for free, about 50 kids -- and we may increase down the road -- will get a full camp experience. kids across whole arena of san francisco get these weeks where they go to camp and have a wonderful time.

some kids do not get a chance because they cannot afford it, no one is enticing them. they see that and a bang, that is not my life. my life is on the street. we need to integrate this live with them till ginsberg went out there to work with us. our friends at the family and children youth center that got the funding together. it begins at the end of the month for one week. we are recruiting literally those individuals -- we cannot get to the hard-core gangs, but we can get to those that are about to make a decision. they are true, on the edge with their grades, and we again be back. they can give as name referrals of kids that we can talk to.