Are S.F. residents and tourists helpless?
In 2019 there has been an exponentially high rate of reported car break-ins for the San Francisco Area and beyond. San Francisco auto break-ins have reached epidemic levels and it’s totally out of control. San Francisco’s population is nearly one-fourth of New York City’s, yet car break-ins within the City & County of San Francisco are roughly three times as high as those reported in NYC. SF Residents and tourists alike are beyond frustrated about these smash and grab car break ins. Minimally, it leaves victims feeling violated. And to add insult to injury, many San Franciscans have been the victim of multiple auto break-ins.
To literally illustrate how bad the crime of car break-ins has become within San Francisco the local newspaper, San Francisco Chronicle, created the:
S.F Car Break-In Tracker (projects.sfchronicle.com) This online tracker allows the user to track both the number and locations of car break-ins occurring across the city.
And a Twitter Account was created in September 2015: @SFCarBreakins dedicated solely to “documenting the constant car break-ins in San Francisco.”
Are S.F. Tourist Locations, landmarks or parking lots any more safe from auto break-ins?
The answer, of course, is a resounding NO and furthermore no location, sadly, is exempt from this crime. On the contrary, the data shows that reported car break-ins are at increased levels in known tourist areas. The organized criminal rings that are known to commit these crimes naturally are going to target those areas where they believe unsuspecting tourists and visitors will most likely be. There are many posted videos online with footage capturing the smash & grab crimes in progress. The quickness and coordination of these criminals make this a “low risk” of apprehension with the potential for “high reward” on their haul, thus appealing to even the least sophisticated opportunistic criminal.
What steps are authorities taking to address Auto Break-Ins?
San Francisco Leadership to include S.F. Law Enforcement are highly concerned about this never ending cycle of car break-ins. There have been public awareness campaigns, community meetings, countless news stories largely all to no avail. The most significant reason is that criminals are well aware that thanks to Prop 47 (2014). This warmly titled proposition:
“Californians For Safe Neighborhoods & Schools” has been proven to have a direct corollary to increased levels of crime. Often the consequence for many of these repeat offenders has been nothing more than an inconvenience if they are actually arrested for their offense. I say inconvenience because the changes in the law, courtesy of Prop 47, coupled with less than stringent penalties from the courts, many times, results in the criminal being released from custody shortly after their appearance before a judge.
The middle part of the criminal justice system, I did not mention, between arrest and appearance before a a judge is the District Attorney’s Office. In San Francisco the DA’s Office has to review those cases brought before them and then determine if charges will be filed. S.F. has had very mixed results with their criminal cases over the past several years. Fortunately, there is a SF District Attorney race in November and it is absolutely critical that the voters of S.F. get it right. We as law enforcement and you as members of the public can realistically only do so much together. But all of us united behind a District Attorney that we elect into office-That is a very powerful position to be in. While the heading of this section is:
What steps are authorities taking to address Auto Break-Ins?
I think the more pertinent question we should all be asking ourselves & neighbors is:
What steps are you taking to be sure that you cast a ballot and vote this November in the SF District Attorney Race?
The SFDSA wishes to remind all of you reading this article that SF vote-by-mail ballots can be mailed in starting next week. To learn more about how to register and be sure to vote visit: sfelections.sfgov.org Thank you.
It’s time for someone that will fix our broken criminal justice system. It’s time for someone new, it’s time for a prosecutor who is the real deal. It’s time for Leif Dautch for District Attorney.