In a press release published earlier today, the San Francisco Police Department announced that they arrested a "burglary crew" of four people they say are responsible for more than $100,000 in multiple retail thefts perpetrated across both San Mateo County and San Francisco.
The statement elaborates further, revealing that the arrests occurred on Thursday, stating that an officer spotted the suspects' vehicle in the area of the 3200 block of 20th Avenue, before apprehending two suspects when they were dropped off at a mall located in Daly City.
The vehicle then supposedly fled the scene, before later being found by authorities at the intersection of 16th and Bryant, where the officers are said to have arrested the remaining two alleged culprits "without issue."
A firearm and an undisclosed amount of stolen goods were found inside the car in a subsequent search, after which it was towed "for further investigation."
The suspects, who consist of three San Francisco natives and one South San Francisco resident, have been handed over to the Daly City Police Department and await further proceedings.
Retail theft has been an ongoing problem in both San Francisco and California-writ large as of late, but lawmakers and police have both made substantial efforts attempting to tackle the issue in recent months.
Earlier this summer, San Francisco Police announced they had made 61 arrests in a "blitz operation" centered around four Walgreens and Safeway locations in and around the city.
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the last of 13 crime bills which were the root of a lengthy legislative spat earlier this year over how exactly criminal justice reform should be handled, given California's previous crisis of prisons facing overcrowding, an issue that stemmed from similar "tough on crime" bills passed back in the 80s and 90s that disproportionately targeted communities of color.
Crime is on the ballot this year in general, on national, state, and local levels, despite a dearth of evidence showing an increase in California since its initial uptick in 2022.
In San Francisco, Mark Farrell is positioning himself as the "law-and-order" candidate against what he claims is systemic inaction to keep residents safe from Mayor London Breed, even though crime is actually down in the city.
Proposition 36, a proposal that would reclassify certain misdemeanor thefts and drug crimes as felonies, has become a hotly contested issue in the lead-up to November's elections.
The ballot measure has pitted criminal justice advocacy groups and a gamut of prominent Democratic lawmakers that includes Gov. Newsom, against a wide-ranging consortium of large retail corporations, law enforcement officers, Republican politicians, and an assortment of liberal-adjacent officials like Mayor Breed and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
Supporters, who have outspent their opponents by a factor of ten, say the proposition is a reasonable attempt to address ongoing fentanyl and theft problems that plague certain areas of the state.
Detractors argue that it would offset substantial progress made in the last few years to reduce prison overcrowding and would return the state to a dark age of racially targeted policing.
Donald Trump has also repeatedly used California's supposedly rising crime rates to attack Kamala Harris's record as a prosecutor as he seeks reelection, despite available data suggesting otherwise.
A report from State Attorney General Rob Bonta's office stated that homicides fell nearly 16% last year, and nonpartisan policy thinktank California Budget and Policy Center found that crime rates as a whole remain less than half of what they were during their peak in the early 1990s.
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash
