Crimes targeting locked vehicles and personal property more than doubled in early 2017 in San Francisco's Mission District, city data show.

From January to April 6, thefts and larceny went up 135 percent compared to the same period in 2016 (1,325 cases to 563). Vehicle break-ins were a particular problem, according to Mission Station Capt. Bill Griffin, noting that thieves are strategically operating in groups.

Griffin was assigned to the station about a month ago and has been working with patrol officers and special city task forces to drive numbers down. He could not offer an explanation for the spike, though. "At this time," he said, "we just don't know."

But what Griffin does know is that many other station captains around the city are seeing similar property crime problems in their districts, specifically with groups of burglars coordinating multiple vehicle break-ins.

Auto break-ins aren't usually the work of casual thieves, said Capt. Darryl Fong of Southern Station, who focuses resources on suspects with known histories of serial break-ins. "It's an organized group of individuals who go out and commit multiple auto break-ins," he said. "It's organized as opposed to individual instances."

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Park Station acting Capt. Arran Pera said that while "quality of life issues" like sit-lie violations make up a bulk of citations on Haight Street, vehicle break-ins continue to plague the area. "We are trying to get a handle on that but it's difficult," he said, adding that tips from the public often prove valuable for police.

By contrast, the Richmond District had the largest reduction in auto break-ins throughout the city from 148 incidents last year to just 88 incidents this year, and station Capt. Alexa O'Brien said traffic enforcement has been a main priority this year. "The residents just think people drive crazy here," she said.

While thefts are the most common crimes for all 10 police stations in San Francisco, each district still faces its own nuanced challenges. For Capt. Raj Vaswani of Bayview Station, personal safety is the main concern. Vaswani said that even though stolen vehicles and home burglaries have been problems in the past month, his district has seen an overall decrease in violent crimes this year.

"Violent crime can affect someone's life forever, so that is at the top of the priority list," he said.

Violent crime numbers for Park Station jumped by about 25 percent through April 6, while the Mission experienced a 17-percent uptick, which includes assaults and robberies. Violent crime is also up in the areas patrolled by the Southern and the Taraval stations.

Violent crime and thefts are down in the Tenderloin and Ingleside areas.

Vehicle break-ins have been a closely watched epidemic in recent years in San Francisco, peaking in 2015 when the city took 25,899 reports, or more than 70 per day on average. While vehicle break-ins were down 6 percent in 2016, they remained at high levels.