“It might even involve a more aggressive effort when it comes to surveillance cameras because you see the same individual hitting multiple locations,” Safai said. “Seventeen Walgreens over the last five years, almost every Gap retailer outlet is gone, CVS is under assault,” Safai said at the hearing, ABC News reported. The number of reported larcenies in the city has also dropped consistently, with 11,062 reported so far in 2021, compared to 18,363 over the same period in 2018.īut nonetheless, the dispute over the driving force behind shoplifting in the Golden Gate City has lingered, with city Supervisor Ahsha Safai holding a hearing over the issue just last month highlighting store closures. In comparison, the NYPD closed more than four times the number of larceny cases last year. San Francisco police officers claim that Proposition 47, a law that lowers the punishment for shoplifting, is to blame for the brazen thefts. The number of larceny cases that are “cleared” - leading to an arrest and resolution - has dipped in recent years, from 4.5 percent in 2018 to 2.8 percent so far this year. Statistics show San Francisco cops have struggled to make arrests in theft cases in the years since Proposition 47 was passed. “There is no way that any prosecutor in this country can successfully prosecute a case if police don’t make an arrest and do a good job investigating it,” he said. “This brazen criminal behavior is endured every single day by San Franciscans and it is the direct result of District Attorney Chesa Boudin and his enablers’ criminals-first agenda,” said Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.īoudin fired back in an interview with KPIX-TV last month, saying it’s the cops who need to do more. In a scathing statement, the city’s police union blamed city prosecutors for the shoplifting spree. “Anybody can come in and do whatever they want,” he added. “Maybe you get a bench warrant or maybe they even toss that before it even gets to that point.” “If you steal below $950, you get a citation and you just get to walk away and if you don’t show up to court, guess what?” McCray said. A man on a bicycle robbing a Walgreens store in San Francisco by stuffing items in a garbage bag. McCray said the law only emboldens criminals. “I mean, we can have a greatest hits compilation of people just walking in and cleaning out the store shelves and security guards, the people who work there, just standing by helplessly because they can’t do anything.”Ĭops and prosecutors are at odds over Proposition 47, a 2014 referendum that lowered the penalty for stealing goods worth less than $950 from a felony to a misdemeanor. Tracy McCray said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” Wednesday. “What happened in that Walgreens has been going on in that city for quite a while,” San Francisco police Lt. The Walgreens heist, which happened right in front of a security guard, renewed the debate over a controversial city law called Proposition 47. San Francisco has become a shoplifter’s paradise - with thieves like the one caught on video looting a Walgreens emboldened by relaxed punishment for the crime as businesses shutter, cops say.
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