SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco’s Richmond district has seen its number of burglaries surge 342.9% this year, according to the latest data from the city’s police department.
The San Francisco Police Department reported a total of 124 burglaries in Richmond as of Feb. 14, compared to 28 burglaries for the same period a year ago. Meanwhile overall burglaries in the city are up 62.5% with 1,123 burglaries reported as of Feb. 14 compared to 691 for the same period a year ago.
In addition, robberies, assaults, motor vehicle thefts, and arson in the Richmond district increased by 90.9%, 50%, 58.3%, and 25%, respectively.
Moreover, those are simply reported crimes. It’s unknown how many go unreported due to the agency’s laissez faire approach to criminal activity.
The data comes after San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D) outlined a series of police reforms in June.
Among the reforms, Breed said officers would no longer respond to calls that do not involve a threat to public safety. Instead, police would be replaced by trained, unarmed professionals to limit unnecessary confrontation between the police department and the community, Fox News reported.
The non-criminal calls include neighbor disputes, reports on homeless people and school discipline interventions, among other activities.
The city also said at the time that it would strengthen police accountability policies, ban the use of military-grade weapons and divert funding to address disparities in the black community.
In July, Breed also announced a $120 million budget cut to police and sheriff’s departments over the next two years. In addition, San Francisco asked police and firefighter unions to delay raises for two years in order to save an additional $270 million.
In December, Breed said that the city is projecting a budget shortfall of approximately $653.2 million over the upcoming two budget years, out of an annual general fund budget of approximately $6 billion. She said the shortfall is a result of “slower than expected revenue growth, costs for employee salaries and benefits, and additional costs to respond to COVID-19.”
“The challenges facing our City in the months and years ahead are significant, and we have a lot of hard choices to make to get our City back on the road to recovery,” Breed said in a statement. “Closing this deficit will not be easy, and it’s going to require tough choices and real tradeoffs.”
