San Francisco crime falls overall, but homicides keep safety debate alive

San Francisco police still counted 17 homicides year to date on July 8, even as the department said total violent crime was down 9%. That split has defined the public safety argument in San Francisco County, where the city can point to fewer robberies, burglaries and car thefts while killings keep the fear factor high.

The Chronicle’s crime analysis says reported violent and property crime continued to decline across the first half of 2026, with homicides the main exception. That comes after the San Francisco Police Department said on Jan. 2 that 2025 brought historic drops in crime, including the city’s lowest homicide rate in 70 years. Chief Derrick Lew tied that decline to coordinated work with partner public safety agencies, and the department has been trying to build on a stretch that had already put the city on track, in earlier Chronicle reporting, for its lowest homicide total in more than six decades.

The geographic pattern matters as much as the headline number. A Chronicle neighborhood crime map has shown how sharply crime can vary across San Francisco, and earlier reporting found South of Market posting outlier increases in some categories even while broader citywide crime fell. That unevenness is part of why residents in the Tenderloin, SoMa, Bayview, the Mission District, downtown San Francisco and Civic Center can experience the city’s safety picture very differently from one another.

The weekly SFPD crime trend reports show why homicides stayed politically charged through the spring and summer. On Feb. 18, the department listed 6 homicides year to date, compared with 1 at the same point in 2025, while total violent crime was down 26%. By June 3, the homicide count had climbed to 17, versus 10 the year before, even as violent crime remained down 11%. On July 8, the homicide total was still 17, compared with 12 in 2025, and violent crime was down 9%.

That combination has kept pressure on Mayor Daniel Lurie’s public safety agenda and on the San Francisco Police Department’s enforcement strategy. City leaders can point to falling day-to-day crime, but a homicide does far more to shape neighborhood anxiety and political scrutiny than a stolen car or a break-in. For San Francisco, the question is no longer whether crime is moving down in aggregate, but where the killings are landing and what the city is prepared to do about them.