thank you. >> good morning. i do not have prepared remarks this morning. i was captain of richmond station, have been involved in the parks for the two years i have been there. ready to answer any questions you might have of our efforts in the park, our relationship with park and wrerec, and maybe 2 tell you that we described park policing as the crown jewel. it is an international icon that draws attention every time something happens there. police want to provide that sense of safety. i also want to say, i think the park is as safe as anywhere in town, but events happened which are part-specific. if you have any questions, i am glad to answer them. supervisor chu: can you speak

quickly more about the partnership with rec and parks, given what they have talked about in terms of the few members of part patrol officers we have at any given time. the fact we have one at golden gate park and in any given time -- what is the relationship that has been developed over years with park stations? >> part station has the east end, richmond station has from conservator drive out west to the beach. we work a lot with the rangers. the best way i can describe it. they are by the station a lot to be briefed on what we know is happening around the park. they bring a particular expertise about issues in the park, and locations. while i may describe the park in large areas, we can bring it

down to hundreds of small grains as to where areas are, policing problems are. every morning as part of the homeless outreach program, rangers need up to go out and offer services to the homeless and cite people for sleeping in the park. that happens every day. i can tell you, the meetings we attend with the ranger are very productive in terms of getting the most out of the assets that we have. we also work together at any of the larger events in the park. there is always a ranger contingent working with us. we are, maybe not great in numbers, but better together. their expertise and our particular resources that we bring. supervisor chu: do the richmond or park station provide

outreach/transportation? >> yes, each car that is on the street, part of their day will necessarily include the park. with the dog mauling an event that we had in july, in richmond, we started when we called operation safe summer, which ran through the end of october. we did traffic enforcement in the park. we did a beat in the park. we have some lead time activities, officers deployed to different sections of the park. the point is, we wanted to send a message out to folks, when they see police cars, horses, they feel safer.

so we moved those assets all run the park. generally, it is a patrol area of our district and park district. supervisor chu: what i am hearing is we have patrol, but that is not adequate. we have only one at any given time. meanwhile, from what you are saying, you do regular patrols through golden gate park. what is the nature of the manpower, during the day, at night time, how would you describe that? >> it changes depending on what is going on, if there is another mission that is calling officers away. supervisor chu: in a typical day. >> at the level of one park ranger, you are basically

providing for a response, usually, keys to get into an alarm, some sort of information and at the officer's name. the question for me, at any time, is what is the mission? if your mission is to prevent vandalism, crime, you have to staff for that. certainly, the rangers are not staffed to do that kind of work in the park. you are hard-pressed to get me to say that we do not have enough to do the job, because there is always more we can do, and that can change in a moment when officers are pulled away. it also raises the ability for us to say -- in the vandalism that happened in the middle of the night at the golden gate golf course. it was a secluded area. there were some folks that did a

lot of damage there. the tree cuttings that have happened, a radio car make go by, but you have to go by at exactly the right time to stop something like that. i do not know if i am answering your question. supervisor chu: do you have any statistics gathered from richmond and parked stations about the level of crime we have seen in golden gate park? the number of property crimes, violent crimes that have occurred. do you have those numbers? if you do, do you have them over time? are we seeing a trend, increasing, decreasing? >> if i came here without numbers, i would be very unprepared. we use numbers a lot. our deployments are based on

numbers. i can come back to you with the year-over-year trend analysis. i can tell you some numbers this year to get a sense of what we're doing. 1154 calls for service in the park. that is the full range. some result in reports, some are serious, some are minor. of those calls, 250 were a- priority emergencies. in terms of crime, we have park1 and 2 crimes, and -- part one and part two crimes. part one tends to veer more serious. -- tends to be your more serious crimes. 492 police reports taken in

golden gate park year to date. our problems in the park are a lot of auto break-ins. -- i will just focus on part 1. 160 or auto break-ins. 15 assaults. 15 auto thefts. 11 robberies. there were two homicides in the park and in arson. it raises an issue that i would like to weigh in on. many of the folks that we encounter in the park are not necessarily the one that would be calling the police asking for help. our homeless out -- officers -- personally, when i have been out with them -- during the summer, there was a lot of victimization of the homeless folks where they are assaulted and robbed for small amounts that do not get reported. in other areas of the park,

there are other things happening that are not reported to us. in some ways, you see 160 auto boost things, but how many were there really? how many robbery's? one morning i was out and i encountered two individuals who had been assaulted since hitting the streets in the previous week. that was in the summer when we have a lot of out of town homeless at come to the city to hang out. they tend to go as the winter sets in. then we have our long term homeless issues in the park. i hope that is responsive. i am concerned that there are folks who are not able to reach out to appear before a lack of a better term, they are off the grid in terms of connectivity. supervisor chu: you have given

