San Francisco officers to go undercover as bait for hate crimes

Toney Chaplin, the interim chief of the San Francisco Police Department, during a town hall meeting at the San Francisco Scottish Rite Masonic Center on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif. Police officials spoke about the the fatal officer-involved shooting of a man who allegedly shot and critically injured an S.F. police officer on October 14. less Toney Chaplin, the interim chief of the San Francisco Police Department, during a town hall meeting at the San Francisco Scottish Rite Masonic Center on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif. Police ... more Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close San Francisco officers to go undercover as bait for hate crimes 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

San Francisco police officers are adding a new strategy — going undercover — in an effort to combat hate crimes, Interim Police Chief Toney Chaplin said Wednesday.

At a City Hall news conference with Mayor Ed Lee and other leaders, Chaplin did not offer specifics, but warned that police are “taking proactive measures” to ensure that a flurry of hate crime reports emerging around the country in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election won’t be duplicated in San Francisco.

“We’re going to put officers out much like we did when our teams made it to the playoffs and we dressed officers in rival teams’ gear,” Chaplin said, referring to the city’s bid to tackle rising sports-fan violence.

“We’re going to do that in our neighborhoods,” he said, “so if someone decides they want to take someone on or attack them because of how they look or what they’re wearing, they may be attacking an on-duty San Francisco police officer.”

Video: Hiker In Head Scarf Targeted In Possible Fremont Hate Crime

While police have not seen an uptick in hate crime reports in San Francisco since the election, Chaplin cautioned that hate crimes are notoriously underreported. The news conference Wednesday was held to encourage any victims to report crimes.

San Francisco has seen a roughly 10 percent increase in hate crimes this year, and a 28 percent increase from two years ago, Chaplin said.

“The spike is not something that is as big as it sounds, but I think it’s significant enough that we need to start looking at it,” he said after the news conference. “For every one you see, how many do you not see? I think there are a lot of things that aren’t reported, there are a lot of people that are painting over hate graffiti. That’s a crime. We want it reported, we want it documented so we can show that it’s a problem that is surging.”

Chaplin said he was also sending uniformed officers to “areas where prejudice-based crimes occur” in order to create high visibility and deter further crimes.

Reports of hate crimes have raised concerns around the Bay Area. On Tuesday, a Richmond man was accused of racially motivated murder in the killing of an African American man in El Sobrante. On the UC Berkeley campus, three men allegedly threatened to rip off a student’s hijab, or headscarf, on Nov. 10.

Last week, a Latina nanny allegedly was grabbed and shoved in San Francisco’s Fort Mason by a man who told her through broken Spanish, “No Latinos here.” On Friday, city police arrested a man on suspicion of spray-painting a racist epithet and symbol on the wall of a business and nearby vehicle in the Bayview neighborhood.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo