San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston (D) is now pushing for the city to crack down on the car theft rings that have had free reign over the city as no one is safe from thieves breaking into parked cars.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Preston is calling for Mayor London Breed's office and the police department to submit plans to address the rampant issue before the supervisors' recess in August. So far this year, there have been over 10,500 car break-ins in the city. It is slightly down compared to the same time last year.
"Year after year, residents and visitors to our neighborhoods are victimized by car break-ins, but despite many announcements, the city has made no noticeable progress in addressing this persistent issue," Preston said in a statement. "It is time to let the public know what the city has been doing, what's been working and what hasn't, and what can be done collaboratively to finally reduce car break-ins in San Francisco."
San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston is pressuring local officials to do more to rein in the city’s notoriously frequent car break-ins, arguing the problem persists at unacceptably high levels despite attempts to solve it. https://t.co/r10ZmVFjN7
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) July 11, 2023
Preston has not been a proponent of the city's police department during his tenure in office. During the 2020 BLM riots, he boasted how many of the residents were calling for the police to be defunded, "not business as usual dressed up to look like change."
Hundreds of people called in during public comment to tell the BOS to defund the police. Public comment stretched past midnight. People want actual defunding, not business as usual dressed up to look like change.
— Dean Preston (@DeanPreston) August 15, 2020
In 2022, Preston said he called for hearing to address "copaganda," which would "shed light on the City’s use of taxpayer-funded communications to grow policing budgets and undermine efforts for police accountability and reform."
Today, I called for a hearing on what advocates refer to as “copaganda.” The hearing will be the first of its kind and will shed light on the City’s use of taxpayer-funded communications to grow policing budgets and undermine efforts for police accountability and reform.
— Dean Preston (@DeanPreston) March 22, 2022