San Francisco · Methods & sources
Know what you’re looking at.
Police incident reports from 2018, across 41 analysis neighborhoods.
01 · Reading the timeline
A series that starts when the current reporting file starts.
Counts use SFPD incident reports, dataset wg3w-h783, grouped by incident year and analysis neighborhood. 2026 is year-to-date, through 2026-09-30. It stays out of the comparison.
2016 and 2017 remain in a retired extract. That file overlaps 2018 and does not carry analysis neighborhoods, so those years stay blank rather than being joined to this system.
02 · Scope
4 local indicators.
These are selected San Francisco categories, not all recorded crime. A shared indicator name does not make them the same offence as another city.
- Assault
- Assault, including simple assault and aggravated assault.
- Auto Theft
- Motor vehicle theft. Recovered vehicles, and the uncertain “Motor Vehicle Theft?” label, stay out.
- Burglary
- Burglary.
- Robbery
- Robbery.
Hate-crime and money-laundering sources have not been added for San Francisco. Their views explain that coverage gap. The indicators above cannot stand in for either subject.
03 · Place & population
Analysis neighborhoods, counts and rates.
The map uses San Francisco’s 41 analysis neighborhoods. Streets are not packaged for this city yet, so the choropleth draws without a street background. The dashboard shows neighborhood totals and does not plot individual reports.
0.84% of the full-year indicator records were not placed in an area (1,666 reports). They remain in the city total.
Citywide rates use Census Bureau estimates for San Francisco city. 2016–2019 use the 2010-based vintage and 2020–2025 the 2020-based vintage. Neighborhood rates use a fixed 2020 Census block-group allocation by internal point. Golden Gate Park and McLaren Park have very small residential populations, so their rates are not a residential comparison.
04 · Source records
Follow the numbers.
Police data: San Francisco Police Department. Boundaries: City and County of San Francisco, Open Data Commons PDDL. Population: U.S. Census Bureau, a United States government work.
About this data
How to read these figures
- What does “crime” mean for San Francisco?
- Crime by analysis neighborhood means the indicators San Francisco Police Department publishes for San Francisco (2018–2025). They are reported incident or offence counts, not arrests, charges, or a safety score. The same heading in another city is not the same offence.
- Where do the numbers come from?
- Police figures come from San Francisco Police Department. Area boundaries come from City and County of San Francisco · analysis neighborhoods. Rates, when a denominator exists, use U.S. Census Bureau · population and are shown per 10,000 residents. A missing year, indicator, or boundary stays missing.
- How often is this updated?
- The site is updated periodically, with no fixed public schedule and no live feed. Comparable charts use full years. A year-to-date control, when the page has one, labels the partial year separately.
- What does this not show?
- Drug offences and overdose deaths are separate series, not part of these analysis neighborhoods. There is no single cross-city crime index. Counting rules and source links are on the San Francisco about page.