Transcripts For SFGTV Small Business Commission 20240711 : v

4156550001. Again, that number is 4156550001. The access code is 146 571 5259. Press pound and pound again to be added to the line. Again t access code is 146 571 5259. Press pound and pound again to be added to the queue. Whou will hear the meeting discussions but will be muted and in listening mode only. When the item of interest comes up, dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line. If you dial star 3 before Public Comment is called, you will be added to the queue. When you are called for Public Comment, please mute the device that you are listening to the meeting on. When it is your time to speak, you will be prompted to do so. Best practices are to call from a quiet location and to speak clearly and slowly, and again, turn down the device that you are listening to the meeting on. Public comment during the meeting is limited to 3 minutes per speaker unless otherwise established by the presiding officer. An alarm will sound once the time is finished. Speaker ares requested but not required to share their name. I will take the time to eare mind all of our presenters and commissioners to please mute themselves at this time. Sfgov tv, please show the office of Small Business slide. Today well be gin with a reminder that the Small Business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the Economic Vitality of Small Businesses in San Francisco. The office of Small Business is the best place to get answers about doing business in San Francisco during the local emergency. If you need assistance with Small Business matters, particularly at this time, you can find us online or via telephone and as always, our services are free of charge. Before item number one is called, i would like to start by thanking Media Services and sfgov tv for coordinating this virtual hearing and the live stream. And special thanks to jim smith for assisting with the Public Comment line. I would like to acknowledge the announcement from the mayor and dr. Colfax made today regarding the reopening of certain businesses late they are week. Were making great progress towards containing the virus in the city and managing the surge of cases. We are hopeful that we are finally on the road to recovery. Please call item number one. Item one, call to order and roll call. Commissioner adams. Here. Commissioner dooley. Here. Commissioner huie. Is running late. Commissioner laguana. Here. Commissioner ortizcartagena. Here. Commissioner zouzounis. Present. Mr. President , you have a quorum. Great. Thank you. Next item please. Item two, presentation, Small Business and Public Safety. Update and report from the San Francisco District Attorneys Office and the San Francisco Police Department on Public Safety and Small Business concerns. Discussion item. The presenters are San Francisco District Attorney chesa boudin and deputy chief of police david lazar. Welcome, District Attorney, and deputy chief. We are pleased you are with us today to talk about this critical issue affecting our community. We are grateful for you spending time with us, and the commission is interested in having a dialogue with you. I know it is a sensitive and difficult subject in the community and the city as a whole, but we are here to be on both of your sides and to be as supportive and provide constructive advice as best as we can. So with that, deputy chief lazar, i know you have another commitment shortly after this item, so we can begin with you. The floor is yours. Good afternoon, commissioners. And thank you very much for the invitation to the Small Business commission. I am pleased to be here. I know that i have been here before you once before. One of my roles in the department is to chair the Small Business advisory. I have about 15 Small Business owners that i work with on a monthly basis that advise the department and sit as chair on behalf of the chief. I am greatty to be here today on behalf of chief scott. I am david lazar, a deputy chief in the San Francisco Police Department. I oversee the investigations bureau. So essentially im responsible for investigators that work throughout the department that investigate crime, which also includes our crime scene investigators and our crime laboratory. And today im just grateful to be on with the District Attorneys Office. I know commissioner laguana that weve worked very closely together over the years and you mention about size. Its very important that the Police Department and District Attorneys Office work closely together. And we skill actually do work very closely together. I work the closest with the d. A. s office just because investigators bring cases forward to the d. A. s office for presentation for decisions about prosecution and that sort of thing. But were both in it together in terms of Public Safety. Coming up with creative ways to figure out how to prevent crime and how to address crime. I know that during the pandemic, things have changed a little bit for us in San Francisco. We were up on homicides last year from 48 homicides the year prior we were at 41, which is still some very historic lows in terms of homicides for major cities such as San Francisco. That 2019 number was a 59year low which were pleased to report one homicide is one too many. But during the pandemic, we have seen an uptick of Violent Crime. We have seen an uptick in shootings. I think this is also something that were seeing across the country and major cities across the country are experiencing gun violence and Violent Crime in general. And so were definitely working to address that. We have seen numbers are down and we have talked about auto thefts down by 50 last year. Still we had 13,000. One of the main areas were looking at, however, now is the burglaries. And i am sure that as a Small Businesses and folks have been affected by burglaries, we are up almost about 50 so between 45 and 50 and many are up against this year and we had about 561 reported case this is year. We know sometimes people dont report. We ask everyone to report crime, but were up significantly as well. Last year at this point we didnt have a pandemic. Well, we did. We just didnt know it. And so we had less of this event. And now were seeing the trajectory and all on the same path as it did in 2020. And its really i am grateful for the d. A. s office and i know that were all trying to wrap our heads around how to address this crime. And one of the things that i want to say briefly before i conclude is Crime Prevention is the key and deterrent is the key. And we can talk about how to try to arrest our way out of situation. And sometimes that is not the case. It is criminal justice coming together. And we do make arrests and the District Attorneys Office does charge cases and how do we prevent this from happening . If i am a Small Business owner, do i have adequate lighting . And do i have do i take out the most valuable items out of my window . Do i take the trash out of the business . Do i have a good alarm system . And really how we make a lot of cases is from Video Evidence. Do i have a good video system that i can turn over to the Police Department or i request register the camera with the District Attorneys Office. And it is really the public, the community, Small Business coming together thinking about how can we prevent crime and when we are not able to do so, how do we report crime . And how do we work with the criminal justice partners to ensure that these cases are taken care of. So that is my opening. Again, very excited to be here with everyone and i definitely dont want to take up too much time and hear from the District Attorneys Office and field any questions that the commissioners have or the public may have about this. So thank you for the invitation. If i can just jump in, i am not sure if