>> welcome to today's event. this is the 15th anniversary, celebrating the chinese lunar new year. the lunar new year is a 14-year cycle. this year is the year of the dragon. i would like to introduce and acknowledge some guests today. first off, mayor ed lee.

[applause] police chief sur and the command staff of the police department. [applause] president of the board of supervisors, david chiu. [applause] server book -- supervisor eric mar. [applause] police commissioner angela chan. [applause] president of the police commission, thomas mazuko. [applause] representing san francisco state, our host today, the program director, irena. [applause] i would be remiss if i did not mention in david chan, who really is the glue that put this all together. [applause] robert from the department of adult probation and parole. [applause]

do we have a representative from the chinese chamber today? thank you for being here today. [applause] >> testing, ok. thank you, everyone, for coming today. i am very enthusiastic about -- this microphone. [laughter] and about joining with all these people behind me, our board, our chief, our commissioners, all of our community partners. this is an opportunity as we begin the new lunar new year to signal a very important program that was adopted many years ago but that has been growing year after year. and that is a relationship with

our community. i and lunar new year, what we have seen in the past is that, you know, things happen, some criminal activities might occur because of the prosperity and the success of the lunar new year, and we have had to always be reactive. the chief and die and the commission, we know, working with community programs, and our family associations are also here, and the merchants, and if we are ahead of it, we will continue this fantastic record that our chief is really helping us do, and that is lower the crime rate. we have been successful. in fact, this year we are down 6% in our overall crime. and we want to keep it that way and keep the statistics from ever overwhelming us. one of the most important things that we can do in evens like this that last for a good amount of time is work with our public

safety officers and all of their efforts in making sure that everyone is safe, they all enjoyed the prosperity this event offers, and that we be competent in the way that we carry this out. so i want to signal, with the support of our supervisors, commissioners, and police officers on the ground -- there are many of them here but you will see them a lot. if anything, our officers enjoy our new year's here in san francisco. they enjoy being part of it. they also enjoy helping our residents, whether they're seniors, kids, or merchants in chinatown, to make sure that they enjoy every aspect of this. i know, working in the past in all the other positions that i have had, that sometimes people, particularly in the chinese community, consider something or

they say that somebody is asking for some money and they asked for it or they actually probably did not use the word extort, but they did things that were not appropriate. and it was a hassle for people to report it. but, at the same time, what they did not realize, one thing leads to the other. one incident leads to the other. suddenly, you have an accepted practice that is not acceptable to anybody. we want to make sure that does not happen. and it continues that there is a trust built with our police department, with community leaders on the ground that say no one is going to take advantage of a senior or of a kid who has a red envelope or the merchants who are just trying to enjoy and be prosperous like everyone else. that will not be tolerated. we will work very closely to make sure that the lunar new year ended attendees are enjoyed by the full list, by everybody, and no one takes advantage of

the situation. i also recognize george gascón, our new district attorney. thank you for being here to help us celebrate this new year. we're here at the gate and chinatown. we are here to signal that our lunar year, the year of the dragon, will be enjoyed by everybody without exception, and that everyone should feel safe. but also that, you know, there is education. if there is anything that they are teaching us, it is to prevent ourselves from being victims. so that there is less problems for everybody and that we recognize that the greatest hassle is for us to be victims of circumstances that we could actually prevent. so, watching out for each other, working with our officers, knowing that there is a great captain at our local police station that has command of everybody here that is

competent, can speak different languages, that can get to any signal that there is something that is wrong is going on. and then, most importantly, that we do celebrate this wonderful occasion in the most positive way with everybody. we want people to come into our city and come to chinatown. come into all the chinatowns in san francisco, including this great one here, and celebrate with us and be very positive about it and make sure there is no hesitation that our safety and the safety of everybody here is our number one concern. and we keep that as the highest priority. as to celebrate all the different divisions, we want to signal that we have a very close knit family of everybody working together, sharing information, sharing our knowledge and our successes, from our youth to our seniors to everybody in between, and to all of our merchants. i want to make sure it happens

in that we celebrate it. success to everyone. thank you to everyone in our official city family for coming together and being part of this very culturally, successful, happy time. happy chinese lunar new year. [speaks foreign language] [applause] >> thank you, mayor lee. my next speaker is an honor to introduce, chief of police, greg sur. [applause] >> thank you. first of all, i want to echo what the mayor said and wish everyone a happy new year. i am told that the year of the dragon is the luckiest year. so, here we go. with a little bit of luck, we can follow up on last year. crime was down last year, violent crime, and we want to keep that trend going. the crimes that surrounded the lunar new year last year were down over 50%. we have 11 reports of extortion in 2010, and we only had five

reported from the gang task force. it would be great if this year, the year of the dragon, we have none. we can do that through cooperation, working together, and everyone giving us the information we need to make sure everyone is safe and no one has to give up anything that works so hard for. when that language assistance available. if anyone speak another language from english. many, many languages are represented. please, please, use these resources to work with the police department. be as a community. we are all in this together. it's at the very safest year of the dragon as we can. [speaks foreign language] [applause] >> speaking on behalf of the board of supervisors and president david chiu -- [applause] >> thank you, captain.

at the new year's, everyone. it is great to be here. i think is a wonderful and suspicious that the sun is shining upon us. i want to take a moment to recognize the tremendous accomplishment over the past year in 2011, as we heard today, our crime rate continues to go down. i want to take a moment to thank all of our men and women in blue. from rg, command staff, the captain, to those of you could -- patrolling our foot beats every decade you're doing wonderful work. i also wanted think the community partners. you cannot do this alone. the police department cannot do this alone without our district attorney, without our nonprofits but not want to think the community youth center, chinese chamber, and all the organizations helping. i wanted in the community that, over the past couple of years, have worked very closely with our san francisco police department. we know that the number one way to fight crime is to make sure that our merchants and residents

are talking early and often to our police officers in our district attorneys of is to let them know they hear of anything, if they see anything, report it immediately. that is why we're coming together today. i look forward to a wider effort -- wonderful year of the dragon and continued drops a crime. with that, back to the captain. thank you. [applause] >> supervisor eric mar. >> thank you. at the year of the dragon, everyone. i wanted to thank mayor lee and our tremendous leadership in the law enforcement family for keeping our neighborhood said. in my district, public safety is one of the key issues. i will be a new member of the public safety committee on the board of supervisors. i think a key thing for me to point out is that public safety does not just rely on a law- enforcement, but neighborhood groups that historically san francisco, 60 for everyone, with

many different dedicated community activists all over this city that hundred law enforcement, business owners and merchants, to keep our neighborhoods safe. i hope i can work with you in my district to develop a tolerance of safety plans and more city- wide efforts. thank you, everyone, for being here. [speaks for language] >> speaking on behalf of the san francisco police commission will be commissioner angela chan. [applause] >> hello. [speaking foreign language] i think these are all the happy new year chinese greetings no. as we are studying, stephens, good luck with your business bit of that is for business owners. wishing you good health, especially elderly folks, and again, happy new year. on behalf of the san francisco

police commissioner, i want to wish the committee a very happy here and the dragon. the year of the dragon is the luckiest of all the years in the zodiac. parents often tell their kids to have a dragon baby this year because it is so lucky. the dragon is known for being strong, driven, and unafraid of challenges. a time of great celebration. i wanted to make sure that we tell our families, our children, and our businesses that if they encounter any crime that, like the dragon, they should not be afraid to confront these challenges and report these crimes to the police to make sure that other members of the community are not harmed by any of these things in the future. and in reporting those crimes, we make it a safer place for everyone to enjoy this wonderful and lucky holiday that does not come by very often. i want to know that i am cloud -- proud of our city where we have the first chinese-american mayor. it is a great time to celebrate that, along with the year of the dragon. i want to thank the crime

prevention and public safety in the end, especially mr. david chan. thank you. [no audio] [applause] -- [applause] >> our district attorney, at george gascón. [applause] >> thank you. happy new year. had a year of the dragon. i wanted to show our support to the mayor, chief of police, and others. crime is going down. it continues to go down. that is great news. i want to remind everyone that the district attorney now has office hours. we are here. we want to continue to increase -- [inaudible] make sure the community wants to use the program. we have many different language speaker is. 9-12 had been cameron house but by the end of the year, i want

to increase the numbers of the program. we want to continue to move city-wide. we know there's a great deal of need here. [inaudible] not necessarily going to the hall of justice bill that is the reason why we are here. happy new year. we look forward to continued success. as commissioner chan indicated, the dragon symbolizes progress. have a wonderful year. thank you so much. [applause] >> speaking on behalf of san francisco saved will be the program director -- san francisco safe. >> good afternoon. i would like to thank everyone for coming on this beautiful afternoon to celebrate the year

of the dragon with us. and, you know what, it is a great time of the year, a time where you pay respect to your elderly. you get together and clean the house is. the time of the year, unfortunately, it is not a secret that some of the local and asian criminals prey on the potential victims. so we all gather today to make sure that no one and nobody ruins the festivities. what safe will do, we will be distributing more than 2500 of these crime prevention information packages, as well as more than 5000 of these red envelops with a really important safety tips.

those are in english and chinese. also, we are asking the media for help. please help us spread the word. the message is loud and clear that no one should be the victim of crime at this time of year or through the year. and if something happens, then there are resources available. no one should feel isolated. i would like to mention also that we're celebrating the new year, but we're also celebrating the beautiful partnership, the partnership between the asian community and the city department and the nonprofits and the volunteers and everyone who is helping us with this event. it took years to build this relationship, and this

relationship is still evolving. i would like to ask you to join us in celebrating the new year in celebrating this beautiful relationship and partnership, and it is time to hit the road. time to this -- to distribute the crime-prevention information. again, happy new year. [applause] >> now i would like to ask robert to speak. >> thing that made the sun go away. well, thank you very much. it is a privileged to be here today. i think the mayor said it best bit of good public safety comes from not just reacting, the being proactive. the community comes together, law enforcement comes together as a unified front to protect the citizens of the city but of the director of this division,

and it is my pleasure to do this. is a very proud of our agents. the collaboration between the county and city law enforcements. i appreciate the service of our agents, and i thank you for giving us an opportunity to help the community. it is our privilege, and we appreciate it. thank you very much. [applause] >> that concludes the speaking portion of today's event. now i will open it up to questions from members of the media. this is a first-line 15 years, no questions. [laughter] >> [inaudible] >> historically, there has been concerns about extortion at this time of year, as well as other

gang-related activities, things like that it up over the last years, it has dwindled to practically nothing. i am very proud of that accomplishment. >> what about the -- [inaudible] >> a number of programs are in place now for those with english as a second language. we have telephone lines. we have a number of language- competent officers in this police district. the district attorney's office has the same. about every department has called 3-competent members. any other questions? aca none, we're going to begin the merchant whalk where we distribute the flyers. thank you for joining us to celebrate the lunar new year in the year of the dragon. thank you. [applause]