The first three months of 2026 were significantly more murderous in San Francisco than the same three months a year earlier. There was, in fact, a 250% uptick in homicides, year over year, and SF Police Chief Derrick Lew is trying to emphasize that other types of crime remain down.

SFist has been tracking the alarming frequency of homicides in the city since early January, with an average of almost one killing per week happening in the first 10 weeks of the year. This followed on a year of record-low homicides in San Francisco, when the city saw fewer murders than any year since 1954.

SFPD Chief Derrick Lew addressed the sudden uptick at a presentation to the SF Police Commission last week, as the Chronicle is reporting, and he was trying to downplay the issue by showing that overall gun violence remains flat. Also, he said, the number car burglaries continues to decline, and crimes like assault and robbery are both down compared to last year's first quarter — by 10% and 33% respectively.

The gun violence stat appears to just be through January 2026, and the point Lew appeared to be making was that the same number of people are being shot, but more of those shootings have proved fatal in the first three months of this year. So, shooters just had better aim?

The homicide statistic on its own is alarming, given that homicides overall have been trending downward nationwide, as well as in San Francisco, since the first year of the pandemic. And if the trend holds past the first quarter, it puts the city on track to see the first uptick in homicides since 2021.

Doubly alarming is President Trump's casual recent mention that San Francisco's crime situation isn't improving fast enough.

"San Francisco. What a great city it was. A great city. Could quickly become a great city again. But, you know, they're going very slowly," Trump said, possibly inspired by longtime conservative and fellow sexual harasser Bill O'Reilly's strange NewsNation special shot during Super Bowl weekend, which aired the same day as Trump's comment.

Trump was originally gearing up to have federal agents invade the city back in October, when all crime stats were, in reality, down. But this is just political theater, of course, and part of his revenge campaign against progressive cities, and facts don't matter — that is, until, there's a provable fact like the current homicide uptick that aids his cause.

Chief Lew suggests that the SFPD will be doing more to get guns off the streets, in the hope of bringing the shooting stat down. And the department will otherwise be continuing its strategies that have brought other crime stats down, because "it’s worked."

Previously: San Francisco Now Averaging One Homicide Per Week In 2026, With Latest on Sixth Street

Photo via SFPD/YouTube