(Stephen Lam/Reuters)
San Francisco mayor London Breed called for more “aggressive” policing in the city on Tuesday to combat smash-and-grab robberies and other crime, over a year after proposing budget cuts to the police department amid a nationwide movement to defund police.
“It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,” Breed said at a press conference at City Hall. “And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement. More aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant of all the bulls*** that has destroyed our city.”
Breed noted that “in recent months we’ve not only seen a number of high-profile incidents of brazen robberies and car break-ins but also street behavior and criminal activity especially in the Tenderloin that has become far too normal and cannot continue to be tolerated.”
Breed’s proposals include increased overtime funding for police officers and initiatives to stop the sales of stolen goods. The mayor indicated that police would be directed to step up their presence in the Tenderloin district to counter drug dealing.
The initiatives come amid a rise in violent and property crimes in major California cities, according to an analysis by the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California. Homicides are up 17 percent on average in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco when compared to the previous year, although San Francisco saw a lower rise of 5 percent. Property crimes rose 7 percent on average in the same four cities.
San Francisco is currently contending with smash-and-grab robberies that have emerged in California and some other parts of the U.S. In one of the more brazen instances, a group of 20 to 40 people coordinated the robbery of a Louis Vuitton store in the city’s Union Square in November, prosecutors told the Wall Street Journal.
Breed’s proposals come over a year after the mayor called to redirect $120 million from law enforcement agencies toward the city’s African American community.
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