this, has been too-one sided and the focus has been so much on the negative and not enough recognition of the positives and the fact is that the vast majority of businesses that do this kind of work are responsible. and want to do the right thing and they are in fact doing the right thing as well. supervisor mar? >> thank you. >> i will be brief. i think that this is a great hearing, i'm looking forward to hearing both from the entertainment commission and the police on how they are working together to keep our merchant areas, especially those with late night entertainment safe. i know in my district, since the old days on geary and a lot of partying and different incidents i have not seen the incidents from the past but i know that the former rocket room was one place where there were a number of incidents and i appreciated not only the richmond police station and also the staff of the entertainment commission for really encouraging effective security and good communication with the club owners and the residents as well.

so i have appreciated how the system has worked. it is not perfect, but i know that better communication and really, coordination with both of the endties of the police and the entertainment commission has been very successful in the richmond district i feel. >> why don't we, unless we have anything else. why don't we turn it over to the entertainment commission staff. >> thank you, supervisors. i think that we are still in good morning, josyln cain and i handed out a lot of memo and a lot of what is in here is said and i am pleased to present the fifth report to the board of supervisors on this subject of entertainment issues of public safety in san francisco. as president chiu mentioned this process began if 2009 and we reported through 2010, and then, in 11, and 12 did not, have not been back. and so, that is why the numbers and the memo that you have got in front of you basically

limited to 11 and 12 and up to date through 13. and just the context we did basically give you some raw numbers around different types of incidents and i am happy to go through those. but the context is, essentially that the supervisor weiner mentioned this is a huge industry. and it hires thousands and thousands of people, and in fact, 80 million spending customers come annually through these venues including restaurants. if we take the restaurant out and we talk about entertainment night clubs and bars you are looking at 9 and a half million patrons. so then, when we look at numbers and in terms of violence throughout the year, in permanent venues, we are talking about 127 that were reported to us through the police departments system of sending us weekly reports.

and 100 of those, 127, were venues, permitted by the entertainment commission and then in 2012, that number went up, the total went up to 178 and ours 139. and you know, we can attribute that to all sorts of things, we saw an uptick in business. and so, i don't know that it tells a whole story, it is very, very consistent and up through this year, you know, we are half of that at the moment. those are violent incidents, those are dat batteries, assaults it is stave safe to say that these are happening outside of venues but occasionally things happen inside with bottles and things that could be considered weapons. but we are very quick to use the tools that supervisor chiu mentioned and we also are reporting in this memo this citations that we have issued

as well as novs which are notices of violation if we are not able to issue a citation as well as the 16 suspensions from the beginning of the entertainment commission that we have done and the majority of those have been, between 2010, and currently. they are really, really helpful. and supervisor weiner's additional sort of crafting of the tools that we have been using even further are going to be even more effective as well. we find that the relationship like you talked about with the police department is excellent right now. and the reporting specifically is here because we get weekly reports from the police department from all of the stations and then, via, alu and the creation of a liaison a few years ago. and with the help of cmac.

and in the industry, it was fantastic and so we have a command level liaison in the police department that we talked to, quite literally, i think that i talked to officer van coal, and inspector van coal every day, sorry. and the chief when he is not too busy. and all of the permit officers and it is better than it has ever been, the two things that are vital, for the entertainment commission to be good at what we do, is respect in the industry, and i get that with the tools that i have got now. and i am in there quick and then, cooperation with the police department and i know things if they keep moving the way that they are, it will only get better, i love that these insurance incidents go to 0. i don't know that that will ever happen. there is a lot of nights to party in san francisco. and again in my memo, i sort of gave you a number for context, but if the 400 places of

entertainment were only open two days a week, we are looking at 41,000 nights to go out and party and if 100 or so of those turn into violence, it is not great but it is not the worst thing with a tiny percentage. most people come to san francisco or go out and they live here and they go out and they behave, you know, exactly how we expect them to. and those that don't, you know, we take them to task. very quickly. >> so i'm happy to answer questions. this is inspector greneli who is out there every single weekend and he has got raw data if you have questions about these sort of larger numbers. and i want to definitely give an opportunity for the police department to come up and sort of present how they work with us. >> before we hear from the police department, i know that president chiu had questions. >> thank you, mr. chair and first of all i appreciate you compiling the information and frankly, the task that you have

had in the last couple of years has been a challenging one, supervisor weiner and i joined together to support budget add to help with the staffing for inspections which has been stalled a bit but hopefully that will continue and we need to understand why, that has been challenging, but you know, i very much appreciate the work that you are doing i also want to say in response to some of the earlier comments from supervisorers weiner and campos it has been my perspective that the vast majority of clubs are doing the right thing and as i have often discussed with the entertainment industry, it is those the handful of bad apples in certain neighborhood corridors that we need to really focus our attention on. and what i was interested in from your data, was it appeared that between 2011, and 2012, every indicator of issues has been on the increase in the negative way. and so, for, members of the

