San Francisco is on track to have lowest homicide rate in 60 years

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco is on track to have the lowest homicide rate in 60 years, according to the police department and mayor's office. 

"This wasn't an accident," San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said Tuesday at a news conference. "This was very strategic."

There were 50 homicides at this time last year, compared to 33 this year.

Plus, the homicide unit has an 88% clearance rate, he said. 

Scott said he realizes crime is going across the country, but he credited his officers for their data-driven strategies and the outgoing Mayor London Breed for being able to get to the "root causes of these shootings" to drive the number down. 

Breed got the seed money to hire Reygan Cunningham, co-director of the California Partnership for Safe Communities, for coming in to help drive the efforts. 

Cunningham and her group have been working in San Francisco since 2019, and her group is also behind Oakland's successful Ceasefire program, where crime rates have been dropping as well. 

From January to mid-November of last year, there were 105 homicides in Oakland, more than 3,300 reports of robberies, more than 13,000 car break-ins, 13,000 cars stolen and nearly 1,700 commercial break-ins. 

Compare that to the same time period this year, and all of those crimes are down. 

So far in Oakland, there have been 70 homicides, 2,500 robberies, fewer than 5,000 reports of cars being broken into, nearly 9,900 stolen cars and about 1,000 commercial break-ins.

Cunningham said her efforts in San Francisco have focused in the Bayview and Ingleside neighborhoods, where there has been a 50%-reduction in gun homicides and non-fatal shootings. Cunningham praised the "young men in District 10 who made a decision to not engage in gun violence. It's because of their decisions that we're able to do this work." 

In terms of praise, Scott gave a shoutout to San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, whom he credited with holding the suspects accountable. 

According to Jenkins, her office "resolved" 27 homicide cases in 2024 with a 92% conviction rate. Of those 27 cases, she said eight cases went to trial. All eight resulted in a conviction.

The remaining case is the high-profile murder charge against Nima Momeni in the death of Cash App founder Bob Lee. The jury is currently deliberating this case. 

Breed, who will soon be replaced by Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie, said gun violence is especially meaningful to her because she grew up in it, and it "destroyed my community."

"People I loved have been killed and sadly, they're not coming back," Breed said. 

She said this drop in crime numbers and shootings is so significant because community organizations and police are working so hard not to just arrest people but to prevent the violence from happening. 

"That's what this was about," Breed said. "It wasn't about just a response to violence. It was making sure the violence doesn't happen in the first place."