Auto thefts down 58% in San Francisco – NBC Bay Area

San Francisco police say they are making real progress in preventing one of the city’s biggest problems.

New crime figures show car thefts have more than halved compared to last year.

“We had a 58 percent drop in car thefts,” said San Francisco Police Officer Robert Ruecca.

Ruecca said that’s because the department now has some new tools to help.

License plate cameras can tell police when a suspicious vehicle is in a certain neighborhood. The new drones can capture video of alleged crimes taking place, and officers can chase them down and safely arrest them without chasing them.

Investigators have long suspected that most car thefts in San Francisco are carried out by organized gangs and repeat offenders who target multiple cars in one day.

Now that police are making more arrests, that suspicion appears to be true.

“A lot of these people that we arrest have committed similar crimes, they’ve committed crimes while they were still out on bail,” Rueka said.

In one case earlier this month, police were able to track down a teenager who was seen stealing an SUV at the Palace of Fine Arts.

They followed him to Oakland, where he was seen loading items into a second car driven by Robert Sonza, a 27-year-old San Francisco resident.

He had just been released from prison last month for a car theft conviction.

Both the teenager and Sonza were arrested and investigators say Sonza had a gun.

Police said it’s one of many examples that their efforts to stop car thefts are paying off, and some residents are noticing a difference.

“I definitely feel safer parking. You know, we take normal precautions, we don’t leave valuables in the car. I don’t think that’s done in any city,” said Lauren Ellis, a San Francisco resident and business owner. “But we definitely feel a little more comfortable when I park on the street.”

In some troubled neighborhoods, where the police have concentrated their operations, the drop in car thefts is almost 70%.

But there is one San Francisco neighborhood, Noe Valley, that is a curious exception.

According to crime figures, this area has seen a 15% increase compared to last year.