SF car break-ins up 31 percent, nearly triple in 5 years

Signs warn tourists not to leave valuables in their cars near crooked Lombard Street in San Francisco on Wednesday, March 16, 2016. Signs warn tourists not to leave valuables in their cars near crooked Lombard Street in San Francisco on Wednesday, March 16, 2016. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close SF car break-ins up 31 percent, nearly triple in 5 years 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

The rampant looting of cars parked on San Francisco streets soared last year, with break-ins jumping 31 percent from 2014 and nearly tripling since 2010, according to final figures from the Police Department that are certain to inflame a growing debate over who is to blame.

The city took 25,899 reports of car break-ins in 2015, or more than 70 per day on average, in an epidemic centered in the downtown area that has frustrated residents, workers and tourists, and left the pavement littered with broken glass.

The rise in car burglary as well as car theft — which was up 13 percent year-to-year and 77 percent since 2010 — has driven a 64 percent overall increase in property crime in the past five years that is at odds with statewide statistics.

“If you leave it on the street, that’s the risk you take,” said Joe Hartog, a city resident whose wife’s Toyota sedan was broken into in 2015 and again two weeks ago, with both crimes occurring near City Hall as the couple attended San Francisco Symphony performances.

Less gun violence

The property crime figures overshadowed some gains in fighting gun violence in San Francisco. Although the total number of homicides, assaults, robberies and rapes was almost unchanged from 2014, police officials said the 183 people who were shot in the city — 34 fatally — represented the lowest count in at least six years.

Gun seizures were up as well. The department took in 1,085 guns in 2015, with Bayview station officers alone confiscating 304.

“Our main focus is on the reduction of violent crimes because those are crimes against people,” said Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman. “In 2016, hopefully we will be able to see more of a reduction in violent crime. The department is still committed to ensuring the safety of the people in San Francisco.”

Esparza said the department was working hard to bring down the property crime numbers, with officers in each police district going undercover to target the prolific bandits.

“The thing is, they happen so quick and in places where people can’t witness what’s going on,” he said. “They can break into cars in less than 30 seconds and take the property they want.”

Statewide property crime figures for 2015 have not been released, but 2014 saw the lowest number of reports of burglaries and thefts in at least 45 years, according to the California Department of Justice.

Why San Francisco is suffering a unique spike in property crime hasn’t been fully explained, but the problem is at the center of a war between District Attorney George Gascón and the city’s police officers’ union over their respective crime-fighting competence as well as the impact of reforms favored by Gascón and other progressives designed to thin jails and prisons and promote rehabilitation.

Opponents of Proposition 47, a ballot initiative passed into law in November 2014 that reduced six nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors, say it has freed some criminals and emboldened others. But proponents say there’s no evidence the changes are driving burglaries and thefts.

Prop. 47 a free pass?

Though car break-ins are still considered felonies, city police officials say their hands are often tied. They said if an officer catches somebody with property taken from a car burglary, for example, and the offense doesn’t meet the $950 threshold set by Prop. 47 to count as a felony, all the officer can do is issue a citation because it is now a misdemeanor.

“It’s basically a get-out-of-jail-free card,” said Nathan Ballard, an adviser to the San Francisco Police Officers Association. “Prop. 47 looks like a noble experiment that is failing, and it’s failing the ordinary people in San Francisco who are experiencing more crime.”

Prop. 47 advocates, though, note that officers still can make misdemeanor arrests, especially for repeat offenders. Property crime has been rising in San Francisco for five years, they said, which means the uptick can’t all be attributed to the recent initiative.

Last year, Oakland saw a 1.5 decrease in property crime compared to 2014, while San Jose saw a 1.9 percent increase, according to figures released by both cities.

Bill Lansdowne, a former police chief in San Diego and San Jose and a supporter of Prop. 47, said focusing on the initiative doesn’t make sense for cities hit with crime increases.

“Every single police department, without exception now, has seen a shortage in staffing,” he said. “The courts have cut back, social services have cut back, mental health calls have gone up, homelessness is increasing at almost startling rates — all of these have an effect and (police) admit they have an effect, but for some reason they are focusing on Prop. 47 as if it’s solely responsible.”

Robert Weisberg, a criminal justice expert at Stanford Law School, said it’s too early to tell.

“There is a lot of argument out there that it’s a Prop. 47 effect, but it’s one those statistical conundrums right now,” he said. “You don’t have enough proof that it is, but that’s not the same thing as saying you have proof that it isn’t.”

Little comfort

What is clear is that the debate provides little comfort to San Francisco’s growing cast of victims.

Michael Connolly, the manager of Glass Plus on South Van Ness Avenue, said that in recent weeks he has seen as many as 30 cars brought in each day for theft-related repairs.

“It’s hard enough for people to be here,” he said, referring to rising housing prices. “If it’s costing you your heart and soul to live here in San Francisco and then your car gets broken into, just think about it.”

Ricky Villareal, manager of In & Out Auto Glass on Bayshore Boulevard, noted that car burglaries he’s seen tend to target vehicles with out-of-state license plates, and about 30 percent of his clientele are visiting from out of town.

“It’s an epidemic,” Villareal said. “You have the bad neighborhoods and the good neighborhoods. Sometimes they just break in to look and if there’s nothing there, they go.”

At Villareal’s shop, Matt Bacnis, 24, was waiting for a van to be fixed Wednesday morning. He’s the tour manager of a Seattle band that had its van broken into Tuesday night as it played a gig near 18th and Texas streets.

The glass replacement was $280, and Bacnis’ girlfriend’s backpack was stolen with an estimated $700 worth of goods inside.

Smash and grab

“They just smashed the window and grabbed the first thing they could grab,” he said, noting that an expensive violin was left behind.

He said he filed a police report online, but doesn’t have high hopes.

“It’s pretty obvious this happens a lot, so they probably don’t care,” Bacnis said.

According to data provided at a Board of Supervisors’ committee meeting in January, police made 3,477 property-crime arrests last year, just 7 percent of all reported property crimes — and a drop from the 3,513 arrests made in 2014.

San Francisco’s rates for solving property crimes have typically been low. The department reported a rate of 9.57 percent in 2014, 7.78 percent in 2013 and 7.21 percent in 2012.

Statewide clearance rates ranged between 13 and 14 percent during that same period, according to state Department of Justice data.

But Esparza, the police spokesman, said victims of car break-ins should always report them to the police, who can use the data to target operations.

According to police statistics, the number of monthly car break-ins declined by 33 percent after a task force was formed in August specializing in saturating hot spots with plainclothes officers.

“People might have the feeling of, ‘What’s the use to report these petty crimes?’” Esparza said. “But without that information, without that data, the Police Department cannot reallocate resources to the areas where we see an increase.”

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com, kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo, @kveklerov