most ugly structure, and it's a barrier between the mar sh and presidio. and this is a place and i brought my dogs and grandchildren and had a picnic lunch and it was memorable to use them when we come here. what would it look like when the design and development is completed. and we are not sure we want an eight lane highway going through this town. and it's a beautiful area in a national seaport area on the planet. >> the road is going to be so different. it's really a park way, and it's a parkway through the

national park. and they make the road disapeer to the national park. >> and the road is about 20 feet lower, normally midday, you go through it in two minutes. looking back from the golden gate bridge to presidio, you are more aware of the park land and less of the roads. and the viaduct will parallel the existing one and to the south and can be built while the existing one remains in operation. and the two bridges there with open space between them and your views constantly change and not aware of the traffic in the opposite direction and notice the views more. and the lanes of course are a

foot wider than they are today. and they will be shoulders and if your car is disabled, you can pull off to the edge. and the next area, the tunnel portal will have a view centered on the palace of fine arts and as you come out, you can see alkatrez island and bay. and the next area is about 1,000 feet long. and when you come into one, you can see through the other end. it's almost like driving through a building than through a tunnel. and noise from the roadway will be sheltered. and the traffic will be out of view. >> when you come out of the last sort tunnel and as you look forward, you see the golden dome of the palace of

fine arts and what more perfect way to come to san francisco through that gateway. >> it will be an amazing transformation. now you read it as one section, the road is a major barrier and then a wonderful strip along the water. all of those things are going to mesh together. >> right now the road really cuts off this area from public access. and with the new road, we will be able to open up the opportunity in a new way. >> this bunker that we see now is out of access for the general public. we are excited to completely rework this side and to open up the magnificent views. and what we want to do is add

to this wonderful amenity and restore this coastal bluff area and respect its military history and the doyle drive project is allowing us to do that recorrection. and this area is not splintered off. >> and we can see how dramatic a change it will be when doyle drive is suppressd and you have a cover that connects the cemetery to this project. it's historic on the statewide and national basis, but you could rush the project or put thought and time to create something of lasting public benefit. >> we really want this, for everyone to feel like it's a win situation. whether you are a neighbor that

lives nearby or a commuter or user of the park. that everyone will experience a much better situation than they currently have. >> the human interest to me is how people could work out so many challenging differences to come to a design that we believe will give us a jewel. landmark of a place. >> i am sure it will have refining effect like embark did. and there were people about that and no one would think of that today. and when you look at growth and transformation of the embark, the same with doyle. it will be a cherished part of the city and a worthy addition to what is there. >> it will be a safe and beautiful entrance to a

spectacular beautiful city. it will be the entry to golden gate that san francisco deserves. >> good morning. i'm ross mirkarimi, chair of the

public safety committee. welcome to malia cohen and david campos. i apologize for the delayed start. i was keynoting and it went over time. thank you for your patience. our apologies. would you please read item 1? >> hearing to receive the report from the san francisco police department and/or mayor's office of criminal justice regarding public safety conditions including citywide crime levels and trans bolt citywide and by police district station and/or neighborhood. supervisor mirkarimi: good morning. >> i am the captain of major crimes. i'm pleased to be here. supervisor mirkarimi: you are free to go ahead. we have a new committee

generation here. by all means, we can pick up where your practice has been in going through the overview. we will get into questions that affect certain areas. >> i will explain what i do. every month, i bring to you are citywide profile for major crimes in san francisco. these are part one crimes, of a violent nature and property crimes. i'll start with a chronic. in the area of homicide -- we go through a 20-day extraction. . -- 28-day extraction period. in the last 28 days, we have had a rise in said. we went from five up to seven. -- rise in homicides. we went from five up to seven.

there were six rapes in the previous period. we had another six in this period. robberies, we have had a 1% increase. 248 up to 250 robberies. if you look back to november 7, december 4, 2010, we had 297 robberies. we enjoyed a down tick of about 16% in the robbery rate. aggravated assault, we have a slight decrease of 4%. 245. in the part one property crimes in burglary, we have a 6% decrease. 354 down to 331. auto theft, we are down. reform vehicles were down 23%.

