Lower Crime Trend Confirmed

(Chronicle graph)

Confirming the trend seen in April, San Francisco automobile break- ins are down by over 50%.[bold added]

But in March, when shelter-in-place began, vehicle break-ins dropped by 38% — with 1,040 incidents reported this year compared to 1,691 last year.

The difference since then has been even more pronounced: a decline of more than 50% each month from April through June.

One reason is obvious, experts say: Tourists have largely disappeared, and with them the easy targets for burglars.

On a district-by-district basis the steepest reductions have occurred where the tourists frequent, e.g., Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, and Chinatown. Only moderate declines have occurred in the residential areas:

“The number of good targets is still lower than before the pandemic, but the reduction in the number of targets is smaller than somewhere else like Union Street or another fancy shopping area,” [Stanford Law professor Robert] Weisberg said. “They might go where the net loss of targets isn’t as bad as other places."

We have seen police reports of burglary rings hitting apartment car ports at night outside of San Francisco, including our town. Suburban parking lots are less secure--gates are rare--and freeway access is less than 5 minutes away when there's no traffic, like now.

The crooks are adaptable; although most do not have respectable credentials that can get them good jobs, it doesn't mean they're stupid.