SF is working harder on public safety. The results are mixed at best.
SF is working harder on public safety. The results are mixed at best.
Call 911 for a non-emergency in San Francisco right now and you might wait two hours. That's not a bad night — that's the new average.
Meanwhile, drug calls are up 42%, violent crime is down 13%, and the DA is charging fewer cases than ever. The city is doing more. It's not always adding up.
More 911 Calls. Slower Responses. SF's Emergency System Is Getting Stretched.
911 is busier and slower than before
Total 911 calls are up 7.5% year-over-year through March 2026. The system is absorbing more volume — and bending under it.
Priority C calls, the non-life-threatening ones, now average nearly 2 hours for a response. That covers a wide range of things residents actually call about: noise complaints, minor collisions, suspicious activity.
Drug 911 Calls Are Up 42% This Year. The Problem Isn't Going Away.
Drug crisis calls keep climbing, fast
San Francisco logged 2,693 drug-related 911 calls in Q1 2026 — up 41.7% from the same period last year. Monthly totals have been running at 750–870 calls since mid-2025.
That's roughly double where the city was two years ago. Whatever is happening on the ground, residents are calling it in more than ever.
SFPD Flew 1,391 Drone Missions in 2026. Violent Crime Fell 13%.
Drones are everywhere. Crime is down. Coincidence?
SFPD flew 1,391 drone missions in 2026 — up from just 8 flights in May 2024. That's a 70-fold increase in 18 months. Over the same stretch, violent crime dropped 13%.
The correlation is real. The causation is not proven. Other factors changed too. But the drone program is now a major operational tool, whether residents know it or not.
Violent Crime Is Down 13%. The DA Is Charging 40% of Cases. Pick Your Headline.
Violent crime is down. Charges are down too.
Violent crime hit its lowest monthly level since at least early 2024 — 567–569 incidents in both February and March 2026. That's genuinely good news.
But the DA's charge rate just dropped to 40% of cases. Fewer crimes, and fewer of those crimes resulting in prosecution. Both things are true right now.
Property Crime Fell to a Two-Year Low. Contracts Hit $1.3B in March.
Property crime is at a two-year low
SF recorded just 1,127 property crime incidents in March 2026 — down 67% from the July 2024 peak of 3,400+. Year-over-year, it's down 35.7%. This is the clearest good-news number in the dataset right now.
At the same time, the city awarded $1.3 billion in contracts in March — more than double March 2025. Where that money is going, and whether it's connected to these outcomes, is worth watching.
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