Mayor’s office data shows drop in holiday season theft
San Francisco saw a big drop in reported car break-ins during the holiday season this year even as visits to the Union Square shopping district increased from 2022, Mayor London Breed announced Wednesday, touting the figures as a sign she is making progress on reducing property crime.
Between Nov. 20 — the Monday before Thanksgiving — and New Year’s Day, reports of larceny theft, which include both car break-ins and retail theft, fell 48% from last year, Breed’s office said in a news release. Over the same time period, reported burglaries declined 26% and reports of stolen cars dropped 17%. Reported shoplifting, however, stayed flat over the same period, according to the Chronicle’s analysis of crime incident data.
Additionally, the Union Square park saw an 11% increase in unique daily visitors while transit riders exiting the Powell and Union Square Muni subway stations were also up year over year, according to the mayor’s office. The Union Square station opened as part of the debut of the long-awaited Central Subway in November 2022.
Breed saw the data as a sign of progress after the Union Square area has been plagued by high-profile thefts in recent years. In 2021, a group of thieves ransacked the Louis Vuitton store and other luxury retailers around the square. The Dior store near the square was robbed in October after thieves drove a car into its facade. Breed’s administration responded by ramping up policing of Union Square during the holidays, hoping to deter thefts and make shoppers feel safer.
In addition to thefts, Union Square and the nearby San Francisco Centre — the former Westfield mall — have been beset by an exodus of major retailers, including a huge Nordstrom flagship at the mall and an Express store across from the square last year.
Breed told reporters Wednesday that empty storefronts would “continue to be a bit of a challenge” for the city. But she said she was hopeful that some of her policy efforts, including a recent overhaul of the planning code intended to make it easier for small businesses to operate, would help fill vacant spaces.
Car break-ins were dropping even before Christmas as police combined tactics including bait cars, video surveillance and plainclothes officers to address hot spots for car burglaries. Breed said she thought those strategies — particularly the bait-car operations — helped continue the downward trend through the end of the year.
“We’re not saying that it’s stopped completely. It’s still happening. It’s just not happening in … as large numbers as it used to,” Breed told reporters at City Hall. She noted that when police take one group of car burglars off the streets, it often leads to a significant and immediate reduction in auto break-ins.
Police Department data shows that larceny theft reports this past holiday season reached their lowest level in several years, dropping even lower than the first year of the pandemic in 2020. City officials said they hope to make continued progress this year by increasing enforcement through the installation of license plate readers, expanding the city’s reserve officer program and graduating the largest Police Academy class the city has seen in more than three years.
“I’m encouraged by the success we’ve had in reducing retail crime during the holiday season, but this is just a start,” Police Chief Bill Scott said in a statement.
While the city is facing immense budget challenges — Breed recently asked her departments to propose 10% spending cuts for the next fiscal year as she looks to close a projected $800 million two-year deficit — the mayor said she wants to pay for extra policing next holiday season as well.
“We will have to compromise and make cuts in other areas of our city, but we cannot lose the momentum that we have to increase public safety,” Breed told reporters Wednesday. “Everyone who lives here, people who work here, visit here — they must feel safe. If we’re going to have a thriving economy, this has to be No. 1. So the investments are going to have to be made.”