Neighbor Sarah, who generously covers the Bernalwood Crime Beat, attended the SFPD’s Ingleside Station Chief’s Meeting last week. Here’s her detailed summary of the latest Bernal Heights crime news:

Edie and I attended the meeting last week. Apologies for the delay in getting these notes out — Edie typed them up right away, but it took me a while for me to make some additions.

Captain’s Report by Captain Daniel Mahoney: daniel.j.mahoney@sfgov.org

CRIME STATS
Police precinct captains meet regularly to discuss the current activities across the city.

• Aggravated Assaults 23 incidents / 14 arrests / down 21% from last month / up 10% y-t-d. As usual, the majority were domestic violence.
• Robberies 24 incidents / 5 arrests / down 20% from last month / down 22% y-t-d.
• Sexual Assaults One, a homeless boy. Case is still under investigation.
• Burglaries 26 incidents / 7 arrests / down 40% from last month / up 32% y-t-d. From March to June there were lots of bicycle burglaries (40-50 + a month). Generally, these consisted of the thieves opening garage doors and taking bikes inside. Police investigators have been buying stolen bikes on Craigslist; they seized 20 / 125 / 80 bikes from three separate houses or storage units. In the last three to four weeks, there’s been only one bike theft, off a car. It appears they’ve caught the main perps. Remember that you can register your bicycles here.
• Auto Theft 49 incidents / 3 arrests / down 23% from last month / up 41% y-t-d. The Captain checks the recoveries of stolen autos. Normally cars are stolen and recovered in the same districts. This month cars recovered in the Ingleside were from other districts, and cars stolen here were recovered in other districts. Only one car was stolen AND recovered within the district.
• Theft from Auto 33 incidents / 0 arrests / down 23% from last month / down 24% y-t-d. Remember to keep car in garage if possible. Don’t leave anything of value in auto.

THEMES AND INCIDENTS

Sunnydale: This past month there was a 72-hour period with 3 shootings and 2 homicides. No random crime; these were all target hits. Captain’s response: he “flooded the zone” – making the response high visibility and high reactivity to stop the violence temporarily. He brought in motorcycle police, gang task force, violence response team, housing task forces, community response networks, and other outside resources to keep community presence strong. Rev Amos Brown came in and talked to community; police put out flyers in English, Spanish, Chinese announcing a series of community meetings.

Anonymous tip line for the Ingleside: 404-4035. Call this number to leave information on something that has already happened or may happen in the future. If an incident is happening now, call 911 or the non-emergency number for police to respond.

Great burglary arrests: Many burglars have come from the southeast section of SF targeting homes with Asian symbols and decorations. They believe that Asians don’t trust banks and keep their money in the house, not in the bank. Criminals will knock to make sure the house is empty before trying to break in – so don’t keep quiet – make noise!!

1. Portola District: came to burgle a house, the owner came home and they kept her hostage.
2. Upper Noe: Captain spotted and called in the burglar and everyone showed up in minutes.

Bus inspection rides: Ingleside officers were top in the city this month, with 1216 bus inspections. MUNI crime has decreased dramatically. On the bus – don’t take your expensive electronics out and play with them while sitting near the door. They can easily be stolen.

Bayshore: There was an early morning stabbing on a bus on Bayshore. Great pictures were taken (MUNI video is excellent), an officer recognized the juvenile perp, and they were able to arrest him shortly.

Traffic: Pedestrian crosswalk violation activity (decoys cross the street and if motorists don’t stop, they’re talked to or ticketed). Areas they are targeting for traffic are San Jose, Alemany, Diamond Heights. They decide on areas to target based on number of accidents or community complaints. Pedestrian ops will be focused on Mission, Monterey, Diamond/Chenery, and Elk.

Graffiti: There’s been increased tagging on Alemany, and around Geneva and Mission. Look for tags that say “OKER”. If you see one, call the Ingleside station. If you see someone in the process of tagging OKER, call immediately!

