San Francisco in 2024 recorded the fewest homicides in more than 60 years, and officials are crediting a data-driven strategy focused on preventing gun violence.
There were 35 deaths investigated as homicides in 2024, a steep drop from last year, when there were 52, according to San Francisco Police Department data.
In 1960, the city logged 30 homicides before peaking in 1977 with 146, according to police data reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The 2024 downward trend was evident early in the year and was clearer by July, when police statistics showed a 39% drop in homicides from the first half of 2023, alongside significant declines in some violent and property crimes.
The 52 homicides last year included one that occurred Nov. 12, 2023, at Crissy Field, on federal property, and is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. There were 56 homicides in both 2022 and 2021.
According to police data reviewed by The Standard, the annual average number of homicides in San Francisco from 2013 to 2022 was 51.
At a Dec. 10 press conference at SFPD headquarters, Chief Bill Scott said nonfatal shootings in 2024 were down 31% from last year.
“This wasn’t an accident. This was very strategic; this took years in the making,” Scott said, highlighting an 88% clearance rate for homicide investigations.
At the press conference, Mayor London Breed recalled her experiences with violence growing up in San Francisco public housing.
“This was not happening many years ago, when I was growing up, going back to 1993,” Breed said of the declines. “When we had 133 homicides the year after I graduated from high school, it was a deadly time in the city. It was something we lived through for so many years.”
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the decline means “17 fewer families who’ve had to bury their loved ones this year.”
Jenkins said her office resolved 27 homicide cases in 2024, with a 92% conviction rate, including prosecutions in all eight cases that went to trial. A ninth case, the trial of Nima Momeni in the fatal stabbing of Bob Lee, ended this month with a jury verdict of second-degree murder.
Officials attributed the improvements to the use of enhanced technology like surveillance drones and license plate readers, along with community intervention programs that aim to prevent retaliation after shootings.
The city’s approach includes partnerships between police and community groups, particularly in District 10, which includes the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, for its 50% drop in homicides and shootings from last year.