>> good afternoon. we are excited to nows the san francisco safe 23rd annual lunar new year public safety and crime awareness campaign press conference in partnership with sfgovtv. i am the captain and i will be standing in for the executive director who was called away on a family emergency. we will give you helpful public safety continues to keep you safe during this special holiday and educate you about potential crime risks. we are here with community members and city leaders to celebrate lunar new year 2020 san francisco, the year of the rat. we are here for the crime awareness campaign. it is an important yearly collaboration between the chinese-speaking community, law enforcement and the community

stakeholders. it is a time for celebration and reflection. there are criminals who take advantage of this special time to prey upon our city's most vulnerable citizens, including merchants and senior citizens. together with san francisco safe we are working to be sure everyone can celebrate during this time of year through public education, crime prevention and community engagement we are working to eradicate crime related to the lunar new year. we are honored to partnership with our merchants in chinatown and city leaders, media and community members working together to increase public safety.

[peakin[speaking a foreign lang. >> we will now hear from our elected city officials who prioritize public safety. >> i am proud to welcome our mayor, london breed, a frequent presence in the community with a record of reaching out to build relationships with the diverse communities, responding to needs and working to make the city

safe for everyone. mayor breed. >> good afternoon. very nice to see all of the seniors here today and all of our law enforcement officials, new district attorney, supervisor peskin and carmen, our assessor, police chief. so many people in this city care about the safety of our community. as we embark on lunar new year in the next tw two weeks where e celebrate the year of the rat, we want to take this opportunity to remind everyone, especially in chinatown we have to look out for one another, especially our seniors. i want to thank sf safe for their continued leadership and

support in helping to make community safe. they are a big reason why we have been able to add along with supervisor peskin. we have been able to add more security cameras, more beat officers, mob more bilingual officers. we want th the folks who live ad shop here to be safe, we want tourists who visit from all over the world to feel good and safe and secure. today is just really a reminder that we have to be vigilant. yes, we want to enjoy the lunar new year. we want to have a good time. we want to celebrate with our friends and families. we want to support local small businesses. i can't wait until the parade which is the highlight of the celebration. as we enjoy this city and this

community, let us also be on the lookout for a number of challenges that we know continue to persist around lunar new year. the too popular blessing scam is one that is a problem for so many seniors. we have to remind people that we have to stay focused. we have to pay attention, and we have to look out for one another. thank you to everyone here today. i also want to thank the san francisco police department for not only stepping up additional enforcement in this community during this very incredible time in our city, but just the office hours and the work they continue to do to make themselves available along with using this incredible technology so that if someone seeks mandarin or

cantonese or languages not familiar to the officer, they can pull up their phones on an app and communicate with someone on the spot available. i really want to make sure we do a better job, especially with the chinese press of getting the word out that it is okay to approach any officer and know that they will try to do everything they can to communicate and to break down those barriers. that is also what today is about is making sure that we have the ability to communicate with one another. thank you to chief bill scott and the san francisco police department for working hard every day to keep our community safe. i am looking forward to a wonderful year of the rat where we have sunshine every single day, owe especially during the parade. thank you for being here.

thank you for those that came out to be with us today. it is a beautiful day in san francisco. make sure it is a safe one. thank you all so much. (applause). [speaking foreign language]. >> at this time i would like to introduce norman yee, the

champion for safer communities and better police community relations. it is my pleasure to welcome president yee. >> [speaking foreign language]. >> i want to say happy new year once again.

every year we come to remind our community to keep yourselves safe, be alert, watch who is around you, and you see something, you make sure you report it to the police. you make sure you report it to police. they are here to protect us, and we have to work with them so that we can keep our community safe. every year, these perpetrators try to abuse our community, taking advantage of the situation where we are trying to relate to our relatives, bring prosperity to our friends, and it is time for us to stand up and say no more abusing our community. we are going to stick up for ourselves and work with the police department and work with everybody else that stands up

here that believes you should have a safe life. be safe, be alert. happy new year. [applause] thank you. san francisco police chief william scott works to ensure that we are working to educate and empower community members, the chinese speaking communities abto prevent crime before it happens. welcome, chief scott. [applause] >> good afternoon. i am not going to -- we have had the mayor, the president of the

board of supervisors talk about what community safety means. i won't repeat what they said. i want to emphasize something. community safety is about all of us. it takes all of us to do our part to have a safe city and safe community. i want to point out a few things. because of all of us, i think it is important for everybody to know that you all are elected officials, our command staff and officers are men and women of the san francisco police department. because of the work we have done in our community, we have the lowest homicide rate that we have had since 1961. [applause] now that is just one thing about public safety. for those that have been victims of car break-ins or assaulted, we understand that you might not care as much about that as you do about your own personal

safety. that is really important to us. as the mayor mentioned, we are the support of a great mayor, support of the board of supervisors, we have the district attorney here, and all of us are working together to make the city safe. i want to give a couple of public safety tips. i want to thank the chinese media. we have had a number of high profile incidents that happened in the course of the past year, and most of them, almost all of them we have been able to bring people to justice and catch the perpetrators. thank you. part of that is due to the media. it is due to exposure. when we get a video. the mayor mentioned supervisor peskin is working to get the cameras in the area. those cameras allowed us to

