Car break-ins are noticeably down in the wake of a new crackdown in San Francisco's most popular tourist hotspots, according to new numbers.
From Sept. 1 to Nov. 26, people reported 3,399 car break-ins, according to stats from the city's police department. Compared to the 6,703 reported last year in the same time frame, that's down by nearly half.
City leaders said the drop is due, in part, to the targeted car burglary operation police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced in August.
Bait cars and plainclothes officers have been on high alert at Fisherman's Wharf, the Palace of Fine Arts and Alamo Square.
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Residents said they are worried that as car burglaries start getting pushed out of high visibility areas, the criminals are going to start targeting the neighborhoods that surround them.
Early Monday morning, a resident on Ivy Street in Hayes Valley captured a series of car burglaries. More than 10 cars were burglarized in a matter of minutes.
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Mayor London Breed said a nearly 50% drop in car burglaries compared to last year is great news, but she also said the work is not done.
"We're not suggesting that this problem just goes away because we've seen some success in the bait car operation," she said. "It just means that as people adapt and adjust their strategies to commit crimes, that we adjust ours, too."
According to a spokesman for Jenkins, prosecutors have been filing motions to detain serial car burglars in an effort to disrupt what investigators believe are organized criminal operations.
So far, they have been able to keep some of those arrested in jail.
