{"id":451491,"date":"2026-09-02T22:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T22:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/451491\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T22:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T22:24:18","slug":"crime-is-20-lower-in-san-francisco-areas-where-street-ambassador-program-urban-alchemy-operates-new-stanford-study-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/451491\/","title":{"rendered":"Crime is 20% lower in San Francisco areas where street ambassador program Urban Alchemy operates, new Stanford study shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A new study says Urban Alchemy is helping lower crime in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

According to police data analyzed by a Stanford University researcher, crime was 20% lower at intersections in the city where the local nonprofit was deployed.<\/p>\n

“Frankly, we’re not surprised at all,” said Jess Montejano.<\/p>\n

Montejano is an Urban Alchemy spokesperson who says the group’s success is because of its street ambassadors.<\/p>\n

The ambassadors are a group of people, most of whom were formerly incarcerated or addicts themselves, who go into some of San Francisco’s toughest neighborhoods to help those most in need.<\/p>\n

MORE: San Francisco commits $21M to expand street ambassador program<\/a><\/p>\n

“They know how to best connect with people in crisis. They show them extra love. They show them attention. They build real relationships,” Montejano said.<\/p>\n

While Urban Alchemy has faced controversies in the past, it’s also won its share of supporters.<\/p>\n

“The only complaints I ever hear about Urban Alchemy is that we don’t have them,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey.<\/p>\n

Dorsey believes the nonprofit has an important role to play in cleaning up the city’s streets. He has supported the city providing millions of dollars in funding to the group.<\/p>\n

Both the supervisor and Urban Alchemy itself say they want to see the program expanded into the future. They believe this study will help enable them to do just that.<\/p>\n

MORE: San Francisco pilot program diverts 911 calls about homeless from police to new street crisis team<\/a><\/p>\n

“This will help us at budget time. Now we have something to point to where we can say, ‘Hey, this is actually making a difference,'” Dorsey said.<\/p>\n

It’s a difference Montejano hopes the group can continue making.<\/p>\n

“It’s honestly one of the proudest things of my life to be able to see the work and impact that they get to accomplish every single day,” he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to San Francisco, Urban Alchemy also operates in eight other cities around the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"Now<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A new study says Urban Alchemy is helping lower crime in San Francisco. According…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[178478,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-451491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-178478","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}