efforts are being appreciated beyond their immediate reach. >> you have to blend this idea of community network with computer equipment with training and with support. we can pull all that together, then we've got it. >> it's as much about social and economic justice -- in fact it's more about social and economic justice than just >> good morning, and welcome to the public safety committee of this -- of the san francisco board of supervisors. my name is supervisor john avalos. i will be joined shortly by christina olague and also by supervisor mar.

dean had just started with the clerks office and i would buy to welcome you to share your announcements. >> thank you. please be sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. speaker cards to be included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk. items acted upon today will appear on the september 4th board of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated. >> thank you, dina brailey. and we also have two members of sfgtv doing work behind-the- scenes. thank you both for your service. could you call items #one and two? >> item number one is a hearing regarding homicide and gun violence in the ocean view, merced heights, and ingleside,

and southeast neighborhoods. item number two is a hearing on the committee response network 2012 summer coverage plan. >> thank you -- a very good. these are hearings that i have called. i have been very troubled by the high rate of homicide in san francisco. while we might say that homicide are down overall, in certain communities, homicides are up and with a incredible uptick especially in the african- american community, and the latino community, but especially the african-american community. in my neighborhood in my district, i have been very troubled by a homicide of a household of five members. in the chinese community we at had four. homicide have happened very close by that side, a couple of

blocks away. and two others within a mile. it is clearly showing that we have a community in crisis. it is very easy to point fingers as to who the culprit is behind this, but what we should be doing is looking practically at how we can look at our assets in the community, community leaders, community services, and our departments and use our skills and talents to pull together to have a concerted collaborative response. and there is a new path to bring safety and security and opportunity to bring communities that are shut out from that and have been shut out from that for decades. it is a big task we have before us. this hearing will not lead to

immediate changes and solutions, but it should set us on the path toward a process of working together to be sure we have cooperation to make our streets safer. in my mind, it is not just the responsibility of the police department to play a great role in assuring public safety, but we have another responsibility that lies with community members, lies with families, lies with other departments, lies with the mayor's office of community development, lies with our community-based organizations. the we all need to work together to make this place is to be of greater opportunity, where the streets are not a place to make your money, but a place that you travel, meet friends, be together. but in a safe way. i want to call forward our department heads. supervisor olague has a comment she wants to make as well.

supervisor olague: one of the things to remember is that even though the focus of the hearing is on gun violence in the ocean view and merced and ingleside and southeast paper goods, all of these areas -- neighborhoods, all of these areas are connected. the violent acts occur in the southeast side of the city, but their connections to the western addition, or to hayes valley, where there is a connection either between families or some of the youths have been raised in our part of the city, and may be murdered in the southeast. the whole families and friends and all of these cultures, there is definitely a connection between all of these neighborhoods. when we talk about wine, we're really talking about the entire city because of those

relationships. in this past year, with the assistance of sharon hewitt, we held a hearing early on on the impact of violence, the impact of young people growing up around violence. we had a steady to draw a nexus between performance in school ability to succeed as adults in life and the impact of living in these dramatic environments have on children. there's a lot of pst that occurs as a result of being surrounded by these traumas. also, we had a hearing recently on survivors and just the impact of living with this brief and we're learning a lot more about

these issues from -- living with this brief and we're learning a lot more about these issues from the survivors on a daily basis. i'm hoping that we can definitely talk about it. there's always a need to talk about the criminal-justice peace, but -- criminal justice piece, but i think we can also include some measure of prevention. eventually, looking at the school district mental health resources been provided on site to the housing authority, residents if there's a connection there. i believe that we need to focus on making sure that people who are affected by violence have access to the resources they need to get through the trauma and to go on with their lives in

a way that is not inundated with a lot of the pst and other things that we are finding occurs with folks. i felt that we could look at it comprehensively. we could look at education and mental health. we could look at criminal- justice issues as well. it's something that we have to approach from so many different angles. i want to emphasize that. >> thank you, supervisor olague. -- supervisor avalos: thank you, supervisor olague. most violent crime indicators across san francisco, crime is going down, but we are seen an increase in homicides. we need to be able to cause a war that might be, especially for the police to pars -- we need to be able to posit why

that might be, especially for the police department. we have paul henderson from the mayor's office of public safety and the director of public safety in the mayor's office. we will have a presentation from the police department, the district attorney's office, the department of public health, the mayor's office of housing and community development and then we will have public comment. first, and we would like to call mr. paul henderson. >> thank you, supervisor. i am paul henderson, director of public safety for the mayor's office. i want to start off by thanking you for having us here to present the information, and also to a knowledge the comments from supervisor olague as well. what you touched upon is really

important here today. that is, the discussion about how all of the information is incorrect -- interconnected. keep in mind that none of these agencies and individuals you are hearing from our operating in silos. they are not just talking about specific neighborhoods. they're talking about public safety from a citywide approach, which is kind of what my role is here in the mayor's office, to take the city wide approach to a lot of these issues. while also specifically addressing some of the issues that were raided the -- raised in the ingleside neighborhood where shootings have gone up. there has been an uptick recently with shooting and with homicide as well. other agencies will talk about that. but i do want to keep a perspective that although we are still in overall loans in terms of the numbers, this is