Captain’s communications: The Captain puts a newsletter on the Ingleside website: Inglesidepolicestation.com You can also sign on for the RSS feed to get and email of crime incidents.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

From the Annals of Stupid Behavior comes this sad report: Some dimwits recently decided to trash the beehives kept on the Alemany Farm overlooking I-280. The Chron brings the bad news:

Two weeks ago, vandals, armed with large chunks of concrete and tree limbs, knocked over and smashed wooden beehive boxes at Alemany Farm, a volunteer-run community farm and hands-on educational program on Alemany Boulevard, tucked between the south slope of Bernal Heights and Interstate 280.

“Every now and then someone knocks over a hive,” said veteran beekeeper Karen Peteros, co-founder of nonprofit group San Francisco Bee-Cause. “But this went beyond that; it was mayhem violence.”

Hundreds, if not thousands of bees, were killed, said Cameo Wood, who serves on the board of San Francisco Bee-Cause. The surviving bees temporarily became more aggressive – a sign of trauma – and the beekeepers lost hundreds of dollars in equipment.

PHOTO: Alemany Farm bee hives. 2010 photograph by Rob Williamson

Neighbor Sarah, who valiantly covers the Bernalwood Crime Beat, attended the SFPD’s Ingleside Station Chief’s Meeting this week (so you didn’t have to). Here’s her invaluable summary of the latest Bernal Heights crime news:

RNotes from Ingleside Community Meeting, 6/19/12

Captain Mahoney was away, so Lt. Trina Wearing led the meeting.

STAFFING

The station has recently lost several sergeants, who were promoted to lieutenant and reassigned, as well as another officer who was promoted to sergeant and reassigned. Four new sergeants have just arrived, with one more awaiting confirmation.

One new Lieutenant (Engler) arrived and will be on the day shift with Lt. Yee. Lts. Wearing and Delgadillo also work the day shift (different parts of the week from Engler and Yee).

UPDATE ON ILLEGAL DUMPING

The Ingleside Station has been working with Supervisor Campos, DPW, and Park and Rec to install signs and lighting where Folsom passes Bernal Heights Park. They are also working with the DA’s office on the investigations. Officers have been making passing calls regularly to check for illegal activity.

CRIME STATS AND TRENDS:
For the period May 13 to June 9, 2012:

Incident/# Incidents/% Change vs Prior Month/% Change YTD 2012 vs YTD 2011/# Arrests
Aggravated Assault/15/-48%/10%/5
Robbery/25/-14%/-26%/15
Sexual Assault/0/NA/25%/0
Burglary/35/-34%/46%/4
Auto Theft/44/-35%/26%/7
Theft from Auto/34/-38%/-26%/0

Bicycle thefts continue to be high. The Ingleside/CPAB bike registration program is now up and running. PLEASE register your bicycles so that if they are stolen and the police encounter someone with your bike, they can match it back to you:http://www.inglesidepolicestation.com/#!__bike-registration. You’ll need your serial number.

The police have also started posting photos of recovered bikes. If your bike has been stolen, please check here to see if it has been posted:http://www.inglesidepolicestation.com/#!__bike-recovery.

In addition, several local bike shops will have registration information available onsite. Two of the participants are Ocean Cyclery (http://www.oceancyclery.com/, 1935 Ocean at Keystone Way) and The New Wheel (http://www.newwheel.net/, 420 Cortland at Wool).
Sgt. Kumli recently made an arrest that led to the seizure of 115 stolen bicycles. They are pictured at the above website for recovered bicycles.

Lt. Wearing reminded everyone not to wear headphones or become distracted by email on your phone when you’re on BART (or going to/from BART). Robberies continue.

OTHER INFORMATION

Lt. Wearing reminded the group of the Ingleside Anonymous Tip Line: 404-4035. It is available 24 hours a day. If you need help now, however, still call 911. But the tip line can be used in, for example, circumstances where you want to report something that’s going on but you don’t want uniformed officers showing up at your house. They can send plainclothes units instead. Give as much information as possible on the message that you leave – what activity was going on, where, even names of people involved.

A member of the community reported that the city parking lot at 4550 Mission (behind the Dollar Store) has become quite unsafe because of a large population of homeless people living there. He cited numerous incidents in which people parking there had incidents with this group.

Another member of the community reported aggressive/threatening panhandling occurring at the fast-food places on Bayshore near Cortland.