there is Something Else in between and i want to echo what deputy chief la zar said. Were in this together and we Work Together closely every day. I was really honored that he was honored to serve on the transition reAdvisory Committee and with the District Attorneys Office and every step of the way as we collectively respond to historic, unprecedented challenges as a sfif and we know this because it is affecting every one of us in our personal lives and in our professional lives. And the ways in which the pandemic and this year, this past year, have also impacted business at the hall of justice and crime trends as well as the challenges that hardworking men, women, and the Police Department face every single day when they are out there trying to deter, prevent, and detect crime. Just to give you one concrete example of something that i talked about with chief scott about over the past year. And it used to be that video footage, good quality video footage and enough to identify the suspect in the case. And it used to be that police saw someone running down the street and suspicious and it means video footage and is still essential and deputy chief la zar said and it makes it much harder and for police to identify someone they are looking for. And these are new challenges and plaguing hand stopped and declined dramaticcally and 50 decline last year and compared to the prior year. It doesnt mean that committing those crimes stop committing crimes. We all go inside and so have they in many cases. It means that some people commit crimes or daylight in businesses that were open for businesses. And breaking in hours after garages and restaurants and those are trends that we have been working as hard and as cooperatively as we can with the Police Department. And havent done enough for Small Businesses. And the separate parts and processes to do with the support and the critical feedback. And hopefully with the advocacy, not just with the Police Department and the d. A. s office but with tore justice partners to rely on to get the job done. And the first thing, the most important thing is prevention. And to prevent crimes and deterrents through simple adjustments we can make in terms of our own home or business security, were way better off. It doesnt matter how many Arrests Police make and how many cases and team of lawyers successfully prosecute and are always better off when they are not victims in the first place. Lets focus on prevention and strategies and d. C. Lazar mentioned several of those already. And second thing when somebody is a crime, and my office is committed to doing as much as we can to provide Victim Services to help make you whole, to help you get back on your feet. And the harm and crimes and this past year we launched a Pilot Project in district five and supervisor preston where Small Businesses in district five suffer from vandalism or broken windows can submit a claim to our office which we can process for reimbursement up to per calendar year. It may not cover all the expenses but is a step in the right direction. We would love to expand the program and make it citywide. We love to expand the program and make it a higher deductible amount that people are eligible for. When the police show up and document vandalism or broken window, submit the Police Report to my staff and help fix the window through city Victim Compensation fund. And when you make that Police Report, please report crimes. If you dont report them, we cant do anything about them. When you report to the police, they are going to do their best under difficult circumstances to identify the suspects, to identify the evidence. And to gather all that together and make an arrest and present the team of lawyers with the investigation. And to arrest 100 of people who commit crimes and San Francisco is not realistic. But if you report quickly and have video footage and other evidence and to do their job and in turn it will make it easier for my team to do their job. And just like the police cant arrest the crimes and cant prosecute the arrests to prosecute and hold people accountability and we know there are a number of people who are committing crime after crime and are in close communication and get the case to struggle and make it stick. And hold accountable and break the cycle of recidivism. We know for decades county jails and state prisons have effectively been Revolving Doors of recidivism. People going in, coming out, often worse off than they were beforehand. My commitment and my vision is to make sure that our criminal Justice System treats every single arrest and the hardworking men and women make as an opportunity for intervention and to turn people away from crime. For crimes they have committed and set them on a path and whenever they are released from custody that protects all of us from future crime. That is the partnership to get there and we love for you to join us in the process. Thank you. Thank you. I apologize for not properly introducing, but i was on mute. No problem at all. You gave me a warm introduction at the beginning and i appreciate the opportunity to speak and thank all of you for your service on the commission. Sure. Commissioner, comments or questions . Okay. I guess i will jump in here. Commissioners and as always here we go. Commissioner adams, please. First off, thank you. Mr. District attorney and officer lazar, i appreciate all the comments. And especially when you said District Attorney about stopping that revolving door. And in the castro and we see people who get arrested. And they are at the same shop and getting arrested again. And the words that stated and to work on together and the prevention part is something we have to work on better. The more we have on prevention and around the businesses and the first story and Small Business and second story and prevention, prevention, prevention. And i really appreciate both of your comments today. That is all i have. Thank you. And to respond and please feel free and move on to the next commissioner. To remind everyone about the organization and affiliated with the department and fund the nonprofit and sf state and many of you are familiar with them. To facilitate watches and Security Service at home and for free and they do charge a fee to conduct the surveys on the businesses. And commissioners and talk about prevention and that is the service that is available and where you can look at the material that they have on prevention and schedule the appointment to come back with the security survey. And make sure he wasnt aware of it. Commissioner zouzounis. Thank you, both, District Attorney, and deputy chief lazar for being here. We appreciate it. That was part of my question. So i would love to see a comprehensive list of the nonemergency numbers and intervention and nonviolence services and dpw and hot team and Fire Department teams that are on the street. I would love to have Something Like that that we can give Small Businesses so they know their only recourse and calling police and for the less invasive issues. And part of the reason that i bring that up is because to promote Community Trust and a hard time presenting camera footage and intel and on their community and there have been theres been cases of retribution and Small Business owners and providing information regarding crimes that may not even happen in the business but outside in the thoroughway outside their business. I would love to keep that in mind as a way to make sure that Small Businesses arent implicated in situations that are going to break trust with communities theyre situated in that do have concerns with the regular Police Presence and increased criminalization of neighborhoods. So alternative numbers would be and the different purposes for those would be great. With that, i have a question as to how