Community Policing and Zone Strategy Driving Successes in Tenderloin

The Examiner reported today on how a combination of increased community engagement and the targeted deployment of resources has succeeded in both solving and reducing crime in the Tenderloin.

Murders dropped from nine in 2007 to four last year. Robbery dropped 9 percent, and aggravated assault plummeted nearly 14 percent (…)

Tenderloin Police Station Capt. Gary Jimenez, who briefed neighborhood residents and The City’s Police Commission last week, said each of the murders were solved because of the focus on community policing. While entire neighborhoods in San Francisco have been intimidated into silence, Tenderloin residents feel more comfortable sharing information with police because they know and trust them (…)

Jimenez also attributed some of the success to the citywide “zone” strategy, where the police presence is concentrated in San Francisco’s most violent neighborhood. Tenderloin officers have also cracked down on quality-of-life offenses, increasing their narcotics arrests by 22 percent from 2007 to 2008 and disorderly conduct arrests by nearly 184 percent.