A Dozen 'Groups' Responsible For A Majority Of SF Homicides In 3.5 Years

San Francisco CA

11 March, 2021

5:01 PM

Description

By Julian Mark, Mission Local March 11, 2021 The key to reducing street violence in San Francisco is to "focus on and invest" in a small number of "groups" that have committed the majority of San Francisco's homicides and shootings in the last 3.5 years, according to a study presented at the Police Commission Wednesday night. The study was conducted by the California Partnership for Safe Communities, a violence prevention organization that closely examined all 162 homicides in San Francisco from January 2017 to June 2020. It also examined 124 non-fatal shootings between January 2019 and June 2020. A major finding: 12 "high risk social networks," or "groups" — not to be confused with gangs — are responsible for a majority of San Francisco's gun violence, said Vaughn Crandall, a co-director of California Partnership for Safe Communities, which worked with the San Francisco Police Department on the study. The presentation emphasized that shootings and homicides have dropped precipitously in San Francisco since the mid-90s. Killings spiked around 2007, when there were 13.6 homicides per 100,000 residents. In 2018, the rate dropped to 5.2, according to the study. But seeing a 17 percent jump in homicides last year, Chief Bill Scott wants the rate to drop to zero, and he agreed with Crandall that it's not only a matter of putting one person behind bars. He said the networks of violence were "deeply rooted" and "the support has to be focused on the right people at the right time." A majority of homicides, 53 to 70 percent, could be traced back to "group dynamics," Crandall said. Meanwhile, 50 to 77 percent of non-fatal shootings were connected to the groups. Another factor of street violence, Crandall said, was "street disorder," which is violence connected to homelessness and the drug market — mostly in the Tenderloin. Together those categories accounted for 38 percent of homicides. But groups committing violence toward other groups to settle disputes was the main driver of the violence, Crandall said. Many of the groups are spread out across the city — in the Bayview, Mission, Ingleside, Park and Northern policing districts, according to the study, which did not specify neighborhoods. Many of the "groups" in the Mission are connected to Norteno and Sureno gangs, whereas groups elsewhere appeared to have fewer formal gang affiliations. Courtesy of California Partnership for Safe Communities "The concentration of risk is very, very tight — it's a small number of folks who are extremely high risk, and we have to be able to more effectively engage and support them if we're going to reduce retaliation shootings," Crandall said. Crandall did not provide a detailed methodology on how he grouped the small number of high-risk individuals. But he did say that, after looking at the cases with SFPD investigators, "patterns and relationships" within the small groups emerged. Many of the groups, he said, were "informal and fluid, but they were identifiable." He cautioned that "groups" are different from "gangs," as gangs have a concrete legal definition that can have "collateral consequences" for individuals who are not directly involved in violence — such as gang enhancements or being added to gang databases. Labeling people gang members, he added, is "not a very direct way to focus on violence." By contrast, "groups" are defined as people living "high risk lifestyles," are socially connected to each other and resort to violence to resolve disputes. "Most of those groups are probably not gangs by the statutory definition," Crandall said, "but they are involved in identifiable patterns of conflict that are resulting in people being shot and murdered." Furthermore, those involved in homicides — victims and suspects — are mostly Black and Latino men who are older adults. The average age of homicide suspects and victims in San Francisco is 37, the study found, and many of them have been arrested multiple times. Victims and suspects of shootings, meanwhile, are 28-years-old and have been arrested multiple times. Furthermore, 67 percent of homicide victims and suspects and 85 percent of shooting victims and suspects are Black and Latino men, the study found. "Those folks have extremely difficult situations, and it is not easy to address the issues that put them at risk either from a justice system intervention standpoint or from a community intervention, Crandall said. "It's a heavy lift," he added, but the silver lining is that the focus only needs to be on "less than 200" a year — a collaboration between community intervention specialists, the probation and parole departments, the District Attorney, and the police department. Crandall did not say what exactly these departments needed to do and how they needed to "work together." "Most cities invest most of their prevention dollars in a younger and lower risk population," he said. "And the evidence is strong that actually, if we want to reduce violence in the near term, the place to do it is investing in this older and very highest-risk population." Courtesy of California Partnership for Safe Communities Mission Local covers San Francisco from the vantage point of the Mission, a neighborhood with all of the promise and problems of a major city. You can support Mission Local here.