arson, 171% increase. as explained by the fact that in december, the arson rate was low, and now we are back to 21 per month, more of these -- most of these are arson of vehicles. they have been reported stolen and have been found to be burnt. in -- last, personal theft, we went from 1061 to 850, a decrease of 20%. our violent crime numbers are down 3%. property crime numbers are down 16%. supervisor mirkarimi: so -- i'm happy to see the reductions, as

anybody would be. the month of january, i think he would ask many, felt like a troubling and tough month with regard to violent crime. you just said it has been down. in my area and other areas, we have seen quite an uptick. maybe you can speak to that. >> i understand there's a very serious uptick in homicides. we had 11 this past month as compared to five last year at this time. however, i can say that of the 11 homicides, only one that we know of has been gang-related. all the others have been some type of ongoing dispute, either over money or some type of

domestic issue, people who knew each other, drugs or violence, that ended up in homicide. those are unfortunate. however, they are random acts of violence that will isolated and confined to those two individuals. we have four all rests in those homicide. we have one that occurred in sacramento. the victim was burned in san francisco. we also have an outstanding arrest warrant for another suspect, a $10 million warrant. we feel confident we will be able to locate him and taken into custody as soon as possible. supervisor mirkarimi: there is a tonal quality that exists, even if this is -- these are random act of violence not attributed to the ongoing issues of whether it is gaining or what have you, that radiates in those affected communities where the crime occurs.

many of us have to deal with that aftermath. so, understanding your report in the statistics on this, -- you are reporting the statistics on this, there is the visceral impact on communities. another murder happened. they are not necessarily focusing on the reason why, even if it has not been classified as a crime, per se. we hear from people that the police department is becoming less connected after those particular events because when one hears that a death had occurred, but it may not be classified as a homicide, it was not a crime, because it might be out of self-defense, that is it. it is tough to put it down.

the crime you spoke of, the gentleman from sacramento burned the car. that was in my district. realizing that is not classified as a homicide in san francisco, it was a homicide in sacramento, right? it left a trail in effect. i'm having a community meeting next monday because that aggregate's all the other little things to the point where it's creates concern. i don't know if you can speak to that. >> i agree with you. we have advised reports. we are reaching out to the public. i personally -- we speak about this quite a bit. i went to one of the meetings in your district and spoke on gang

violence there. i feel the police department is reaching out to the community. we have safeguards in place. it specifically addresses these issues. i will reach out to all of my peers. supervisor mirkarimi: those are sentiments -- i think it deserves a more focused discussion. when these things occur, i hope to see demonstrations. there's a dispatch by the department of public health that used to send people to an area where a violent crime happened. there's the community response network, which is supposed to work closely with the police department in being alerted to crimes that happened.

i think it has now been weakened in some ways. that deserves attention. this level of aftermath i don't think it's strictly on the pollees's shoulders, but in essence, what concerns me is the vibe of when something occurs, even if it is completely random act, isolate them, it's still can add to a climate that even may have or precipitate a retaliatory effect, or other effect that could be completely unrelated, but we still see patterns of this occur. that is where i think we want the police department to be more sensitive in this reality. >> i'm stan. two days ago, -- i understand. two days ago, we were going to meet with all of the crn folks from both sides of the city. we sat down and met for one hour

to go over all the concerns to iron out any issues that may have had, so we can come together and have a working relationship. there was a lot of trust building in that meeting. i met people from dcyf, along with the health department. we explained to our gang task force what the crn role is. all the officers have an understanding that in the event of an incident, a homicide were shooting, how does the crn help us do our jobs. we will continue to meet like that quarterly. supervisor mirkarimi: i look forward to having that here on the public safety committee, too. supervisor campos? supervisor campos: thank you very much for your presentation, captain.

we will have a hearing on this citizen the advisory board in the very near future. the level of involvement may not exactly be where it needs to be. i think we will hear more about what is happening when we have that hearing. as a concept, it makes a lot of sense, but i don't know that in terms of how they are operating that it is operating exactly the way it was envisioned. i think we need to have a further discussion on that. going back to where we are in terms of homicides for the first month of the year, how do the numbers compare to the first month last year? i am wondering if you can provide that comparison. >> we had 11 this month.

in january, we had five last year. supervisor campos: is there a change as to an explanation for that? >> we always look of the big picture. only one of them is gang- related. of the 10, what we have noticed is these incidents that occur, primarily with people who knew each other, bromate dispute, drugs, alcohol, narcotics. they knew each other. they committed this horrendous

act of murder. supervisor campos: i understand that. i know that a lot of these homicides and a lot of these incidents are very difficult to prevent. i do think it is important for us, as we're beginning this new year, if we are talking about double the number of homicides in the first month then we had last year. it is something we have to be very careful about, and make sure we keep watching that. if it continues, we're talking about a very different year between 2011 and 2010. >> we understand. we're doing everything we can to monitor it. we're putting as many safeguards and the extra patrols in place. we may feel there is another crime occurring. we have to take into consideration that we have enjoyed the lowest homicide rate we have had in the last 40 years. we have 45 in 2009.

