Only 13 arrests in 7 years of SF online auto break-in reports, DA says

Car glass litters the sidewalk along 23rd st. in the Mission neighborhood in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Thursday Jan. 25, 2018.�A new report shows that of the more than 81,000 online reports of car burglaries in San Francisco in the past 7 years only 13 people were arrested for the crime. less Car glass litters the sidewalk along 23rd st. in the Mission neighborhood in San Francisco, Calif., as seen on Thursday Jan. 25, 2018.�A new report shows that of the more than 81,000 online reports of car ... more Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Only 13 arrests in 7 years of SF online auto break-in reports, DA says 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Of the more than 81,000 online reports of auto break-ins that victims filed in San Francisco over the past seven years, a mere 13 cases resulted in arrests, officials with the district attorney’s office said Thursday.

The news of the trifling total comes as the number of vehicle break-ins has exploded in the city, reaching an all-time high last year.

In 2017, there were more than 30,000 car break-ins in San Francisco. In 2011, there were fewer than 11,000. Rather than filing in person, victims have increasingly been directed to file reports online or call 311 when they discover their windows smashed and belongings pilfered.

At an average of 85 auto break-ins a day in San Francisco, Police Chief Bill Scott has said it’s not practical for officers to show up and investigate every case, and there is often little evidence left at the scene to collect. Therefore, most incidents — 62 percent from 2011 to 2017 — were filed online. But just 13 of the 81,511 cases filed that way led to arrests, according to data provided by the San Francisco district attorney’s office.

Police still arrested 446 people for auto burglary from January to November of 2017, but only one suspect was linked to an online report, according to the D.A.’s data.

“It’s astonishing,” Kirk Schwyn said Thursday afternoon upon learning about the clearance rate while his truck’s window was repaired at Auto Glass Now on Bryant Street. “They sound overwhelmed. Either that or somebody has just given up.”

Schwyn was in town with his wife and 9-year-old daughter from their home in Jackson (Amador County). He parked his Chevy Silverado at a garage on Pierce Street and went for breakfast in the Marina. When they returned, the right rear window was smashed and $4,500 worth of belongings was gone. His daughter was crying and “completely freaked out,” he said.

He doubted he would see his stolen Lenovo laptop or Nikon camera again.

“If this happened where I lived, the sheriff would come out,” he said. “They might even take fingerprints.”

Arresting a suspect for breaking into an automobile has long been a challenge for law enforcement agencies around the country — especially in big cities like San Francisco. The perpetrators often work quickly under the cover of night and vanish before being spotted.

In San Francisco, where every morning streets are freshly littered with shattered glass, networks of professional thieves commit an estimated 80 percent of break-ins, according to a 2016 civil grand jury report.

Police generally make arrests in about 2 percent of car break-in cases.

Finding a cause for the spiraling epidemic, though, isn’t easy. The Police Department has made efforts recently to stem the tide, including increasing foot patrols in problem areas around the city and assigning specialized units and neighborhood stations focused on investigating property crime.

“We are committed to trying new strategies to effectively address this pervasive problem that impacts our city and other cities throughout the region,” said David Stevenson, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department.

Chief Scott has avoided finger pointing since taking the department helm in January 2017. But his predecessor, Greg Suhr, who resigned amid a wave of controversial police shootings, attributed much of the spike in property crime under his watch to recent statewide criminal justice reform efforts — namely Proposition 47.

Prop. 47 was passed in November 2014 and reduced six nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors. The law also raised the threshold for felony theft up to $950. Auto break-ins remain felonies under Prop. 47.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, want to make it easier for prosecutors in auto break-in cases to get felony convictions by closing a loophole in the state penal code.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón was one of the proposition’s biggest advocates and drew criticism from police chiefs, sheriffs and police associations around California even before it passed.

But while San Francisco’s new chief has remained focused on fighting the car break-in problem rather than arguing about its cause, the San Francisco Police Officers Association remains a vocal opponent of the 3-year-old legislation.

At a community forum Wednesday night at San Francisco’s LGBT Community Center on Market Street, police union President Martin Halloran placed the blame for the property crime epidemic squarely on criminal justice reforms like Prop. 47.

“Prop. 47 was passed in November of 2014 and was known as the Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act,” he said. “Unfortunately, it has not lived up to that name. We have more neighborhoods and more areas around schools that area experiencing a higher level of property crime.”

But according to a recent study by Californians for Safety and Justice, property crime numbers statewide have seen little change since Prop. 47 passed. Some jurisdictions have seen significant decreases in the rates.

Max Szabo, a spokesman for Gascón’s office, said Halloran’s comments “tarnish the credibility” of the Police Department.

“By making these very public and very false claims, the POA has made it clear they have no intention of being part of the solution,” Szabo said. “Meanwhile, we’re working closely with the SFPD Command Staff to develop solutions to the auto burglary epidemic, and we’re confident that we can make significant inroads in the months ahead.”

Halloran did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for further comment.

Evan Sernoffsky and Jenna Lyons are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com, jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky, @JennaJourno