San Francisco's aggressive crime crackdown sees dramatic drop in car break-ins
San Francisco has seen a sudden drop in car burglary rates since implementing an aggressive crackdown on thefts in recent weeks through a combination of bait cars, plainclothes officers and video surveillance, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
City leaders and police officers have seen car burglary rates continue to drop after implementing the policies. Between Sept. 1 and Nov. 26, the city logged 3,399 smash-and-grab reports, which was a stark contrast to the 6,703 documented during the same time period in 2022. Before September, the number of reports in 2023 were on par with the previous year.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told the SF Chronicle that she "hope[s]" auto burglaries will continue to taper off. She said the drop in crime can be attributed to a three-pronged strategy that includes targeted police efforts to catch the most prolific burglars, vigorous prosecutions and hard-line messaging to scare away potential thieves.
"We need … anyone thinking of committing auto burglary in our city to be on notice," she said.
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Democratic Mayor London Breed also echoed that sentiment in a statement to the paper.
"We want San Francisco to be a safe city for residents and visitors, and we want people to know if they break into cars here, they will be arrested and prosecuted," she said.
Police Lt. Scott Ryan said he believes a small number of criminals are committing the majority of auto burglaries and signaled that stopping the main perpetrators is important in bringing crime rates down overall, the SF Chronicle reported. In addition, prosecutors are filing detention motions to keep people in jail after they are charged, in an effort to remove key players of organized crime rings.
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"We’ve collaborated with the District Attorney’s Office in presenting those arrests and those cases to them," Ryan said. "Those people are being held responsible and are in custody as these cases move forward."
However, Cory Schnell, assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, told the SF Chronicle that the dip in crime could be a statistical quirk or the result of certain social or economic factors, but added that intervention by multiple city departments is a credible reason for crime to go down.
"Those strategies are on their face reasonable to account for this decrease," he said.
San Francisco has seen drastic spikes in crime in recent years with many residents, politicians and commentators criticizing the state of the city.
After San Francisco voted to recall then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin in June 2022, residents hoped Jenkins, as his replacement, would reverse many of her predecessor's policies.
Valencia Street, which was once one of the city's most popular streets, is riddled by crime, drug abuse and low tourism, according to business owners in the area.
Restaurant owner Rafik Bouzidi told the San Francisco Chronicle that it "seems like another restaurant shuts down every week."