us a breakdown of the part 1, part two crimes. 213, 279. obviously, we would love that to be zero. is there a certain level that we should be at, is this a high amount of part one that we should be expecting? how do we judge this number? >> we should have 0. supervisor chu: that is something that we all hope. but how do we put that in context? >> to say what number it should be would have tbe, i would haven time. part of it is, with the arrival of chief gascon, our i.t. support has grown tremendously, but we will be doing work to get

you some numbers. let me say this. no one likes to hear of a single robbery. the question is, how safe do people feel? when a crime happened in golden gate park, it rattles people. the fact that our two -- three beds of roses were aggressively vandalized in july -- it was an international event. whereas a serious street assault with terrible injuries are terribly net -- barely noticed when it happens just outside the park a few days later. i think the intensity of the affect on folks in our city is a lot higher when it happens in the park. probably, too, the notion of crime and a part is something

that leads people disturbed. that is my concern, talking to folks in our community. any event in the park is a big deal. supervisor chu: just some last questions about what you have observed. could you talk about, given the locations of -- i know tracking where the crimes happen is very important to chief gascon. in terms of location where part 1, part 2 is occurring, the time of day -- do you have information that you can provide us? >> i can give you my opinion based on the statistics. most of the crimes occur in the central park ut of the park. our reporting areas are quite

large in the park. basically, the park is broken up into three areas in terms of capturing the data. copper around albert light, park station, you have drug activity, warrant arrests, robberies. the homicide was at the tennis courts which is sort of the next area out from that in your area. then you come to the auto break- ins which have been a long martin luther king, bowling green drive. that area west of there. then it is a collection around the park. certainly, more during the daytime and early evening, but these are reported crimes, mind you. the outer part contents to be rather quiet, probably because there are fewer people out there as it gets later. as it gets to the evening, there

are not as many people in the park, visitors, tourists. it is interesting, there was a bluegrass concert. there were hundreds of thousands of people gathering, and you wonder, when and how are they going to get home? supervisor chu: given the patterns of what you have seen, what do you think about the partnership with iraq and part? have you worked with them to put up signs perhaps that warn folks not to leave valuable behins be what kind of things have you been doing with rec and parks? >> when you go to the website of, let's say, the academy of

sciences, you will see a letter there thafrom may that it encouu to keep the interior of your car and the -- from me that encourages you to keep interior of your car empty. there are plenty of bushes that grow low and block the view from the street. i know rec and parks are strapped, but they're working with us tothin those areas out. creating a more open feeling in certain areas of the park. that has been helpful.

we all get together with park and wrrec upper management on how to solve these crimes. lighting, i have not weighed in a lot on that issue. my law enforcement experience is much more about preventing crime by environmental design than an urban setting. while i might be good with buildings, my general idea of where things should be lit -- park and rec has a lot of good ideas. when you walk along certain streets in the park and you cannot see 5 feet into the bushes -- and i can tell you, the recent high-profile arrest out of the beach on friday --

people were camping just 10 feet off of the path but there was no way that you could see back there. i had to climb a tree to see. there are a lot of areas like that. maintaining those areas maintains a sense of safety, and it also prevents the this criminal element from finding comfortable places where people cannot find them. supervisor chu: for the recreation and parks department -- thank you. supervisor avalos: a lot of the same question that i would have asked. i think you covered it, thank you. supervisor chu: for the recreation and parks department, could you speak about the options for lighting some areas, where you think there might be ways to assist with the police

department as they are doing their patrol? >> i think most of our drives are lit. the park is 1,017 acres, and by design, has elements that are intended to be more open, more urban, institutional areas of the park, which, by design, are intended to be urban forest. so it kind of depends on what area of the part you're talking about. i do think there is a strong [no audio] with the captains of both of the stations in particular. we talked about environmental design. lighting is also a capital issue.

our ability to actually redesign the part is more of a complicated design challenge. from a maintenance standpoint, i think it is our responsibility to make sure where we have lighting in the park, that it is functional and working. supervisor chu: in terms of the western end of golden gate park, one of the main issues we have heard from residents is people walk through golden gate park different times of day, and sometimes they see things that occur there. can you speak to what the response has been, when you are doing to make sure parks are used as parks? >> i cannot emphasize enough the importance and seriousness to which we invest to make sure our park is safe. it is not good for business when

there is a perception that the parks are not safe. it is a bit of a combined approach, one, which is good management, good presence of staff, and park activation. those are the three main things that we can do as park staff. i think we're doing quite well, given the resource limitations we are challenged by. we are literally 50 to 60 landscape maintenance staff short of what the master plan calls for. the idea that we have two park patrol officers patrolling 225 parks, 4,000 acres of open space is, candidly, ludicrous. we have our challenges but we are always pushing for more

