Judicial Watch: San Francisco Crime Surge – Homicide Arrests up 55%, Rapes Arrests up 370%

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it obtained records from the San Francisco County Sheriff’s Department revealing that violent crime in the Bay area has skyrocketed since 2011, with the number of arrests for murder up 55%, and the number of arrests for rapes up 370%.  Judicial Watch uncovered the numbers through a July 9, 2015, California Public Records Act request that sought the number of arrests for violations of the following crimes between 2011 and 2015:

Penal Code 187 – first and second degree murder
Penal Code 240 – simple assault
Penal Code243 – battery
Penal Code 261 – rape

According to the data provided by the Sheriff’s Department, arrests for violations of the most violent of the crimes listed – murder and rape – have soared over the past four years:

According to the information provided by Sheriff’s Department Assistant Legal Counsel Mark Nicco, “These numbers reflect the number of charges for arrests and bookings (not just arrests).”

In response to a request for details on the U.S. citizenship status of the offenders, Nicco informed Judicial Watch: “This information is not tracked by the Jail Management System.”

Despite the increased arrests for violent crimes, the overall arrest rate has plunged by 42 percent according to Max Szabo, spokesman for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.

In 2013, the San Francisco’s Sheriff and City Council expanded San Francisco’s infamous illegal alien sanctuary policies.  The City changed policies and passed an ordinance that required San Francisco law enforcement to ignore most U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers.  These detainers required San Francisco authorities to hold detained illegal alien criminals until federal authorities could determine whether to take them into custody.

“Citizens understand that when San Francisco and other sanctuary cities release illegal alien criminals onto the streets, crime is going to increase,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “These new crime statistics suggest that there are more murders and an epidemic of rape linked to San Francisco’s releasing illegal alien criminals in violation of law.”

Judicial Watch is a long-time national leader in advocating for a rule-of-law approach to illegal immigration.  This work includes exposing and challenging dangerous sanctuary policies in San Francisco, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Arizona, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and more.

In 2011, because of Judicial Watch’s work, San Francisco was ordered to end its sanctuary policy that protected aliens arrested for certain drug offenses from being reported to ICE.  The organization is now investigating whether the city violated the law again with its sanctuary policy that led to the release of Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an illegal immigrant deported five times and who allegedly gunned down Kate Steinle at one of the most popular tourist spots in San Francisco.

Another lawsuit pending before the Illinois Supreme Court, challenges Chicago’s Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s refusal to honor ICE immigration detainers or cooperate with ICE in identifying deportable criminal aliens.  Cook County jails had released well over 1,000 criminal aliens sought by ICE in the 18 months prior to the lawsuit’s filing in 2013.

Other Judicial Watch litigation forced the release of documents that show the Obama administration  released 165,900 convicted criminal aliens throughout the United States, including many convicted of such violent crimes as homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, and aggravated assault.

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