New Bill Seeks To Deter Vehicle Break-Ins

New Bill Seeks To Deter Vehicle Break-InsPhoto: Gabrielle Barni/Flickr
Bay City News
Published on January 23, 2018

A bill being introduced into the Legislature by state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) may help deter vehicle break-ins where in San Francisco they have become an epidemic, Wiener's office said today.

Senate Bill 916 would allow prosecutors to prove that a defendant committed an auto burglary if the burglar broke a window in the vehicle, which to date has been deemed insufficient to get a conviction.

Under current law, one of the elements prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt is whether the vehicle was locked, according to Wiener's office.

But there are situations that make that hard to do. An offender could break a window and then open the door and leave it open after a break-in. An offender could also break a window and the victim could forget whether they locked the door.

A disproportionate number of break-ins are occurring among tourists driving rental cars, according to Wiener's office. In those cases, a victim may be unavailable to testify whether the  door was locked.

In San Francisco, 28,395 vehicle break-ins occurred between January and the end of November of last year. That was up 26 percent over the same period in 2016, according to police data. Wiener's office said auto break-ins have tripled since 2010.

Prosecutors take action in 80 percent of break-in cases and Wiener and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who is co-sponsoring the bill with state Assemblymen David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, want to increase that percentage.

"The explosion in auto break-ins we're experiencing is unacceptable, and we need to ensure our police and district attorney have all the tools they need to address it," Wiener said in a statement.

Gascón, in a statement, said, "The community's skyrocketing number of auto break-ins is a stain on our quality of life. For visitors it can ruin a vacation to our amazing city.

by Keith Burbank