Community Members,
Graduations are in full swing and there is lots to celebrate with so many people, both young and not so young, accomplishing their educational goals. With that said there will be many social gatherings of family and friends to express well deserved congratulations to the graduates. As all celebrations go, not just graduations, please make sure if alcohol is involved that you make a plan in advance for transportation. A pre-planned designated driver is always good and if that is not possible please consider other alternatives such as a Taxi, Uber, Lyft or public transportation. It is always heart wrenching when celebrations turn to tragedy and life’s cut short due to impaired driving. Impaired driving is more than just alcohol it also means cannabis, prescription drugs and other drugs. So please be smart and plan your celebrations with everyone’s safety in mind. Officers from Taraval Station as well as the rest of the City will be on the lookout for impaired drivers so don’t drive impaired, it’s not worth it.
With summer upon us and many students returning home from college it’s a parent’s duty to “have that talk” and reinforce the message it is not ok to drive impaired. Friends also have a duty to not get in a vehicle if they know the driver may be impaired and try and intervene and not let an impaired driver get behind the wheel. Also community members if you see someone who you think is impaired operating a vehicle call 911 and the police will respond.
I would also like to share a word regarding Burglaries. Recently Supervisor Mar held a Board of supervisors hearing on Burglaries and then followed up with a town hall style meeting to hear more from the community. In reviewing burglary reports one thing I frequently notice is that crooks often gain access to homes through garages by breaking into cars when they see a garage door opener and then they point the opener at several homes and just start clicking to see which garage door it will open. The garage door opener is kept in plain view usually clipped to the visor. This is easy pickings for opportunistic scoundrels. Keep your garage door openers out of plain view and either in a console, glove box or even under a seat just don’t make it so visible.
I have been pushing out a weekly “Intel” report to all the Officers at Taraval Station. I study all the crime trends and reports and then extract the need to know information onto a handy quick reference sheet. As a result of this Taraval Officers Lake Herbert and Anthony Watson recently made an excellent burglary in progress arrest. The bad guy parked his stolen car behind a business on 19th Ave, smashed the glass out of the door to and illegally entered to further his felonious activity. The Officers new of prior incidents and that this was an area to be watched and did a great job locking down the outside of the business and coordinating response from additional Officers. The burglar was subsequently taken into custody and don’t you know it as the investigation unfolded linked to other burglaries. Nice work guys.
Recently I have been expanding to the message of “If you see something, say something”. If you see something you can also “video that something” most of us have cell phones handy and video of criminal activity provides investigative leads we otherwise may not get.
Follow me on Twitter at @SFPDTaraval for some really interesting tweets and go to Taraval.org for much more information on crimes tips, traffic safety, home safety and much more.