Barring — knock on wood — any slayings today, tomorrow, or Saturday, the homicide rate in San Francisco has risen by almost seven percent since last year, based on police data on the crimes.
A double shooting at South Van Ness Avenue and 16th Street that claimed the lives of Eddie "Tennessee" Tate and Lindsay McCollum on December 18th took SF's number of slayings to 57, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The Ex reports that there were 53 homicides in 2015, making the increase (should this year's number remain stable) about 7 percent.
According to SFPD data, there were 45 homicides in 2014, 48 in 2013, 68 in 2012, and 50 in 2011. Even with this year's uptick, we're still seeing a sharp improvement over the homicide stats from a less than a decade ago — per the Ex, "In 2009, there were 45 homicides; but in the five years prior, the number was about 100 each year. In 2005, there were 96 homicides, and 100 in 2007. The next year saw nearly as many with 98."
