Corrales Eyes Crime Trends as Station Captain

By Ted Andersen

Since the arrival of San Francisco Police Dept. Chief George Gascon from Mesa, AZ, crime fighting in the city has been anything but business as usual.

There is evidence of this at the Mission Station, which serves the Castro. Among the changes are the implementation of a highly effective crime fighting tool — Computer Comparison Statistics (CompStat) — which accompanied dramatic crime reductions in New York and Los Angeles, a newly appointed leader, Captain Greg Corrales, and a department-wide reorganization that reassigned detectives into the district stations.

Corrales, who served as captain in the Mission Station from 2002-2005, said he was delighted to return nearly three months ago. “I’m very gratified by the warm welcome I’ve received, especially from those in the Castro,” he said.

Returning to his former post at a time of flux, Corrales said that he welcomes the new challenges and asserts that Gascon’s changes have aided police in identifying crime patterns in the city.
“Under CompStat, I need to know about every report that crosses my desk. I’ve been able to search up on some trends. For example, there is a real ring of bicycle thefts in the Mission. … We also noticed at a particular gym that people’s lockers were getting broken into. These types of things may not have been noticed in the past,” he said. “In the Castro District, the concern is belligerent and combative people, either homeless or those leaving a bar, whereas in other parts I’m more concerned with the drug problem.”

CompStat, a management process introduced to the SFPD by Chief Gascon, has given police heightened real time crime tracking ability in each of the ten district stations. Started in New York under Commissioner William Bratton, it makes crime reduction, rather than the arrest count, the central performance measure. The concept is sometimes called “putting police on the dots,” which is meant to identify repeated trends in crime so that police can more effectively deploy their forces to hot spots as opposed to just responding to emergencies. This has reformatted the way SFPD gathers, shares and disseminates information interdepartmentally and publicly.

The CompStat Unit, under the direction of Commander Jeff Godown, works to provide the statistical data and management information needed for bi-monthly CompStat information sharing meetings, an essential part of the process to ensure accurate and timely intelligence, effective tactics, rapid deployment, follow-up and assessment. The next meeting, which is open to the public, will be held Feb. 10 at 10 a.m. at the Scottish Rite temple at 19th and Sloat avenues.

“Our CompStat mapping system at the Park Station helped us better identify a pattern of auto burglaries occurring by the entrance to Golden Gate Park near Stanyan,” Park Station Captain Teri Barrett wrote. “The apprehension of this known parolee should help us reduce auto burglaries in the Park. One auto burglar can be responsible for dozens if not hundreds of car break-ins citywide.”
However, the roadblock for the Mission Station, according to Corrales, is to bolster and update information technology in the station and continue to dedicate the valuable human resources to reading reports and entering the vital statistics into the computer.

“The challenge is that the department has poor computer support, so we have to do everything by hand. I have to dedicate one officer full time to go through reports,” he said. “We are not getting computer help on this. Eventually, though, the computer system will be upgraded.”

Along with the CompStat changes, Chief Gascon has also decentralized detectives from the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street and embedded them in neighborhood stations. While detectives used to work from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, they now cover the shifts between 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days per week, taking either an 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift.

“They are more connected now,” Corrales said. “It’s much more effective when one of the officers makes an arrest and the detective is right there in the station ready to ask questions, as opposed to getting the report the next day. So it’s much more effective.”

Another of Chief Gascon’s innovations has been the Community Advisory Board. Every district station captain received a mandate from Chief Gascon to create an advisory board made up of members of the various segments of the communities in their district.

The Mission Station has followed suit and now has a board of 20 members seeking to work collaboratively with the police to identify problems, develop solutions and serve as a resource regarding community safety issues. The Advisory Board is a key communications liaison that expresses community concerns to the police and shares relevant information with community members.

In addition to this, the Mission Station will also be hosting a Police Commission meeting Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center, located at 100 Collingwood St.

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Copyright 2010 Castro Courier