Why Dealing Fentanyl or Carrying a Gun Is Not Counted as a Crime in San Francisco

The following post was written by Lou Barberini, who was a San Francisco police officer between 1996 and 2017. During his career, he primarily served as a bike beat officer and an undercover narcotics officer. He writes a blog, and is one of the reporters who is fighting to make San Francisco a safer place for all:

“Amongst the glittering car glass on our sidewalks, to the circular tire tracks in the middle of our intersections, to the smell of human waste on our sidewalks, you sense that San Francisco is becoming less safe.  Yet, the progressives and moderates spin different perspectives on the state of crime in San Francisco.

Both sides rely on the base effect– a statistical ploy whereby a person can choose the base year of comparison that suits their preconceived narrative.  For instance, San Francisco progressives have chosen to compare the 56 homicides in 2022, to the 100+ homicides that occurred annually in the base years of the 1980’s (forty years ago).  Simultaneously, moderates are alarmed that homicides more recently increased 36% from 2019 to 2022. Same 2022 stats, different base years, thus different presentations.

The one thing both political groups have in common is that their statistics all rely on the same sources. SFPD’s Compstat Dashboard track crimes in San Francisco and are tabulated in a manner that conforms with the FBI’s Uniform Crime reporting (UCR).

I worked in SFPD for over 20 years, and it wasn’t until this past month that it occurred to me that the crimes that have recently increased the most, selling fentanyl, the confiscation of guns, and shoplifting are not tallied as crimes in SFPD’s stats.  This means that both the progressives and moderates are fighting to spin narratives based on incomplete and inadequate data”.

My quiz on whether particular crimes are counted in SFPD’s stats?

The complete post originally published on July 18, 2023 is here.