[jeffbee]

You don't need that. We have physical police officers who are sometimes present in some places and they don't do anything. They are on a tacit strike and have been for years.

If you look at SF compstat, larceny-theft is on pace to be about 34,000 citywide this year, which will put thefts for this year lower than every year 2013-2019, and higher than 2020-21, which were exceptionally low (pandemic).

If you look at the FBI UCR report you'll see that clearance of theft is on a 40-year-long monotonic decline. Theft rate was about the same around 1990, but the SFPD clearance rate was 3-5x higher back then. This has nothing to do with the DA and everything to do with the SFPD being a civic cancer who refuse to do their jobs.

Anyway if you want to know why we have to constantly hear about thefts in SF which are objectively at the lowest levels in a recent years, here's the explanation for that: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/26/crime-mid...

[mint2]

The sf cops make the $1.7M single stall toilet look like a bargain.

45 traffic enforcement offices only manager to give out an average of 10 ticks every day. That’s not each, that’s as a whole department. https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayarea/heatherknight/article...

[wahnfrieden]

Note that California police steal millions a year

[HPsquared]

With a 2.4% clearance rate on reported cases, most people aren't going to bother reporting thefts.

[jeffbee]

When citizens try to report crimes, the SFPD will just stand there ignoring them.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayarea/heatherknight/article...

When the district attorney is busy busting a car burglary gang, doing the SFPD's job for them, the SFPD refuses to help.

https://www.ksbw.com/article/sfpd-refused-to-help-stop-san-f...

SFPD is a reactionary gang who are invested in making crime in SF be and appear to be as bad as possible.

[vanilla_nut]

You make a good point that political propaganda is driving this conversation about crime, largely because Fox and TPTB of conservative media think they can blame crime on Democrats to increase Republicans' chances of winning in the midterm.

At the same time, I've lived in US cities for the past 7 years. 6 months ago, I moved to a small town. Why? It wasn't because I don't like city amenities, or I can't afford city prices. I moved because the city I lived in didn't feel safe. Between the rampant bike theft, the rampant auto theft, the break-ins, and the muggings, I did not feel like trying to walk and bike around my city any more. It just felt too risky.

[leephillips]

> This has nothing to do with the DA and everything to do with the SFPD being a civic cancer who refuse to do their jobs.

Maybe...but the two might be related, no? After some years of the police observing that the people they arrest are released with no charges and no prosecution, why would they bother to keep arresting people? It sounds demoralizing.

[jeffbee]

Now explain why the same decline is seen across every urban police department in the nation regardless of local politics.

Police productivity and effectiveness is a nationwide crisis.