something the city takes very seriously and the agencies he will hear from will take this -- to take this very seriously as well. supervisor avalos: related to where you address that, but i want to make sure it is very clear, so i will say it separately. this hearing is geared toward involving people in the community. and we have a lot of people here in that -- from the community today. we will have presentations from the departments before your public comment. your comments will be very important to me. the people of the community are the eyes and ears of this committee, especially concerning homicide. >> i do recognize and see many of the advocates published -- focus on public safety here in the room and i'm sure we will hear their comments as well as the information is presented. the primary role is coordinating

the services amongst the many agencies that you are about to hear from, as well as some that you do not see in front of you today. oftentimes, there are interrelated activities that involve state and federal agencies as well. and those services are coordinated, or dovetailed into the services provided here in the city. but generally, this city has an overall approach toward violence. and there's also a specific approach that we're using just for this summer's. we have a different approach for the summertime because we have so many youth on the street and at that is an important component of how we address the many activities going on. like the midnight basketball program, which is the henderson league working with all of the huge from the neighborhoods -- >> [unintelligible]

>> the midnight basketball is knocked an omi, but many of the kids come to purchase a page from the omi. also, the mayor's big push was to get as many kids as possible jobs during the summer. that is a big thing that that city should be proud of, the initiative to try to get 5000 kids with jobs this summer and not just hanging out on the streets. supervisor avalos: do we know how many of our from the omi neighborhood? >> the mayor was just speaking about it yesterday. i do not know how many from omi, but the number he was able to secure was 5000 two. i do not have a breakdown notomi but i will see -- a breakdown from omi but i will see if i can get that information for you. for this hearing, if we can start off with our chief of police to talk about what the

police department is doing. i will be available to answer questions and help direct for every increase the board behalf. -- whatever inquiries the board may have. >> before i start my comments, i want to say that the last couple or three years we have made progress toward reducing violence in san francisco and it was a collaborative effort and could not have been accomplished without many of the people behind me and a bunch that are not here. it is absolutely a collaborative effort of the community, the police, and a bunch of people that have nothing to do with law enforcement or the mayor's office. i appreciate this hearing. i think the board of supervisors -- we keep violence down, but it is always too high for anyone stake in san francisco, my included. with me today, deputy chief

cashman who is in charge of operations, commander of works in the southern end of the city, commander loftus of the investigations division, and captain ron of the terrible station, and lt. yee, who is the operator of the capital side station for capt. dan mahoney. let me go further by saying that gun violence is down bought -- 5% in san francisco. that is the true bellwether of how we are doing, we believe. unfortunately, homicides by gun violence are up 5% in san francisco. even though we have had fewer people shot, more people have died as a result of those shootings. we want to continue to have both of those numbers continue to go down. but as everybody knows and as you already stated, the most

serious crime we have in san francisco is when somebody else shoots somebody. you can assume that any time somebody shoots somebody their intention is to kill somebody. unfortunately, the people that have committed an act of five -- of aggravated assault with a firearm have been 5% more successful. at some time, it would be great if we could couple the two come out fewer shootings and fewer homicides. -- couple the two, fewer shootings and fewer homicides. regarding the question that you ask the police department prior to this hearing -- what is your department's role when a homicide with a gun occurs? any time of -- type of homicide occurs, we are the first responders. we respond within three minutes to anywhere in the city. officers render a first and foremost, established a

perimeter, and the appropriate folks are called in, whether it be homicide investigations, a gain task force, scsi, and on and on. and we go even further by contacting the crn in the community to do outreach. and i noticed turley is here from dph. he has been a great -- charlie is here from dph. he has been a great partner in our outreach for a long time. we recently had a motorcycle accident over the weekend and the burning of a person on guerrero street. both were very shocking. not only did we do out reached in the community, but in mission statement as well, as the officers have feelings, too. what are your results in homicide in 2012? in district 11, there have been 11 homicides this year.

six of those were committed in the horrific tragedy on how street. another was a murder/suicide pact very sad, an elderly couple. however, that does count as a homicide. subtracting the six, which i do not believe is indicative of the street violence which i believe we do hope to impact. i will ask commander loftus to comment on those cases. i do not want to say something that will jeopardize them. last year, there were four homicides. this year, absent the six, there have been five. one is always more than we want. when you say 11 vs four, it sounds like a tremendous increase >. supervisor avalos: i appreciate that and i think is important to note, but we have also seen four

within about four months in a particular part of district 11, particularly impacting the african-american the community. that needs to be acknowledged. we are seeing in a short time frame so many incidences of homicide. what can we do to step up efforts in that community? >> actually, we had 10 in 30 days from june 1st to july 1st. i have spoken many times about the terrific month of june that we have had we have made many adjustments since july 1st, which was the last homicide in the area. i will ask commander loftus to come speak right now and speak to the five remaining open cases. >> and we have had lake view, where there has been a high