Another person reported several incidents involving fights at Mission and Eugenia, and someone else reported large groups of teens regularly gathering on Russia between Mission and London.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

A coda, at last.

Justice has been handed down to the men convicted in the 2008 Nasser Market slaying. From the Chronicle:

Four men have been convicted of murder and conspiracy in the Novato slaying of a San Francisco market owner who was killed to silence him as a witness in the robbery of his store, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Larry Blay Jr., 22; his brother, Deandre Blay, 20; Kevin Abram, 20, and C. Autis Johnson III, 20, were each convicted Wednesday by a Marin County Superior Court jury of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the September 2008 slaying of 44-year-old Tong Van Le.

The jury also convicted Larry Blay of the special circumstance of killing a victim to prevent his testimony. The three other defendants were found guilty of the special circumstances of lying in wait and killing a witness.

Larry Blay faces life in prison without the possibility of parole because he was an adult at the time. The others were juveniles when Le was killed and face at least 26 years to life in prison.

Le was shot to death at his home on Pizarro Avenue in Novato to prevent him from testifying about a robbery that occurred a month earlier at Nasser Market, the corner store he owned at 511 Crescent Ave. in Bernal Heights, prosecutors said.

PHOTO: Nasser Market, 2012. By Neighbor LessleyFour 

Our ever-valiant Neighbors Sarah and Edie attended the monthly crime-summary meeting at the SFPD’s Ingleside Station last week. This meeting was a special edition, with several celebrity guests from other City departments on hand to discuss the ongoing problem of illegal dumping on Bernal Hill. Per usual, you are advised to read the entire summary, as there are are lots of great info-nuggets in here that can help keep you and your property safe and secure.

And as always, the Citizens of Bernalwood are immensely grateful to Sarah and Edie for their diligent reportage.

CAPTAIN’S REPORT – 15 May 2012
by Captain Daniel J. Mahoney daniel.j.mahoney@sfgov.org

**New anonymous tip line for Ingleside: 404-4035. This is checked once per day.

STAFFING

Lt. Jim Miller retired from the SFPD on May 14th, with 33 years of experience. He was an excellent officer with great skill in working with the community and will be sorely missed. Lt. Greg Yee will replace him. Yee has 22 yrs experience, most recently in the tech department at the Hall of Justice.

Lts. Mario Delgadillo and Trina Waring are the Night Watch commanders, handling issues when the captain is not present.

DA Sharon Reardon is working out of Ingleside now. When a case comes in, she’s on the scene with expertise and a different perspective from the police, which benefits both.

Deputy City Attorney Jennifer Choi has replaced Jana Clark as Ingleside Code Enforcement Attorney. Jana Clark was reassigned after doing a yeoman’s job. Choi worked with Clark and on cases involving smoke shops that sell illegal drug paraphernalia. As a result, she is already up to speed on the Ingleside District. The City Attorney’s office can be reached at 554-4700, and Jennifer’s email is jennifer.choi@sfgov.org.

Kevin Easton, Community Relations Coordinator for the City Attorney’s Office. As background, the City Attorney is an elected official, with a staff of 200 deputy attorneys. The Office handles civil litigation and civil law, including code enforcement, and represents all City departments, boards, and officials (the DA’s office handles all criminal matters). The Community Relations Coordinator facilitates communication between city officials and city residents, specifically on issues involving code enforcement, and Easton welcomes communications from the public.

Question about code enforcement from attendee: Blighted properties taken over by banks are often left empty and unkempt. Is something going to be done to hold bank owners accountable and make them clean up the mess? There is a code in place that if a property owner holds 10 or more properties they can be dealt with more severely.

CRIME STATS

Aggravated Assault: 27 incidents, up 17% from last month and up 24% YTD. 15 arrests made.
Primarily domestic violence and some gang problems.

Robbery: 27 incidents, no change from last month but down 25% YTD. 3 arrests made.

Sexual Assault: No incidents, no arrests.

Burglary: 42 incidents, down 26% from last month, up 47% YTD. 5 arrests made. Bike thefts! Seven stolen over the
weekend, with not one serial number on them. IF YOU HAVE A BIKE, WRITE DOWN THE SERIAL NUMBER AND PUT IT SOMEWHERE SAFE. Do it now. Yes, now.