public that might be watching this, the number of violent incidents between 2011, and 2012 increased by 40 percent. the number of public safety incidents that did not involve violence that could have involved, weapons charges, narcotics, drug arrest and permit violations and abc violations the number of those has increased by 79 percent between 2011 and 2012. and the number of quality of life incidents that occur in and around the venues, thefts which i think are a bit more than quality of life incidents permit violations and loitering and etc., increased by 115 percent. and i know that it is not... we can't pinpoint exactly why these things happen. but could you give a little bit of perspective on what you think is going on, you know, in and around these clubs and particularly i am wondering if you are able to break down this

data by neighborhoods. and or exactly where these incidents are happening whether they are in a nightclub, in a parking lot, in a short distance outside of the entertainment corridors and certainly the experience that i have seen in the street still remain intense. >> so, i will take a stab at some of these. the issues of the rise, and again, it is not something that i am positive about, one thing that i am sure of, however, and i think that the police will back me up on this is that regarding the theft, cell phones and anything with an iin front of it is something that is routinely a problem. and there, we get those reports every week about someone leaving their purse or cell phone on the bar and going to the men's room or lady's room or pick pocketing and so those i feel like that may be part of that number for sure.

you know, the other thing that i want to point out and i know that supervisor chiu had asked me, to include some 2010, data as well. is that we have improved but it is taking year after year after year to improve the reporting. and it took 2010 was not a year where we were getting very many reports from the police department it was spotty and 2011 improved and 2012 was incredible and i have a sense and i am a little bit guessing that maybe, this is also respective of us knowing now that these incidents are occurring and we will obviously watch 2013, because it will be just as hopefully as good as 2012 in terms of getting us all of the data and then we will be able to know whether there is actually arise or is it just about us knowing what it is and again, we might be able to ask the chief loftus to look back on it and if you are going to continue to sort of this repeat

this, quarterly or semiannually, we can come back with that kind of stuff. because i don't have the other stuff that you asked for, at the moment in terms of neighborhoods. i will tell you that in our name is permitted or zoned as it were in various view parts of the city. entertainment is really bunched up and as you know it is very much in your district and so, as well as supervisor campos and supervisor weiner it is bunched up where is visit ors come and plans allows it and so when i do put it in that form, i am sure that we will see quite a bit of it in your district. and as far as inside and outside, and again, this is anecdotal but i am 99 percent sure this is right, is it typically is outside, it does not mean that it is outside of the sphere of influence that a club has to control.

and definitely parking lots as you know, the parking lot legislation was informed by that information. that these for the most part are things except for where you see the 16 suspension, that happens, you know, within positive control or there was a nexus that was solid to the nightclub. but not necessarily inside. we don't have much patience, i certainly don't, for things that happen inside of a venue that are very violent that include, assaults and weapons, and so what i will do tha. >> that is not perfect but that is what i know. >> i want to acknowledge that the number of citations that the entertainment commission has issued has increased substantially and i think that is the reflection of the hard work and the increasing work that you have done doing in

this area. i would like to make a request of the entertainment commission and of the san francisco police department, to the extent to which you can drill down and really help us understand, where are these incidents happening and by neighborhood as well as geographically with regards to a particular nightclub venue or a commercial corridor i think that would be helpful at helping us address the problems. i know that our police chief has monthly comstat meetings where you really drill into where crimes are happening and to the extent at which that same data analysis can be used to help us here would be really helpful. >> and i think that it would be helpful to hear from the police department and unless you have anything else to add? >> no. >> but i do want to know something, i think that we have to be very careful before we start putting out these numbers in terms of percentage increase and of incidents, i think that we have to be very careful to make sure that we are accurate about what we are talking about. because i do know that an issue

that we have had in the past in the police department is, you know, the tracking of this kind of data and information. so, i think that we have to be very careful before we make general statements about increase in violence, because maybe, it may be true in one district, but that may not be the case in other parts of the city. and so i think that that getting that information and making sure that we are careful about comparing year to year, i think, it is really important because i think that a lot of steps have been taken to address issues around the public safety inside of these venues and outside of the venues and we want to make sure that we have the correct data. in analyzing that. >> supervisor weiner, >> thank you. and it is a perspective here is important in terms of increases and decreases by percentage, it is more helpful for look at the raw numbers, if something goes from ten to 15 incidents just