incidence of homicide. we are focused on bayview, but the way we have such an uptick right now, especially in these neighborhoods, that is something that is an anomaly compared to the rest of san francisco. that is my point, that we are seeing a real flare up in certain communities and we need to figure out a response as a city. >> commander of office. >> good morning, supervisors. i am john loftus, commander of investigations. sir, you are correct. there has been a flare up. we have had five homicides outside of those the chief judge spoke of. in district 11, in your district. the first occurred back in january. it was a homicide occurring at 26 regent. it involved a stabbing. two men fighting and one was

stabbed and killed. the homicide was cleared with an arrest. and its attorneys prosecuting the case. with respect to the gun violence, the more recent violence, beginning in april on april 1st at 356 louisburg, we had a homicide that we believe was related to a robbery. it was a gun homicides that occurred in a victim's home, in their garage. that is an open and active investigation. on april 24th at fairmont and plymouth, another homicide, also in the omi. that was a gun homicide. that was an open investigation. that one occurred on the street. on may 11th, we had a homicide at 158 broad. that was a gun homicides. we believe that very well could have been gang motivated. two members of a rival gang were

arrested for the homicide and that case was over -- turned over to the district attorney's office. and then on june 28th, our most recent and last, that occurred out in the allem i -- omi, we had a young man shot down at vernon and hot streak. that was another gun homicide. that is also an open investigation. we have three open, active, homicide investigations in the omi. we are vigorously pursuing leads in these cases. we have realigned a homicide unit in the last several months where we have incorporated members of our criminal investigations unit and our gang task force together to work in the homicide unit. that has been very effective, because so many of our homicides

have a gain access to them. -- a gang nexus to them. and we're approaching them a little bit differently. when a homicide occurs in san francisco, through the operations and investigations unit, we roll a lot of people out, a lot more than we used to in days past. as soon as a homicide occurs, the initial responding officers render aid, blocked on the scene. and when the investigations is notified, whereas in the past, it used to just be a couple of investigators, now we run out eight -- roll out a whole team of homicide investigators. it consists of a gang task force and criminal investigative units. the homicide is immediately evaluated. and in addition to thinking about trying to solve the homicide case, it is immediately

evaluated as to whether there will be a retaliatory shooting or homicide based on what has just occurred. once that determination is made, we have reinstituted a zone enforcement program, which we run thursday through sunday nights. those are the high violence nights. we are able to redistribute our vast resources from the police department to the specific locations where we think there might be retaliation. those resources are also added to assist in a homicide. when i speak of those other resources, i'm talking about tactical units, the violence reduction teams, which is a very large investigative team now. we have had a lot of success with that. in addition to the police resources that we roll out, the

crn's have been extremely helpful for us. we work very closely with dcyf, the department of public health, and the sierra and -- crn has been a tremendous support. especially when there is a large crowd gathering. they have been able to diffuse a lot of problems for us and allow investigators at the scene to do their work and get out. the d.a.'s office has been totally supportive once there is a homicide. the district attorney's office consults with victims services. and as mr. anderson spoke earlier, we have resources to come in and assist with the victims' families. and a lot of times, information develops on these crimes that we can use later on to help our investigation.

in addition, we have been working very closely with adult and juvenile probation. we have federal resources. we have our investigators that are on loan and detailed to federal agencies. we are able to use those resources also to help. that is our overall response from the investigative side. from the side of the house, the district station capt. from the district in which it occurred will do out reached to his neighboring -- neighborhood community whenever there is a homicide and ask people to come forward. we solve cases with the public's health and public support. we are very mindful of the impact of these types of crimes on a community. these particular open side --

open homicide, the three open homicide in our district, we do not see them as related in any way at this point. but the investigation, as i mentioned, is open and continuing. supervisor avalos: do you believe there is any relationship between homicide that you are seeing in these neighbors with other parts of san francisco? >> there definitely was a correlation between homicide at 158 broad and some of the recent homicides that we have seen in the sunnyvale area. -- sunnydale area. there has been some rival gang activity in that area. and this is outside the omi. we believe there are outside

influences there. which is often the case. we have a number of gangs in the city and we have turf-type of violence that occurs frequently. but overall, we have been fortunate and successful that a lot of our investigation is out in the omi. these three cases we will continue to investigate and we reach out to the public to work with us on those three cases. supervisor avalos: thank you. >> i think commander loftus answered several of the questions, one is that they have been alerted to two other homicides. one of those would have been the one on verlag is that people a loaded to. -- verlag is that people alluded to.

there have been two shootings on brighton and holloway, we believe both perpetrated by the same suspect. we are actively working that case. the person responsible for those two shootings does not live in the omi. we have a name and we are pursuing the suspect as we speak. with regard to the tnt, the tnt is back. six officers, as it has always been. is not the same sergeant. that's arjun, for matters related to personnel and are confidential -- that sergeant, for matters for the to personnel and are confidential, i cannot discuss. however, another sergeant who has a tremendous amount of experience working in the bayview, as he was the housing starts and in the bayview, has been reassigned -- the housing sergeant in the bayview, has been reassigned to these duties. supervisor avalos: that i