Once again, Reader Sarah attended the monthly Captain’s Meeting at the SFPD’s Ingleside Station (so you didn’t have to). And once again, the notes she shared with us are invaluable. By all means, do read the whole thing. But if you can’t, just remember: The one who gets mugged is often the one who waves a smartphone around while walking down the street.
Now, on to Reader Sarah’s full report…
Summary of Ingleside Community Meeting, 8/16/11
Captain Mahoney led the meeting this month. He reported that the National Night Out barbecue on August 2 was a major success. He then shared the district’s crime statistics for the period July 16 to August 15. The top-line message is that most crime is down this year, in some cases significantly. The exceptions are auto thefts and auto burglaries.
Here are the detailed crime statistics:
Date Ranges:
Monthly = July 16 to August 16
YTD = Jan1 2011 to August 16, 2011Aggravated Assault:
Monthly–23 Incidents – down 18% from last month / down 34% YTD–13 monthly arrestsRobbery
Monthly–31 Incidents – down 11% from last month / up 5% YTD–6 monthly arrestsSexual Assault
Monthly–0 Incidents – down 13% YTDBurglary
Monthly–35 Incidents – down 19% from last month / down 13% YTD–2 monthly arrestsAuto Theft
Monthly–25 Incidents – down 14% from last month / down 8% YTD–6 monthly arrestsBurglary-Theft From Vehicle
Monthly–34 Incidents – down 28% from last month / up 12% YTDRegarding crime trends, street robberies continue to be the main problem, with at least one occurring almost every day in the district. In almost all cases, the victim has a phone, iPad, or other electronic device that the thief is targeting. Moreover, there is a typical victim profile: someone walking alone on a side street, talking or emailing on his/her phone or with white earbuds in his/her ears. These occur at all different times of the day.
The captain has been deploying decoy potential victims (such as people talking on their phones while walking alone), decoy cars (with “attractive” items on the seat – e.g., laptop case, GPS), and a decoy Trek bike. A decoy car at Mission and Kingston successfully attracted a burglar, who was arrested.
He is also focusing on traffic enforcement. The city put out a list of vehicle/pedestrian “hot zones” where accidents with injuries frequently occur. There are three of these in the Ingleside District – (1) Geneva/Mission, (2) Ocean/San Jose, and (3) Mission/Cortland. He has deployed motorcycle officers to watch these intersections and issue citations. He is also still working on his distracted-driving campaign (having officers ticket drivers who are texting or talking on their phones without a hands-free device) and is also placing officers near SFUSD schools to send the message that school is back in session and drivers need to be careful.
A member of the community asked about putting a caution sign or lights up at the Alemany/San Bruno intersection because pedestrians often decide to cross there, even though there is no crosswalk and traffic is coming around a curve at about 40mph. I checked out this intersection on my way to work today and must say that this intersection does indeed seem like a car/pedestrian catastrophe waiting to happen. The captain said that the city is trying to identify problem intersections proactively (in addition to the “hot zones” mentioned earlier, which are based on historical data).
A battalion chief from the Fire Department was also in attendance, and he said there have been quite a few fires lately, and that smoking has been a frequent cause of the fires (usually someone falling asleep while smoking).
Thanks so so much for this, Reader Sarah!
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics
Bernalwood 
The captain has been deploying decoy potential victims (such as people talking on their phones while walking alone)
That sounds like a terrifying job.
Thank you for this public service announcement. I am surprised by how many people wander near-empty streets paying attention to nothing but their phone. Because evidently smartphones make us dumb.
I specifically bought a pair of black, inexpensive earbud headphones so I wouldn’t be advertising the fact that I was listening to my iPod (now: iPhone). Perhaps it is the four years I lived in New York, but it seems like common sense that you don’t want to show people what you have on you in a city.
Thanks for this. I used to view my dogwalk time as my catch-up-with-my-longdistance-friends-on-the-phone time, but in light of the reports I kept seeing (Glen Park Association does a great job on this), I decided to limit this. Now I just talk to my dog instead.
What amazes me even more than the people walking around with iPhones yakking away in a completely ignorant state, are the people doing that while RIDING THEIR BIKES DOWN THE STREET. So they create a hazard for us all, and also have the bullseye on their backs. I’m grateful for you guys @ Bernalwood for spreading the word on how NOT to become a target for the lowlife gangbangers that inhibit the lowlands down the hill and prey upon the rest of us.
God bless,
Tony T.
The photo is hilarious, although I’d like to point out that in iPhone text conversations, the green right-hand bubbles are *you*. So that phone user is warning him- or herself! “Whuuut?” indeed!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go find continuity errors in movies and post my findings on Usenet.
Regards,
Comic Book Guy
Great catch, übernerd!