to give an example it is a 50 percent increase and it is helpful to look at raw numbers and also keeping in mind that the entertainment commission regulates the place of entertainment permit holders, not bars and other night life establishments that don't need a place of entertainment permit. and so it is also a pretty small subsection of night life in general. i do want to stress and president chiu mentioned the importance of making sure that we do not set the entertainment commission up for failure, and i think that when the commission was created and for a number of years, we put all of these more and more enforcement obligations on the commission, while starving the agency of resources. and so, as president chiu mentioned he and i teamed up last year, as part of the advac process to provide an additional enforcement officer so that there was not one for the whole city and now there are two for the whole city and you know, frankly that should

not have had to happen. through the advac process, that should have been in the budget that came to us and sometimes we see this with the very small departments that even small requests don't get accommodated whereas the larger departments fare better in the budget process, i don't understand why that happens but it is something that is not a positive dynamic in our budget process. and so, thank you. >> >> thank you. >> so, now we could hear from our police department? >> and i want to thank the deputy chief loftus for being here. >> rich for the san francisco police department and behind the memo should be my memo on the state of the union address. and so, what i am going to talk about today is address the increased in the numbers as well as some of the other questions that you had. what districts you see problems in. so, the alcohol liaison unit is

fairly new, we are created back in may of 2010. and that was the reason in which it was created in an effort to bring the continuity to not only the abc but to the entertainment licensing. as you know there are probably 4100 applicants for or actually for abc license in about 1,000 places of entertainment and so, we are the ten cals that we use are the different stations and the permit officers and they reach out and they handle not only the alcohol, but the permits as far as entertainment goes as well. the increase, so, you see an increase as josyln, mentioned in 2010 and there was no reporting from police department because there was no alu unit. so you are going to see an increase in the years because we actively ask people that have abc license or have a license for permits to make reports. and now, we have a different avenue to make reports. they can make reports on-line, and then go in person to the

police department, and they can call the police officer out or mail in reports. so i see, i believe that is the increase that you are going to see, we actively, ask people to do that, so that we can identify the problem places. and we review as supervisor weiner said before, just because there is a call for certain, we review those police reports to see if there is a problem with the people with the management personnel, or a lot of cases the nexus of all of the problems that we have with the entertainment part is over service. >> so, since i have been there, about 14 months, i have had a really outstanding relationship with the director as well as vaj, he and myself and, my colleague inspector kelley go out almost every weekend. and first thing that we hear from a lot of the venues out there that have place of entertainment, why are the police out here? they have never seen the police officers come out and ask them, how can we help you? what do you need from the police department? >> well we do corrective action, i think that our

corrective action, being out there in the presence alone and mainly you ask supervisor chiu what districts we are having problems in and i am not single out the district and it is because it has the most volume in the last two weeks there was an article on polk street, we are out there every week and we give a good hour every saturday night, myself and my partner as well as inspector granelli we go out at various times on saturday and friday evenings and we walk the streets and we talk to all of the venues and we ensure that the guards all have active guard cards. that they do not exceed their occupantcy and we called the fire department out. personally i think that they have done a great job on polk street it is the new genderfided it is and it is the new chest nut street and i think that the establishments have been doing a great job and actually reach out to the permit officers and ask for

lead training, we will take them in and the guards and talk to them about what we want the conditions and what we want and meet with them on a regular basis. and one of the problem venue and on that i will name two weeks ago to give you an example was the place that if you her the name and the branding name you think that they would be jazz they had an incident where they had a problem with gangster and rap music and stuff like that, that was on the saturday evening it was 70,000 people in the street and embellished by the police report, by monday morning, we met with josyln, the inspector and the captain at northern station and actual management of that club and we had reconditioned them and we put together a template that they are going to use in the future and it seems to be working. as you would said that you are going to see an increase in sites next year because they

did budget for another inspector to go out there. and inspector granelli goes out there and hits these, and these are businessmen and we hit them best in the pocket book, so when we are sighting them from the 1066 section that allows it and it is great. i am encouraged by that. and we do have weekly, meetings with the permit officers on a monthly basis, myself and inspector keller and the chief and we meet monthly and we discuss the issues in every district with the permit officers and what the problem venues are and we come up with a game plan to rectify. looking at her memo and my memo i and apologize it is gratuituys we are trying to present ourself with the best case of scenario we have a great collaboration with the entertainment commission, and he are in the process under the tutalige of supervisor weiner

