Financial rewards for those who help catch car thieves in San Francisco

 Translation: Farah Safieddine - The Mayor of San Francisco announced on Tuesday cash rewards of up to $100,000 for information on members of high-risk car robbery gangs. These efforts come in an attempt to combat organized crime in the city, where incidents of smashing car windows, seizing their belongings, breaking into homes and forced robbery have spread.

At a joint news conference with City Police Chief Bill Scott, Mayor Breed said the bonuses would be provided by donors in the tourism and hospitality sector.

 

She added that the amount of funding allocated for these rewards has reached about $225,000 so far, to be paid for providing any information that helps in the arrest and conviction of the leaders of the car robberies.

The office stated that the number of reports of car burglaries has decreased since 2017, when the police recorded about 31,400 incidents. While only more than 15,000 burglaries have been reported this year, this means that the rate of reported car burglaries in 2021 is on the way to decrease compared to the 26,000 reported in 2019.

“These thefts have hurt our residents, especially working families who don’t have the money or time to deal with their negative effects,” Breid said. "It also harmed visitors and tourists who lost their passion for the city because of these incidents," she stressed.

For their part, authorities said they believe a group of at least 12 car burglars are responsible for most car crashes and burglaries in the San Francisco Bay area.

But news reports and videos, which circulated widely on social media platforms of the burglaries, conveyed a picture of the reality that San Francisco had become unsafe and tolerant of outlaws.

The mayor announced last month that the city's police force would deploy more police to combat shoplifting and make it easier to report such incidents.

Last week, Australian singer Clinton Kane posted on his social media account that thieves stole more than $30,000 worth of photographic equipment after breaking into his SUV while he and his work team were having dinner in nearby place. When they heard the sound of smashing windows, they rushed towards the place of the car, so that the thieves aimed their guns at them.

Out of concern for the property, the San Francisco police are constantly warning motorists and tourists to hide their belongings in the trunks of cars and stressed the importance of parking in employee-managed parking whenever possible.