activation, more activities. some of our plazas. you have seen things happen here at the civic center with the world cup, world series, a local food program. the idea is to create healthy and positive activation. this is why we love the chalet soccer field development. it will attract people to that area of the park. there would, under proposed designs, being more lighting involved. it is exactly the type of project that can make the western end stronger. supervisor chu: supervisor avalos? supervisor avalos: i think it activation is the most cost- effective way to create safety in the parks. it has had a dramatic

impact on safety. looking, even at the east end of the park, where you have the carrousel, fields, playgrounds, it would be interesting to see how that plays could be activated in the evening hours. it could have a ripple effect throughout the park. we cannot have a police presence everywhere, parked patrol and every section. i know you are hamstrung on maintenance staff. that is definitely something to talk about, but activation is the way to go. >> it is cyclical, actually. there are multiple advantages to having a greater presence in the park, not only to improve sightlines, which, from a

landscaping perspective is complicated. we are not about clear-cutting golden gate park. that is not what it is about. we want a park that is well maintained, a design that is consistent with the parameters set forth in our master plan and park founders. but, i think, having a greater presence in the park makes people feel safer, which is why we are going to make our maintenance staff and park staff be able to be identified by uniform. i also think, given the shortage of staff, the amount of time we are spending, the cost just cleaning up after people behaving badly, detracts from the limited staff we have and their ability to do pro-active work, whether it is gardening, improving sight lines. so it is a little bit of a spiraling challenge for us. i agree with your comments

entirely, supervisor avalos, the best thing we can do, the most cost-effective thing we can do is to continue to activate our parks and spaces. my staff is committed to that through a corporate special events, programs, through healthy recreational and robust recreational activities, state soccer fields, baseball fields -- activation, activation, activation. supervisor chu: you had mentioned recreation and parks put so much effort toward maintaining -- getting rid of the illegal dumping, other things that take away your resources, concentrating on thing that you might otherwise put to the park in terms of positive activity. can you tell me if you have given thought on how to prevent some of that occurring so that you could divert some more of your staff to the positive

goals? >> i think this is a city-wide policy conversation, but we need to make sure the park is being used in a manner that conformed with the master plan, that we have healthy and appropriate citizens in the part, that is an important strategy. we think the discussion about how to manage the park at night, all of the parks, is a legitimate one. obviously, we do not want to impinge upon healthy recreational uses. san franciscans have a variety of life styles, and they use parts in different ways at different times. but we know, just from one my staff gets up in the morning, we know the damage that has been done the night before. in my conversations with the

police department, they have created some additional tools to help keep the park safe at night. i think that is something that warrants some consider us -- serious consideration. supervisor chu: we currently have laws on the books that prohibits people from sleeping in the parks. that already exists. that was described as a tool for law enforcement and rec and parks to manage the activity in the parks. how is that working out? >> it is an effective tool, but to continue to address challenges associated with illegal camping, some additional tools are warranted. under the part code section, there are some provisions that prevent people from sleeping in the park from 8:00 p.m. to

8:00 a.m., and during the day, people are prevented from having tents, anything that shows an attempt to camp in the park. those are citation-related offenses. but you can be in the park at any point in time. we have a part code section -- park code section that says that part growers will obey all signs. over the years, we have passed resolutions with park hours at a number of neighborhoods in the city. golden gate park is not one of them. a lot of them have operating hours by resolution. there is a question -- supervisor chu: you are saying many of the neighborhood parks are closed from 10:00 to 6:00?

>> yes, by resolution, of although there are questions about our ability to enforce that. supervisor chu: and golden gate park does not have that. just some of the neighborhood parks. >> golden gate has a provision against camping or sleeping in the park from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. supervisor chu: one of the things that the caption mentioned earlier, a lot of the things that are being reported are happening in the daytime. that seems to be counter to what you are saying, finding these problems in the morning. can the capt. talk about this discrepancy? >> certainly. i am commenting on crimes reported. of the 213 part 1 crimes

reported year to date, 160 are larceny, theft, and most are auto break-ins. what concerns me is the amount of crime that is not reported. supervisor chu: so the auto break-ins are happening when? there are no cars there at night. >> that is right. in the day. what concerns me -- the number of folks we encounter in the park and are disinclined, for one reason or another, to reach out to the pleas for assistance. i am of the opinion that a lot of crime is not reported. there is a certain amount of crime that is not reported generally, but as you get folks who are in the park for some activity they do not want people to know about, they are under age, they are homeless, want to stay out of