Across the street from San Francisco’s main jail, business is booming at Auto Glass. Now, where more than a dozen motorists show up on an average day to replace windows broken by thieves.
“It’s been insane,” said Julio Lara, the shop’s manager, who says nearby competitors are busy as well. “It’s nonstop.”
San Francisco is in the grips of an auto burglary epidemic. No other place in the country had as many “smash-and-grabs” per capita as San Francisco did last year.
“We have an auto burglary problem in San Francisco,” then-police Chief Greg Suhr said in October after a California Highway Patrol officer’s personal gun was stolen from his car.
The gun was recovered, but the burglaries have grown far beyond a simple annoyance. They are fueling a bitter political feud between the city’s police department and district attorney’s office, who blame each other for not doing enough. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee recently put some of the blame on local judges, who he said needed to get tougher on those arrested for the break-ins.
“Now is not the time for one branch of government to be pointing the finger at one another,” Presiding Judge John Stewart said in a statement late last month. “We should be able to work together to remedy these problems.”
The nearly 26,500 reported burglaries have also become a flashpoint in the debate over Proposition 47, a big portion of Gov. Jerry Brown’s prison reform package that reduced some nonviolent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.
Police say they believe many suspects are affiliated with organized gangs or are among the city’s ubiquitous homeless, but they struggle to stem a crime that afflicts tourist haunts and neighborhoods throughout the city.
Investigators say experienced burglars use homemade hammers to quickly smash auto windows and clear out the contents of a vehicle in minutes. Thieves make off with a variety of goods, including electronics, gym bags and loose change.
San Francisco’s police say combatting auto burglaries is a priority, but the department needs more officers. Before he resigned as chief last month, Suhr said he was hopeful 200 vacancies will be filled shortly.
The stepped-up law enforcement attention has resulted in several recent arrests and convictions of prolific burglars. Officials are hopeful the burglary rates will show a decline at the end of the year.
Police are making arrests in about 2 percent of the reported burglaries. The district attorney’s office says 80 percent of the arrests end in some form of punishment for the suspect.
The San Francisco police officers’ union has run radio ads blaming Proposition 47 for the spike and noting that District Attorney George Gascon helped draft the law. Gascon’s office counters that other California cities haven’t experienced the same increase in auto burglaries.
Proposition 47 is not to blame for the surge, district attorney spokesman Max Szabo said. The measure made a theft of valuables worth less than $950 a misdemeanor. Previously, a felony could be charged for stealing goods with a value of $400.
The district attorney, the governor and other supporters of Proposition 47, which also turned some felony drug crimes into misdemeanors, say the new law provides treatment instead of incarceration for drug addicts and the mentally ill, saving the state money by reducing the prison population.
Whatever the reason for the break-ins, frustration is mounting – at community meetings and repair shop waiting rooms.