catch people robbing and assaulting people. it is important that everybody has apart in this. be aware when strangers ask for money. don't follow strangers anywhere, particularly don't bring a stranger into your home. don't allow anybody to convince you to take money out of your bank account. don't take outline wallets when you are not familiar with people. before withdrawing huge sums of money. make sure you are not being watched. we have a lot to do to make our city safer, and it takes all of us. we encourage you to get to know your beat officers. they are around here. they are all ways here. know your police captains. also, get to know your public officials if you don't already know them. everybody knows supervisor

peskin. he is here to make things happen, and he does. ask for what you need as a community and we will make it happen. i want to point out the mayor mentioned the efforts to communicate better with limited english proficiency. we have apps on the phone. if you have trouble communicating we want to speak to you and understand and we can encourage you to report crimes. if you are driving on the streets or walking on the streets, if you can, have a buddy with you. make sure you pay attention to what is around you, stay an letter. if you are driving slowdown. we lost 29 people last year to traffic collisions. we have to reduce that. our goal is zero. you can do part. pay attention. obey the traffic laws. if you are walking, don't walk in the middle of traffic.

it might take longer to get where you want to get but get there safely. if you are driving, please slowdown. lastly, stay aware. your own vigilance will keep you safer than you can imagine. we hope this year of the rat and i don't be like rats but i like the year of the rat. we hope this year of the rat will be prosperous and safe for everyone. thanks for allowing us to be part of this community. thank you. [applause] [speaking foreign language].

>> thank you very much. we are fortunate to be joined by supervisor aaron peskin, our friend and advocate for the chinese community from san francisco and probably the person who knows this area, district three, better than anyone else. please welcome supervisor pesk peskin. >> thank you, captain. mayor breed, president yee, to my colleagues, to our recorder, chief scott, to the command staff of the san francisco police department, to the working men and women of central station, to the new presiding

president of the chinese six companies, to the chinese chamber of commerce, and everybody gathered, this is my 20th kickoff here at the gate. i want to say that over that 20 years of prevention sf safe and the community and pd have made this community much safer. the old extortion scams that we saw 20 years ago, much, much less of them today. our district attorney his second day on the job stopped by a few minutes ago. i talked to him. he is absolutely committed to prosecuting blessing scams as was his predecessor. we will end that. let me join in the words of the chief and the mayor and the president which is we are only as good as your eyes and ears

report, report, report. >> thank you very much, supervisor peskin, char men is with us -- carmen is with us today. she has grown the responsibilities of her office to truly include everyone and meet the needs of our citizens and seniors, families and everyone. assessor carmen chu. >> [speaking a foreign languag

language]. >> hello. i am the assess or. i am pleased to kickoff the new year and really to join with my colleagues standing with us and with the fine men and women of the police department to make sure we are sending a message of

public safety, to remember to report. when you see something suspicious or you have witnessed a crime or you are a victim of crime, please remember to do those three things most important. report, report, report. this is important because we need to make sure that all of our statistics bear out and show where crime is happening. when they do not, the police officers do not go there unless there is a need. we need to report so the need is real. we understand what is happening in the community and our responses can be appropriate to it. second reason why we need to report is to make sure people understand that we are not going to stand quiet and be silent and become victims. we need to make sure people understand when you hurt or seniors, when you victimize our community we are going to fight back. make sure you do those three things, report it, report it,

report it. thank you. happy new year. >> thank you. at this time i if i could call r supervisor walton to the podium, please. >> good afternoon. i came by today as district so supervisor to let everyone know i stand with the leadership of san francisco, that i stand with our district 3 supervisor peskin to make sure we do everything to keep our seniors safe, keep our community safe. as chief scott mentioned this is the new year, and we know there will be a lot of celebrations. we know there are people who intend to do harm. there is nothing more despicable than a crime committed against a senior, a crime committed against any of our vulnerable

populations. we are standing to let you know we are going to continue to push policies, we will continue to work with police departments to make sure we have increased presence, to stop and prevent crimes from happening, to make sure we catch perpetrators of violence in the community. thank you for having us here. i did bring a little bit of this with us. let's be vigilant. >> thank you very much. in closing, i would like to specifically thank san francisco safe and executive director. i know the staff is here and has worked tirelessly putting this together. the garage for sponsoring this,

chinese news companies, cyc, george chan. the support of the command staff behind me as well. i would also like to acknowledge some of the other attendees here. robert kenny, thank you to dpw. in closing, i would like to say the safety of our community members is a top priority. during the lunar new year celebration with the many celebrations and events you will see increased foot patrols with extended hours of operation, enhanced community engagement and outreach. please remember to report crimes and as mentioned before lap services are available. reach out to officers when you see them in the neighborhood.

if you are a family member in need of assistance, please reach out to our officers as well. every one deserves a safe city and happy holiday. we wish you a safe new year. please join us as we walk together as a community. thanks to san francisco safe and the year of the rat we will pass out mouse pads and whistles. thank you. that concludes our press conference.