last year, we have 50. 1975, we were up to 130 homicide. i am not saying 11 is good. unacceptable. we wanted to be lower. we wanted to be zero. we have enjoyed two tremendous years. we will keep up the work we have done. we have reduction teams in place. strategies are there and have not changed. we have not backed off. we are proactive in all aspects of this issue. i feel confident that in the big picture, after we look at six months and 12 months, we will get a picture of where we are at. i think we will be down to where we should be. supervisor campos: i think i probably share your optimism. i think we have to be optimistic. the role of this committee is to make sure we are proactive about what is happening. i will be honest. one of the discussions i think

we need to have and i look forward to having in the near future is what is happening around our community policing efforts. there's a purpose for providing what has happened in the very recent past. it is not necessarily something that, on its own, can lead to the policing we want to see. it has to be community engagement. i think there are some issues there. i look forward to engage in the police department through this committee and through the police commission in that discussion. i don't think the level of community policing is where it needs to be, and whether it is foot patrols or general community engagement, i think we can do a much better job. when you have numbers like the ones we have had for the first month of the year, it is a

concern because, notwithstanding the low number of homicides you point to, if this rate continues, it would be problematic. >> i totally agree with that. supervisor mirkarimi: 2 that point, we do share your optimism. regarding the issue of comstat and how it creates a reflective model, an important model of statistically capturing where crime occurs and where incidences' and resources are applied, that is important. it is critical that the police department have that model. what is at risk is the community advisory boards, which i think should serve more as an antenna, transmit and receive the nuances of those

communities, there is no way comstat would be able to fulfil in that role -- those boards are at risk of seeming superficial or gimmicky unless they are given the kind of weight, the kind of diversity, and the kind of access and reach to the police department in ways i think we had envisioned. based on feedback we're getting, the time getting on the caps, it is important that they are composed of people the police need to hear from in a way that helps us figure out what is a more fluid communicate system with the police department, our first responders, to neighborhoods and to our expectations that things will be better. i agree with supervisor campos.

i think this is worthy of its own hearing of focusing on how cabs are created, how they are support it, crn, dph's work, it is all part of this discussion. >> comstat is just a piece of the puzzle. two months ago, then-chief gascon had a very productive meeting. he came away with rave reviews. it is a work in progress. it is all new, as you know. many of them have only worked on six or seven meetings. i started my forum in november. we have had three meetings. we will have our fourth next month. i think there will develop and

we will see the fruits of all of this effort. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. commissioner cohen? supervisor cohen: thank you for coming. nice to see you. bear with me. i am one of the newest members on the board of supervisors. can you describe to me what is the current community policing model that you will implement? >> as far as that goes, every station as a community policing advisory board. that consists anywhere from 15 up to 25 members of the community that work with the captain directly to put together community policing initiatives and processes within that district itself. we have our community forum.

there is a citywide group. in my form, i have the asian- pacific islander forum. we focus on citywide issues that affect asians and pacific islanders. also, our captain attends at least four, up to 10 communities in district. it is everything ranging from -- most are broken up into smaller groups. they attend those meetings, also. we have the pal program in place. we work with juvenile probation. we work with our gang task force, our sro's, to put together things for kids who are at risk. there are a lot of different things out there. i am not familiar with all of them. i have my own little niche. i know that we are continuing

trying to think of new ways to engage the communities and to have them be a part of this whole policing effort. supervisor cohen: you mentioned your approach being citywide in that you focus a little on the api community. what other communities are focused on? >> i know there is an african- american community forum. supervisor cohen: who is in charge of that one? >> i believe it is captain john sanford. don't quote me on it. we also have a faith-based forum. we have our gay, transgendered, lesbian forum. that is chaired by an assistant

chief. there are several other forums that maybe have not kicked off yet, but they are in the process of coming together, identifying people that want to be in the forums. it is all new. supervisor cohen: if i remember, i could say, i am interested in working on api issues, and i could join your forum? >> yes. you come to a meeting. the forum, right now, is still taking applications. we started with a team members. we're down to nine active. another nine are very sporadic. next month, we will be taking a code-share. we will get this whole thing off the ground. there is a youth forum. it