State Senator Scott Wiener and San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced legislation Thursday to make it easier to prosecute car thieves by closing a legal loophole.
The legislation, which Wiener plans to introduce when the Legislature reconvenes in January, would remove the requirement that prosecutors prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a car door was locked to convict someone of auto burglary. That means evidence of forcible entry would be sufficient to prove the crime of auto burglary, Wiener said in a press release Thursday.
The proposal comes as San Francisco grapples with a years-long problem of rampant auto burglaries. The city’s auto burglary rate has exploded since 2010, outpacing other major California cities.
“San Francisco’s high rate of car break-ins is unacceptable, and we need to make sure our police and district attorney have all the tools they need to address it and hold people accountable for committing this crime,” said Wiener, who hopes to have his bill signed into law next year. “By closing this loophole, we can make San Francisco and cities across California safer.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed called the bill a “common sense solution”.
“We need laws that don’t make it easy to get away with these kinds of crimes,” Breed said.
The requirement to prove a car was locked usually requires victims to testify in court, and often victims can’t get to court, especially if they are tourists or working, Wiener said.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said at a news conference Thursday that the measure will make it easier to prosecute suspected car thieves and that thieves often work in groups.
“It’s become more brazen, more organised,” Jenkins said. “They are no longer looking to see if a door is locked, they are using tools to smash windows in seconds.”
Jenkins said there were 15,000 reported car burglaries in 2023 alone.
San Francisco police are cracking down on car break-ins with a decoy car programme designed to catch thieves red-handed.
At the press conference, Police Chief Bill Scott said the number of reported burglaries this year, 15,000, is likely an undercount and Wiener’s measure will be an important part of fighting the problem.
“We need every tool we can get to make this problem better,” Scott said. “We believe this bill will do that.”
Vehicle break-ins affect some makes and models more than others.
A social media challenge has led to higher rates of Kia and Hyundai cars being broken into and stolen. Audis with valet keys in the glove compartment have also been targeted for theft.