Features

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Police Chief Fred Lau announced Thursday he would resign from office next month. 

Lau said he will retire from the department on July 13 to start working for the federal Department of Transportation. 

Mayor Willie Brown first appointed Lau as chief on January 10, 1996, the day Brown was inaugurated. 

Lau had come under fire in recent weeks after the San Francisco Chronicle reported the department has a dismal record of solving, or even investigating, violent crimes. 

San Francisco has more resources and less crime than many other large cities, but police have only managed to solve half the city’s murders and less than a third of the rapes, the paper reported. 

The city ranks last among the nation’s 20 largest cities in solving violent crimes. From 1996 to 2000, the SFPD solved just 28 percent of the city’s rapes, murders, shootings and other violent crimes. 

The Board of Supervisors has taken steps to investigate how the department handles such crimes and it also has approved a study to look at the best practices for solving crime in other cities. 

The Chronicle found that staff cuts, budget constraints and the lack of formal performance standards in the Inspectors Bureau were among the chief reasons for the department’s poor record. 

Lau’s replacement will be named between now and July 13, said Brown’s spokesman P.J. Johnson.