Officials assure safer downtown shopping
“There will be more people ... paying close attention to make sure we keep you and your belongings safe.” Mayor London Breed
The specter of last year's retail crime spree in San Francisco's Union Square loomed large in the downtown hub Tuesday as Mayor London Breed and the city's top law enforcement officials urged shoppers to return to the storied shopping district ahead of the holidays.
“Videos that go viral try to paint a harsh picture of our beautiful city, but I am here to tell you that things have changed,” Breed said at a news conference beneath the square's threestory artificial Christmas tree.
The mayor's plea for shoppers to return came one year after she stood on the same spot addressing residents and store owners rattled by the crime spree, in which thieves were filmed looting several luxury businesses. On that day, Breed vowed to clean up the struggling commercial corridor already reeling from pandemic closures.
Soon after, she declared a state of emergency in the nearby Tenderloin and pledged to reinvigorate downtown, where shuttered storefronts linger in the wake of the pandemic. The area continues to falter as absent office workers and reduced foot traffic prompt fears of a broader economic decline.
On Tuesday, Breed sought to recast the narrative about the downtown shopping district that she called “an important place to the economic stability of San Francisco.”
Speaking to prospective shoppers, Breed said, “There will be more people, more eyes and ears ... paying close attention to make sure we keep you and your belongings safe.”
Breed's blunt comments marked a stark contrast to her surroundings and to the cheery Christmastime activities her administration promoted. But her tone was in line with the rhetoric around crime and public safety that helped sweep newly elected San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to office with promises to increase punishment for criminals.
Standing alongside the mayor, Jenkins vowed to root out the “lawlessness” of organized retail theft.
“We can't allow our businesses to be ravaged, the rampant theft to go on, and expect them to stay,” Jenkins said.
It wasn't the first time Breed has attempted damage control in Union Square. In 2019, she stood in front of the same glinting Christmas tree and pledged to clean up the area after software giant Oracle moved its annual business conference from San Francisco to Las Vegas, in part due to squalid street conditions.
Police Chief Bill Scott said last year's high-profile thefts had damaged the reputation of the city and praised increases to his department's overtime budget that had allowed it to devote more officers to patrolling Union Square.
Higher police overtime allotments had “quadrupled” the number of uniformed and undercover police stationed in the commercial corridor, Scott said. The department also had doubled its retail theft unit, charged with investigating “prolific retail thieves” from four officers to eight, he said.
The San Francisco Police Department could not provide detailed data on the number of retail thefts that have occurred in Union Square in recent years.
While there have been fewer conspicuous incidents of retail theft this year, reported incidents of shoplifting in the department's Central District — encompassing Union Square, North Beach and Chinatown — are up 8% from last year, according to the San Francisco Police Department's online crime dashboard. Robberies in the district are up 6%, while burglaries are down 20%.
In addition to the heavier police presence, the Union Square Alliance hired 150 “ambassadors” to patrol the area ahead of the winter holidays.
There have not been high-profile thefts at Union Square in the lead-up to the holiday season, as there were a year ago. And officials, including Marisa Rodriguez of the Union Square Alliance, said overall theft and car break-ins are down.
“We are hoping we can establish a new narrative,” Rodriguez said, “reminding folks that last year was a blip.”