to modify 1060 to accommodate the issues, we discussed it like any partnership we have disagreements. probably the main disagreement is not the staff as with the commissioners themselves on the entertainment commission. we are trying to rectify it in the 1060 session and they feel compelled to grant the permits after the police department gets up there and explains the different issues and the supporting documentation and it seems to be a disservice to the public. and so we are working on that. and so that point, i will have our deputy chief loftus discuss that more. but all in all, i am, i have a regular daily conference with either vaj or josyln and i believe that we are on top of all of the issues that come up. broad way, as you know has been an issue, in the last three or four months, and because we took immediate action from director cain and we shut down

one of the places on an emergency 72-hour suspension that place never reopened and i believe that reduced our problems significantly. and so we are mainly when we go out, we are concentrating on polk street corridor and the union street and the broad way street geary street and 16th street corridor. >> could i ask you a question. >> what exactly, you said something about a disservice to the public, what did you mean by that? >> well, for instance, if you go back and look at a tape tuesday night, last commission hearing, there is an issue with one club which has been an ongoing problem for sound proofing they had agreed to continue it and get the sound proofing done. the police department denied the permit based on the fact that the sound proofing was not completed we asked for a continuance and we put out conditions and however, we understand at the end of the meeting that they allowed the

entertainment to continue which essentially the property or the condos that are above this location are worth nothing based on the fact that there is an issue. we feel if there is an issue we will resolve and move on. >> they claimed that they had booked events two years in advance and so i felt it was a disservice and i may be speaking out of line but i may be speaking more for the tenants there. but, i felt if i lived in that particular area that i would be upset. and there was no reason for the commission not, the staff, but the commissioners to continue and allow them to have the conditional use permit until the sound proofing was rectifieed. >> a couple of things, i certainly would like to i know that my office and supervisor kim's office would like to meet with the unit to talk about the process and the things that you are working on, i appreciate your perspective, i don't

think that it is helpful, whether it is a difference of between the commission on a specific item to talk about the difference of opinion, you know, constituting a disservice to the public, i don't think that is necessarily the kind of relationship that i hope that we have between the police department and the entertainment commission. i think that you know each side has a perspective and each side has a role to play. and to the extent that there is a difference of opinion, i think that we can agree to disagree without you know, labeling the actions of the other disservice, because i do think that you have people here who are trying to do the right thing that is mine. >> and i agree with you and i apologize for my particular opinion. i think that the chief can expound it, there are many insurance incidents but the

point that i want to make is that we work very well with the personnel that is here today. and we are and that was the point, we do have ab open dialogue, and we are not stone walling each other, and we agree to meet on the issues that we disagree with and that is the process that we are going with and in the end it will be a valuable service for the residents and the owners of the clubs, and the patrons that visit the venues. >> i know that if i were a member of the commission i would be surprised by your comments. >> supervisor chiu? >> i want to try to clarify what i think inspector was getting at which is from what i can see my perspective, i think that the staff of the entertainment commission and the officers and the leadership of the san francisco police department are working very well together. which is frankly different from what i experienced four years ago, or three years ago and i want to thank the staff for their work. what we did hear though, three or four years ago was that

there were many clubs, or i should say that there were many more clubs where the public would be telling us that there had been numerous incidents of public safety issues. such as the example that the inspector just laid out. clubs that had a history of public safety issues and a history of violence for which the entertainment commissioners and that is just different from the entertainment commission staff, the entertainment commissioners were being told about but there wasn't action. and i think that what we have seen in the last two years is that the entertainment commission has been taking more actions for some of these clubs but there are still examples as was just cited where that does not always happen. and i think that that was something that i had heard in recent months, there are still issues that are the case on broad way and in the non-hill area and polk street and in my district i don't know if that is the case in others but that is something that i continue to hear and i think that it just

means that we have come a long way and a significant way to go. >> we agree on that president chiu. >> supervisor weiner? >> yes. >> i think that one other challenge that the commission has had that i think that we are fixing in the legislation that i have pending is that right now, there is the commission can impose a very short suspension on a venue that is violating and the next step beyond that is revocation there is not a lot of in between and so the legislation that is pending will give the commission the authority to impose, or at least the director to impose a longer suspension and i think that the more flexibility that we give to the director and to the commission, to address some of the problem causing, the better that it is going to be because it is not flexible enough right now and so i think that that will be an improvement as well. >> okay. >> having to jump right to it,

sort of a death penalty, it is not, if it can put the commission in an awkward position. >> great. >> i wanted to see if deputy chief if you wanted to add anything? >> again, thank you for being here. >> it is my pleasure. i would agree with a lot of the issues and a lot of the statements from the inspector van coal. specifically, the relationship with the entertainment commission. between the entertainment commission and the san francisco police department right now. it is the best that i have ever seen it. this constant communication and constant give and take. we do have issues on occasion, as inspector van coal mentioned, in a real responsible to the public as is commission as is this body here. we get the noise complaints for the clubs and so, when the is