Auto theft: 51 incidents, down 35% this month, up 31% YTD. 3 arrests made. Hondas still 90% of all car thefts. Arrests involved perps with shaved keys.

Auto burglaries: 45 incidents, down 18% from last month and down 32% YTD. 0 arrests made.

ILLEGAL DUMPING ON BERNAL HILL

There was a large group of representatives from various city departments on hand to address the recent dumping incidents, as well as a well-made-up woman from Channel 5 news. Kudos to the Bernal neighbors who got all this pulled together. Unfortunately, only the three usual Bernal attendees of this meeting were present when they were there, so it was a bit of a missed opportunity to provide feedback/requests/suggestions.

Greg Crump, DPW. There have been seven large incidents of illegal dumping on the hill since October, about 6 tons of construction waste, dumped in the middle of the night (best estimate 3:00-4:30am). The City has cleaned them up as fast as possible, but neighbors and all those who walk on the hill should be alert to new activity. Bernalwood reported on the latest of these.

Call 311 if you see stuff dumped and they’ll call the police. If you see a dumping in progress, you can call either 553-0123 (non-emergency dispatch) or 911. If possible, take note of the license number, or any writing on the truck before you call.

The City spends $4 million picking up garbage dumped illegally each year. Illegal dumping comes in two categories: 1) individual junk, like a mattress left on the sidewalk, and 2) larger-scale industrial dumping, such as that on the hill. Small-scale incidents may be prevented by better communication of how to get rid of junk (call Recology at 626-4000 for a pickup – they’ll pick up your bulky items twice a year for free) and DPW will try to put more information out there.

The DA’s Office is working hard to resolve these larger cases, but without a witness or video of the dumping, license plates, descriptions of people involved, or evidence such as addresses in the junk that’s dumped, the cases are difficult to make. Last year, they did successfully prosecute a company that was responsible for a rash of dumpings in the Bayview.

Dariush Kayhan, Superintendant for Bureau of Streets and Environmental Services (BSES), elicited suggestions from attendees, who suggested better lighting for the parking lots and around the hill on the roads and by the residences, cameras, and signs posted informing neighbors of the situation and telling specifically how they can help.

Eric Anderson, Park Service Manager, Rec & Park. They check gates between 6 and 7am six days a week, so dumping is occurring before that. Dumping in other city parks is also common. The city has filmed a PSA about dumping, starring Mayor Ed Lee.

Rex Hale, Battalion Chief of Bat. 6. Dumping is also a fire danger, especially with the summer season. Recent dumping incidents on Bernal Hill involved the dumper setting fire to the debris. Important to call SFFD in if you notice smoke, etc.

Hillary Ronen from Supervisor David Campos’s Office was there; they are working with the above departments and will follow up on the lighting/signs. Campos’s office: 554-5144.

NEIGHBORHOOD COURTS

Ingleside became part of District Attorney George Gascón’s restorative justice program by beginning to implement neighborhood courts. These courts encourage community empowerment by giving trained residents a chance to resolve non-violent misdemeanors and infractions within the community using restorative justice. In these cases, non-violent adults are removed from the criminal court system and instead are required to do community service, pay restitution, attend mediation with the victim, or get treatment for issues such as anger management. This can reduce backlogs in the criminal court system, because it removes cases of smaller, non-violent crimes, and often results in tangible consequences for criminals who might otherwise might not be prosecuted at all because of overloaded courts. Neighborhood courts take place in the community. Currently, the Ingleside location is at the Scottish Rite Center on 19th Ave.

The DA’s Office is looking for people to serve as volunteer adjudicators throughout the Ingleside Community. Participants are given 25 hours of training for free. Ongoing time commitment is not that high. Wade Chow and Rebecca Prozan are coordinating the program for Ingleside. Click here for further information.

TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT

Will Escobar, Traffic Enforcement Officer for Ingleside, will be putting together a series of operations over the next four weeks. They are not advertising the locations in advance. Each will include an education component so residents understand why enforcement of traffic laws is important for all involved – motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Good news – accidents are down 30%.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics