By Joel Engardio

The Coalition of San Francisco Neighborhoods recently honored Stop Crime SF for its efforts to give residents and victims a voice while making sure police, prosecutors, judges and politicians are doing their jobs to keep us safe.

Read the remarks that Stop Crime SF Vice President Joel Engardio gave at the award ceremony.

Coalition of San Francisco Neighborhoods awards dinner
Joel Engardio remarks
December 4, 2019

Has your car window been smashed in San Francisco?

Mine has — three times. The FBI says we rank #1 in property crime.

We don’t need an FBI report with all the smashed glass we see on our curbs and sidewalks.

Did you see the viral video of a young woman being attacked by a deranged man at the front door of her building near the Embarcadero?

It was harrowing. There was massive public outrage in the news and social media. But how many victims suffer in silence?

My name is Joel Engardio and I’m vice president of a group called Stop Crime SF.

We are nearly 1,000 members and growing. We are San Francisco residents working to hold the criminal justice system accountable.

Stop Crime SF started three years ago with a handful of westside residents concerned about a spike in property crime.

When we went to community meetings, we saw a lot of finger pointing. The police blamed the district attorney for not prosecuting crime. The DA blamed cops for not making arrests. Everyone blamed politicians for bad laws. And judges were blamed for letting criminals go free.

So we said, let’s hold everyone accountable — the entire criminal justice system and every public official.

We said, let’s make sure every cop, prosecutor, judge and politician is doing their job at the highest standard.

Who runs Stop Crime SF? We’re all volunteers from the neighborhoods. We recruit experts to our board who can thoughtfully and effectively direct our actions — so residents can feel like someone is on their side.

Some of our expert board members include Nancy Tung, who has worked as a prosecutor for nearly 20 years. Libby Dodd served on our board after serving on the Civil Grand Jury investigating the car break-in epidemic.

We also have board members who were victims of crime, which reminds us to always show compassion for victims and give them a voice.

San Francisco has elected a new district attorney, who sets the agenda for what crimes will — or won't — be prosecuted.

Some of Chesa Boudin’s proposed reforms are good. When crimes are committed by someone severely mentally ill, homeless or drug addicted, we should be offering them treatment and a path to rehabilitation. Our prisons cannot be de facto mental institutions.

The Stop Crime SF Court Watch program is not interested in following the cases of first-time offenders in property crime cases. If medical treatment, rehab, probation or a diversion program can put a life on the right path, we support it.

We’re looking at the person who has reoffended multiple times, even while on probation — especially if the cases are violent.

Three senior citizens were brutally attacked in Chinatown recently and the crime was caught on video.

It is important that violent cases like this are taken seriously. Chesa Boudin has not taken office yet, but news reporters asked him for comment on the Chinatown attack. While Boudin eventually pledged to put public safety first, his initial reaction didn’t go over well. He said he wanted more context: to determine the background of the perpetrators.

Context is important. Yet when seniors are beat up on video, fearful residents want to hear that victims will be put first. They want to know we will prosecute criminals who act so violently.

Sometimes, the lawmakers do listen — but only after public pressure forces them to. I’ll share a success story so we can end on a hopeful note.

Last year, the police department reported a $2 million surplus in its budget. The police wanted to spend the extra money on things like more foot patrols. We liked that idea.

But most supervisors wanted to take that surplus and spend it on their own pet projects — like hiring a fourth legislative aide for each supervisor. We preferred the extra foot patrols.

So we published op-ed articles in the local newspapers and started a letter writing campaign to the supervisors on the budget committee. Hundreds of letters were sent by our members in less than 24 hours.

The supervisors were not happy about it. But they felt enough public pressure to give the police a million dollars from the surplus.

That’s a million reasons why community activism matters. And why Stop Crime SF is dedicated to giving people a voice.

Please join us at stopcrimesf.com